Championship: Ruthless QPR Hit Portsmouth For Six

Queens Park Rangers produced a ruthless display to thrash struggling Portsmouth 6-1 at Loftus Road.

The hosts raced into a three-goal lead inside 29 minutes through a Paul Smyth double, scored either side of a long-range effort from Rayan Kolli.

Portsmouth pulled one back before the break through John Swift, but Kolli struck again early in the second half with Richard Kone then converting a penalty in the final five minutes of normal time.

Kone became the third Rangers player to score twice when he finished off a counter-attack two minutes later to compound Pompey’s plight in west London.
After a tough build-up already before a ball was kicked at Loftus Road, with Portsmouth posting financial losses and on a poor run of form, it could not have been a much worse opening half hour for head coach John Mousinho.

It took his side only seven minutes to concede when a poor touch from Swift gave up the ball in midfield and Harvey Vale’s deflected pass found Smyth who fired home with the help of a deflection from 20 yards.

Kolli doubled the advantage with a peach of a 30-yard strike that squeezed past keeper Nicolas Schmid before Smyth ran through the middle onto another Vale assist to calmly slot in a third.

Swift lifted Pompey spirits briefly by pulling one back with a fine finish from outside the area that crashed in off the post, but the visitors lacked the clinical edge of QPR despite having 20 shots to QPR’s nine and 33 touches inside their box.

Unfortunately for the travelling Portsmouth fans, their nightmare afternoon continued as Kolli’s second came in the 55th minute when he burst past his marker and drilled in from a tight angle to restore the three-goal cushion.

Kone then converted from the spot after Colby Bishop’s challenge on Esquerdinha was penalised in the 86th minute, and he then sealed the emphatic victory moments later from another Vale assist following up a fast break.