Crystal Palace 0 Queens Park Rangers 2

Last updated : 10 April 2010 By Footymad Previewer
Neil Warnock made a winning return to Crystal Palace as Akos Buzsaky and Kaspars Gorkss scored the goals which all but guarantee QPR's Championship status for next season.

The experienced boss quit the Eagles in March to make the move to Loftus Road, but was given a good reception by the home supporters before the game kicked off.

And he saw his side outplay the hosts - who are still deep in relegation trouble - as the west London outfit won for the first time in eight matches.

Only 20 seconds had been played when Calvin Andrew and Damion Stewart suffered a sickening collision of heads as they challenged for a ball in the air.

The QPR defender was replaced by Jay Simpson after lengthy treatment and although Andrew continued he also eventually made way, with Nathaniel Clyne coming on in the 22nd minute.

QPR were the quicker to settle and took the lead with 11 minutes played. Tamas Priskin nudged the ball to the edge of the area where Buzsaky produced a ferocious low drive past Julian Speroni.

Jay Simpson tried to curl in a second for the visitors but his effort went past the post.

Palace were struggling to create opportunities, but Radek Cerny did come to the west Londoners' rescue on 36 minutes. Darren Ambrose slipped a cute pass into the feet of the overlapping Clint Hill and his strike was tipped for a corner by the Czech keeper.

Palace had a good chance to equalise on 57 minutes when Danny Butterfield's pass put Neil Danns through on goal but he dragged his shot across the face of goal.

And that miss proved to be a costly one as QPR extended their advantage on the hour mark. The impressive Adel Taarabt's corner was headed down beyond Speroni by Kaspars Gorkss.

Warnock's side were in almost total control and that was reflected by the normally emotive boss spending most of the second half deep in his technical area and not on the edge of it giving the officials a hard time.

Priskin tried to beat Speroni at the near post in the 65th minute, but his full-blooded effort was pushed for a corner by the Argentine.

Sean Scannell produced a tame shot when he was played into a good position by Stern John, but QPR continued to boss matters and could have snatched a late third, Simpson poking Taarabt's cross past the upright.