PETERBOROUGH CLIMBED off the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship table with a stunning 3-1 victory at play-off chasing QPR in a game that saw 37-year-old Ireland international Keiren Westwood make his debut.
Irish defender Jimmy Dunne also started for the hosts and Jeff Hendrick came off the bench, while Jack Taylor and Sammie Szmodics were part of the visitors’ starting XI.
Jonson Clarke-Harris scored two of Peterborough’s goals – one of them from the penalty spot – and Jack Marriott’s stunning strike sealed Posh’s first win since Grant McCann’s recent appointment as manager after Luke Amos had given the hosts the lead.
Amos robbed ex-Ireland underage international Taylor, exchanged passes with Ilias Chair and then fired a low shot beyond keeper David Cornell and into the corner of the net from 25 yards. to give QPR a ninth-minute lead,
Rangers seemed to be in control and went close to scoring again when Chair drove an effort narrowly wide, before Albert Adomah’s cross was headed against the bar by Andre Gray.
The game might have panned out very differently had that gone in, but from there it all went wrong for Mark Warburton’s side.
Peterborough equalised six minutes before half-time when Dion Sanderson allowed Marriott to turn away from him and shoot from the right-hand side of the penalty area.
Goalkeeper Westwood parried the shot but Clarke-Harris was first to the loose ball and blasted past Sam Field on the line.
Two goals in the space of as many minutes early in the second half left the home fans stunned.
Clarke-Harris slotted in a 53rd-minute spot-kick after Dundalk native Dunne had tripped Joe Ward, before another error by on-loan Wolves defender Sanderson led to Marriott doubling Posh’s lead in emphatic fashion.
Marriott squirmed away from Sanderson and sent an unstoppable shot beyond Westwood and into the far corner via the inside of the post.
Stuttering Rangers, who have lost four of their last five matches, never looked like launching a comeback and have major problems.
Westwood, who had been without a club since leaving Sheffield Wednesday last summer, was making his debut after being signed this week because four Rangers keepers – Seny Dieng, David Marshall, Jordan Archer and Joe Walsh – are all out injured.
With striker Lyndon Dykes also sidelined, Rangers have been struggling and both ends of the pitch and this defeat saw them drop to eighth in the table.
Peterborough’s win moves them above Derby and was their third against QPR this season, having beaten them at home in both the league and FA Cup, although they are still 10 points from safety.
Additional reporting by Paul Fennessy
