Hull City 0 QPR 3 - Tigers taught harsh lesson by Super Hoops

Having begun life back in the Championship with a bang at Preston North End last weekend, last season's League One title-winners were brought crashing back down to earth by a visiting side who were ruthless in front of goal.

Saturday's 3-0 scoreline was undoubtedly harsh on the Tigers, who didn't play at all badly, but twice switched off at set-pieces and were undone by a couple of routines straight off the Super Hoops' training ground.

City were knocking on the door at 1-0 and there will be plenty of positives for head coach Grant McCann to take from their overall performance, however the Northern Irishman will be furious that his defence was twice caught out by set-pieces taken short.

And he will hope that such a disappointing result does not kill the momentum that the club had started to build by following up an excellent 2020/21 campaign with that stunning 4-1 success on the opening weekend.

City's supporters created a fantastic atmosphere inside the MKM Stadium before and during the contest and the place was rocking right up until Rangers' second goal arrived and was followed, almost immediately, by a straight red card for George Moncur.

Had substitute Matt Smith converted the hosts' best chance of the afternoon on 57 minutes with the match still very much in the balance, then a very different story would surely have unfolded.

But, in what is an ultra-competitive division, the margins are extremely fine, and the Tigers must learn quickly from where they went wrong on this occasion.

The hosts had begun the afternoon brightly enough, Keane Lewis-Potter nodding Lewie Coyle's right-wing cross over the top before Moncur cleared the bar with a curling effort.

They did however find themselves behind in the 16th minute - and in thoroughly avoidable circumstances.

Goalkeeper Matt Ingram rolled the ball out to left-back Callum Elder, who took a heavy touch and then brought down Stefan Johansen in an attempt to retrieve the ball.

The Tigers failed to switch on when the resulting free-kick was rolled into the path of Chris Willock and it was all too easy for the former Arsenal midfielder to get a shot off just outside the box.

That effort was close enough to Ingram that he should really have kept it out, however the City custodian only succeeded in shoveling the ball into the back of his net via the upright.

The spell that followed saw Rangers showcase their passing ability as they bossed possession and moved the football around neatly.

Clear-cut chances were few and far between, though Scotland international Lyndon Dykes ought to have done better with a close-range header from Willock's centre, which he could only direct into the grateful arms of Ingram.

At the other end, Seny Dieng in the QPR goal was forced into a far more difficult save, throwing himself full-stretch to his right to claw Josh Magennis' header from Lewis-Potter's left-wing cross out of the top corner.

The early stages of the second period saw City continue to ask plenty of questions of the visiting defence, the volume inside the stadium going up several notches in the process.

Magennis blasted a bouncing ball wide of the near post via a deflection of Jordy De Wijs, then Lewis-Potter's goalbound strike at the resulting corner was brilliantly blocked by Moses Odubajo just a couple of yards in front of the line.

Moments later, clever movement at the near post saw Lewis-Potter glance Moncur's 54th-minute corner from the left over the cross-bar.

An even better opening presented itself not long before the hour-mark when Dieng made a mess of clearing his lines and gifted possession to Smith.

The Manchester City loanee advanced towards goal and confidently slotted beyond the red-faced Rangers stopper, only for Rob Dickie to slide across in the nick of time and force the ball behind.

A rapid QPR counter then saw Ingram redeem himself by sticking out a leg to expertly deny Dykes one-on-one, though the big visiting number nine found his range shortly afterwards.

A short-corner routine out on the right led to Johansen pulling the ball back for the Scot to fire a scruffy 68th-minute finish across goal and into the bottom corner.

Things went from bad to worse for Hull almost immediately, Moncur catching Dominic Ball with a challenge that referee Matt Donohue deemed to be dangerous and led to him producing a red card.

The 10 men's hopes of an unlikely comeback were then extinguished on 74 minutes, Lee Wallace driving the ball across the six-yard-box from the left for centre-half Dickie to convert with a clever finish.

Things could have got even worse for City at the death, Ingram making a good near-post block to prevent Wallace adding a fourth, and in the end the final whistle will have come as a welcome relief for the home players.

Hull City: Ingram; Coyle (Emmanuel 75), Jones, Greaves, Elder; Moncur, Smallwood (Williams 73), Docherty; Longman (Smith 35); Magennis, Lewis-Potter. Unused substitutes: Baxter, Eaves, Cannon, Bernard.

QPR: Dieng; Dickie, De Wijs, Barbet; Odubajo, Ball, Johansen (Thomas 86), Wallace, Willock, Dykes (Kelman 85), Chair (Dozzell 59). Unused substitutes: Archer, Kakay, Dunne, Adomah.

Referee: M Donohue (Manchester).