Hull City 2–1 QPR
Ten-man QPR went down all guns blazing at Hull City, but will travel back to London with nothing to show for their toil following a heart-breaking late winner for the hosts.
Hull took the lead on 15 minutes when Steven Caulker broke the cardinal first rule of defending and headed a cross from the right straight back across his own goal, where a grateful Nikica Jelavic gobbled the ball up and volleyed home.
Darnell Furlong, making his debut at right back, almost had a dream start to his Rs career when he forced home keeper Allan McGregor to tip his header around the post, while at the other end, Jake Livermore fired just over from edge of area.
The visitors' task was seemingly made all the more harder when they were reduced to 10 men just after the half hour mark. A bad tacke by Furlong on Jelavic led to a scuffle in the middle of the park, during which Barton raised his hands to Ahmed Elmomahady and was shown a straight red.
But instead of sitting back, the Rs took the game by the throat and were level just eight minutes later when Matt Phillips put the sort of cross in from the right that Charlie Austin probably dreams about at night, and the striker finished it off with a textbook looping header.
Austin had some defending to do at the other end after the break, heading a dangerous cross from the right over his own bar, but there was little goalmouth action in the second half until the late drama arrived.
With only a matter of minutes remaining, Rs keeper Robert Green pulled off a brilliant save, tipping a point-blank header from Dame N'Doye away with his left hand.
But just as the former England keeper was picking himself up and taking the plaudits, the ball was whipped in again, and this time Green could do nothing about a bullet header from N'Doye.
It was harsh on the 10 men who had worked so hard, but will now have to roll their sleeves up further in the coming weeks.
Rs : Green; Furlong, Caulker, Ferdinand, Yun; Henry; Phillips, Barton, Kranjcar (Traore 77); Zamora (Doughty 63), Austin (Zarate 73). Subs not used: McCarthy, Hill, Wright-Phillips, Vargas.
