HEIDAR Heguson got a shiner and two pearlers to net a QPR player a first Premiership brace in 15 years.
More importantly, it netted three valuable away points for Hoops in their quest for survival in front a passionate crowd that needed strong refereeing from Mike Jones.
The last 10 minutes were nothing but a series of niggling fouls and a near thing from Andy Wilkinson that whistled over Paddy Kenny’s bar.
Rangers survived, but they got off to the worst possible start when they failed to clear a ball just outside the box. The pass threaded through to Jon Walters saw him past Anton Ferdinand and firing low past Kenny’s right.
Hoops were under the cosh for the next 10 minutes – and there was truly a moment to forget when Ferdinand hesitated; Peter Crouch nipped in between the defender and Kenny to send a low pass goalwards. The keeper did superbly to block that, but it needed a clearance off the line by Hill to send the ball to safety.
But home support was silenced on 22 minutes when a great pass from Ali Faurlin found Armand Traore on the left to send a curler for Helguson to first lean back and then into a header that left the keeper rooted.
As fans jumped on the scorer, Helguson had to protect a massive lump under his right eye obtained via a Stoke knee in the first minute.
The brave header only increased the swelling to the size of an egg.
But if Stoke thought they could crack the away team, they were unprepared for a sublime piece of interplay between Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jamie Mackie with the latter’s cutback rifled high into the net for Luke Young’s first goal in blue-and-white.
A couple of industrial challenges, that’s the polite word, from Andy Wilkinson and Ryan Shawcross earned both a booking, and Joey Barton also got one for handball on the stroke of half time.
Barton’s placement at corners were checked by the ref. But all the official needed to do was point back to the centre circle after the Rs midfielder’s cross found Helguson at the back post for the third.
Eventually, however, high cross after high cross into the QPR box eventually told.
Crouch got on the end of one, and Shawcross bundled a second nod into the net to set up a frantic finale that still sent a 1,000 in hoops home happy.
