It was a case of spot the difference at Loftus Road as Grimsby missed a
penalty and paid the price when Rangers nicked all three points with a spot kick
of their own with 13 minutes left.
In a disappointing game littered with poor passing the match suddenly sprang
into life on the hour when Grimsby were awarded a penalty after Chris Plummer's
handball.
David Smith thumped the Mariners penalty straight and hard but Rangers keeper
Lee Harper blocked the effort with his body to keep the scores level.
On 76 minutes that miss came back to haunt Grimsby. Chris Kiwomya skilfully
turned Tony Gallimore and, as the striker sprinted into the box, Gallimore stuck
out a foot to bring him down and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to
the spot.
Ranger's on loan striker Mikkel Beck stepped up and easily stroked in his
third goal in three games.
It was a case of after the Lord Mayor's Show in the first half for QPR as they
followed up Wednesday's win at Manchester City with a strangely subdued
performance.
Indeed Grimsby had the best chances in the opening 45 minutes with Daryl Clare
turning his marker and shooting wide after seven minutes while Rangers almost
gifted the visitors a goal on 25 minutes.
Paul Murray lost possession in midfield and the ball was cleverly slipped to
Kevin Donovan who shot inches wide.
Rangers' best chance in the first half came when Stuart Wardley headed
Jermaine Darlington's cross just wide while a minute later Darren Ward should
have done better than head a Richard Langley corner over from point blank
range.
The second half was little better than the first though on 48 minutes Rangers
had their best chance when Ian Baraclough's cross was flicked on by Langley to
Kiwomya whose shot was saved by the legs of Danny Coyne.
Rangers continued to come forward and they were twice denied by Alan Pouton
who hacked the ball against his own crossbar on 54 minutes before denying
Wardley four minutes later with a header off the line.
Grimsby's penalty came against the run of play and they didn't threaten again
after it had been missed.
Rangers boss Gerry Francis threw on striker Kevin Gallen for the last 20
minutes in a bid to keep his side in the play-off shake up and it paid off when
Beck proved more efficient from the spot than his Grimsby counterpart.
That was the only difference on a day when both sides proved they are clearly
not good enough for the play-offs.
Teams
QPR: Harper, Darlington, Ready, Ward, Plummer, Baraclough,
Wardley, Langley (Gallen 69), Murray (Rose 90), Beck, Kiwomya.
Subs Not Used: Miklosko, Rowland, Slade.
Goals: Beck 77 pen.
Grimsby: Coyne, Butterfield, Gallimore (Black 79), Lever,
Coldicott, Groves, D. Smith, Pouton, Donovan, Clare,
Nicholls (Livingstone 55).
Subs Not Used: Croudson, Buckley, Chapman.
Att: 10,450
Ref: P Rejer (Tipton).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook