Quality of Barnsley hero Elliott Simoes clear to Gerhard Struber

Making only his third league start, the 20-year-old caused Rangers’ defence problems all game and took his goal nicely in the seventh minute after a neat defence-splitting pass from Ben Williams, who benefitted from a timely intervention in midfield by impressive debutant Romal Palmer.

The strike proved enough for the Reds to give them an early boost in their survival bid, moving them off the bottom of the table as a result and leaving them four points adrift of safety with eight games to play.

“It’s not a big surprise for me,” said head coach Struber of Simoes’s telling strike.

“Elliot gave a good performance and he has showed me in training on many occasions that he has talent.

“He made the necessary step to get into the first 11 and he showed me a very good performance.”

On his team’s overall performance, Struber is hopeful the win at Loftus Road will give them the belief that thay can pull off an unlikely escape act.

“The mood in the changing room after that was great,” he added.

“We made it difficult for our opponents. We created a situation where it is hard to play against Barnsley.

“The second half showed me the mentality and character of the players – to never give up.

“It’s not a normal situation that Barnsley win in London against QPR. I hope this performance and result will give every player confidence. This was big work together.

“We know that every point in our situation is very important. Today we played very well and now we work step by step from game to game.”

Barnsley almost went 2-0 up shortly after Simoes’s strike, Jacob Brown firing wide, while Conor Masterson almost scored an own goal a couple of minutes before the interval.

After the break, QPR turned up the pressure, but the Barnsley defence held firm.

The Reds had to be grateful to goalkeeper Jack Walton, though, who saved from both Ebere Eze and, late on, from Jordan Hugill.

QPR: Kelly, Rangel (Kane 80), Masterson, Barbet, Manning, Ball (Wallace 61), Amos (Shodipo 46), Samuel, Chair, Eze, Hugill. Unused substitutes: Lumley, Oteh, Bettache, Clarke.

Barnsley: Walton, Sollbauer, Andersen, B Williams, Ludewig (Thomas 84), Palmer (Dougall 57), Mowatt, Ritzmaier, Brown, Simoes (Chaplin 46), Woodrow (Styles 74). Unused substitutes: Radlinger, J Williams, Schmidt, Oduor, Halme.

Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire).

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