Steffen Iversen struck at the double to make it nine goals in four pre-season games and prevent former Tottenham manager Gerry Francis putting one over on his old club in a lively friendly at Loftus Road on Wednesday night.

It saved Spurs suffering their first defeat in five pre-season games and provided sweet consolation for the Premiership club's boss George Graham, who was without injured strikers Les Ferdinand and Chris Armstrong and could have the blond Norwegian as his only recognised front man for the start of the new campaign.

Iversen, who bagged a couple of hat-tricks on tour with Spurs in Sweden, would have had another three but for QPR goalkeeper Ludo Miklosko's brave save from him in the last minute.

But he claimed an early strike when his seventh-minute shot appeared to go in off QPR defender Matthew Rose.

Battling Rangers hit back, though, with a Gavin Peacock penalty and a hotly disputed Rob Steiner goal, both within the space of four first-half minutes, and they stoically defended their lead until Iversen knocked in substitute Mark Gower's cross 16 minutes from the end.

There was certainly plenty of action for a 10,514 crowd in the first half after Iversen claimed the opener, running in to meet Darren Anderton's low, drilled corner from the right.

Justin Edinburgh shot inches wide following a marvellous solo run from left-back, and Sol Campbell had a fierce volley saved before Rangers equalised with Peacock's penalty after 18 minutes after Chris Kiwomya was bowled over in the area by Steve Carr.

Three minutes later the First Division side were in front, although Steiner looked well offside when blasting home after Richard Langley horribly miscued Peacock's clever cut-back from the right. Ironically a linesman's flag caught the striker in a far less obvious offside position when he netted Langley's pass a minute later.

Iversen should have levelled for Tottenham but tripped over his own feet and finally knocked the ball wide from Anderton's cross with only goalkeeper Miklosko to beat from eight yards.

Then he headed off target from close range after beating defender Karl Ready to David Ginola's centre.

But Rangers stretched Spurs rearguard with some sharp attacking, and Keith Rowland's superb low ball zipped across an empty goalmouth just inches ahead of the stretching Steiner before landing beyond the far post.

Double Footballer of the Year Ginola, who showed only flashes of his famous flair against tight Rangers marking, was substituted at the start of the second half as £1.5million Dutchman Willem Korsten made his Tottenham debut.

But, despite dominating after the interval, Spurs showed an alarming lack of finishing quality which looks to be a major worry for Graham's Worthington Cup holders in the new season.