QPR 0-3 Sunderland – Match Report

Sunderland comfortably defeated QPR at Loftus Road on Tuesday night thanks to a Luke O’Nien goal, a Jack Clarke brace and an Anthony Patterson penalty save.

O’Nien gave the Lads an advantage before half time, and Clarke struck twice in the second half following Patterson’s penalty heroics to push Sunderland back up to fifth in the Championship.

Tony Mowbray made three changes following Sunderland’s win against Reading, with Abdoullah Ba, O’Nien and Alex Pritchard freshening up the team.

Joe Gelhardt had the biggest chance after 20 minutes, bearing down on goal but only managing to hit the side netting.

In the 34th minute O’Nien capitalised on Seny Dieng’s mistake when the keeper parried Dan Ballard’s header back into danger.

QPR had a lifeline in the 65th minute when Aji Alese was penalised for a handball in the box. Patterson dove to his left, but heroically improvised to kick the ball away and deny Ilias Chair from the spot.

Gelhardt almost doubled Sunderland’s lead on 75 minutes, striking the crossbar after some good play from Amad and Roberts.

Clarke made it 2-0 in the 82nd minute with a hard and low finish. Dennis Cirkin had been clattered by Stefan Johansen but advantage was played, allowing Clarke to cut inside and fire a low effort into the bottom corner.

The win was sealed in injury time when Dan Neil found Jack Clarke unmarked in the box, who smashed it past Dieng for 3-0.

QPR: Dieng, Laird (Kakay 46), Dickie, Dunne, Paal, Field, Dozzell (Johansen 81), Lowe, Chair, Iroegbunam (Armstrong 76), Martin.

Subs: Archer, Gubbins, Dixon-Bonner.

SAFC: Patterson, Hume, Ballard, Batth, Alese (Cirkin 81), Roberts, O’Nien, Pritchard (Neil 69), Ba (Diallo 63), Clarke, Gelhardt (Ekwah 81).

Subs: Bass, Bennette, Lihadji.