Reda Khadra free-kick ends Blackburn Rovers goal famine to defeat QPR

Reda Khadra made up for his midweek penalty miss by ending Blackburn’s five-match goal drought to register a 1-0 win over fellow promotion hopefuls QPR.

The German’s difficult week, which began with a spot-kick failure against Sheffield United on Wednesday, looked set to continue when he missed a glorious first-half chance as Tony Mowbray’s side dominated the out-of-sorts visitors.

But Khadra’s 77th-minute free-kick – his fifth of the campaign – ended almost nine hours without a goal and could prove to be vital in Blackburn’s promotion push. More importantly, it ended Rovers’ recent lean run of just one win in seven and leapfrogged them over their visitors in the Championship table.

It should have been more comfortable, with Tyrhys Dolan and Ryan Giles passing up opportunities to extend the lead late on. The defeat leaves QPR a point behind Rovers after losing their third successive away league game without scoring.

Joe Rothwell was ruled out with a foot injury so Bradley Johnson was recalled in one of two changes for Rovers. For QPR, Rob Dickie replaced the suspended Dion Sanderson.

Blackburn started the game confidently, pressing and disrupting the visitors, and their dominance should have resulted in a 15th-minute opener when a Jan Paul Van Hecke pass set Khadra clear. But he struck his shot at the feet of Seny Dieng from 12 yards.

Despite being all at sea for most of the first half, QPR could easily have taken the lead when Jeff Hendrick’s slide-rule pass found the onrushing Albert Adomah, whose shot was smothered by Thomas Kaminski in the 35th minute. Moments later, Chris Willock’s deflected cross fell to Ilias Chair 12 yards out, but he could only fire wide.

A lively opening half ended with another gilt-edged