QPR 1 Sheffield United 3: Blades throw down gauntlet to play-off rivals

There is a reason the most popular song on the Blades terraces is not for any player, but for manager Paul Heckingbottom and his assistant Stuart McCall.

For 45 minutes their team was insipid at Loftus Road, perhaps feeling sorry for themselves in Billy Sharp’s absence but certainly not throwing down the gauntlet as they had to given the advantage of being the first of the Championship play-off contenders in action this weekend.

But after less than 15 minutes locked in the dressing room with Heckingbottom and McCall – they were sent out for the second half long before that – the transformation was obvious.

“I thought we were good first half but we didn’t look like winners,” said Heckingbottom, who was coy about how forcefully that message was delivered. “We weren’t ruthless and didn’t have enough efforts on goal and that killer instinct.”

One weak Morgan Gibbs-White effort had hardly been what was needed with Murphy Maloney making only his second Queens Park Rangers appearance after loan spells with Bath City and Welling. The 20-year-old had more to do in the first five minutes after the break than the 45 before it.

QPR had been second best even then but took the lead through Charlie Austin.

Once the Blades got their foot down they won 3-1 and extended the gap to seventh place to five points before Middlesbrough and co play catch-up today.

At full-time Heckingbottom made a beeline to rouse the away end as he had the away team. They lapped it up.

The difference in the 11 players after the interval was stark.

Within a minute, Gibbs-White forced the ball goalwards at a corner, only to see it cleared. Before the Rs could get the ball away, Chris Basham headed at Mahoney. In the 50th minute he dived right to make a flying save from Jack Robinson.

When Gibbs-White hit a post in the 53rd minute, the ball was scrambled clear for a corner John Egan headed across. Sander Berge’s shot was blocked but Iliman Ndiaye pounced for his third goal in four games.

The good news was when he came off it was only cramp as he plays through Ramadan. Anything more would have been alarming with Sharp tearing a calf on Monday. The Blades will struggle to see him again even in the play-offs.

But Ndiaye had burst the dam.

Robinson added a second and the Blades withstood a frantic finale which saw Jimmy Dunne hit the crossbar. Instead substitute Conor Hourihane found the net with an emphatic volley to consolidate sixth place at the start of the penultimate round of matches.

That looked unlikely in the first half.

Maybe Sharp’s sharper runs would have helped, certainly his presence should have added confidence, but Ndiaye and Gibbs-White had little to feed off, with the final ball so poor so often.

The Blades were the better side in possession but dropped their guard for a few seconds and were punished.

“It’s both boxes,” shrugged Heckingbottom. “Everything in between is propaganda, fluff.”

QPR started in a back four but quickly moved to a three, pushing former Middlesbrough player Albert Adomah further forward but he was in pretty much a right-back position when Enda Stevens stood off and watched his deep 31st-minute cross. Austin ran in and got above Basham to head in the game’s first effort on target.

The half ended with Wes Foderingham diving right to keep out Austin.

The second period was totally different, Mahoney called into action again by Gibbs-White after the equaliser, a Robinson shot blocked at a corner.

In the 74th minute a free-kick was played short to Oliver Norwood, whose up-and-under was headed across by Basham for Robinson to bullet a header in.

To their credit, QPR showed fight, Dunne touching Adomah’s 84th-minute shot onto the crossbar but from the restart an away win had felt inevitable and Hourihane secured it when Berge crossed from the byline in stoppage time.

QPR: Mahoney; Adomah, Sanderson, Dunne, McCallum; Dozzell (Thomas 72), Field; Amos (Kakay 73), Chair; Austin (Dykes 61), Johansen. Unused substitutes: Ball, Gray, Hendrick, Halwax.

Sheffield United: Foderingham; Basham, Egan, Robinson; Osborn, Berge, Norwood, Fleck (Hourihane 90), Stevens; Gibbs-White, Ndiaye (Osula 75). Unused substitutes: A Davies, B Davies, Uremovic, Norrington-Davies, Jebbison.

Referee: P Bankes (Liverpool).