A late goal from loanee Aaron Lennon was enough for Everton to secure a narrow 2-1 victory over strugglers QPR after Seamus Coleman’s opener and Eduardo Vargas’ equaliser halfway through the second-half at Loftus Road.
Rangers went into the game second sitting second bottom of the table, three points ahead of fellow relegation battlers Leicester City, but more crucially four points adrift of safety. STAT: QPR have not won a home fixture in the past three months, lost their last four games and have not won for six weeks.
Meanwhile the visitors Everton were lacking confidence after crashing out of the Europa League with a 5-2 (5-4 aggregate) defeat against Ukranian side Dynamo Kiev on Thursday night, with a slip up meaning the Toffees could possibly have been in the relegation mix themselves.
Bobby Zamora and Leon Osman had two good goal-scoring chances, which both fired over the crossbar in the opening exchanges, but it was Coleman who gave his side the lead in spectacular style in the 19th minute; just after Zamora had the ball in the net but was adjudged as offside - the correct decision as replays showed in the end.
QPR pushed for an equaliser with Zamora's power header flashing agonisingly wide after 30 minnutes on the clock. Junior Hoilett had an excellent effort bounce off the crossbar just after the restart, and minutes later Mauricio Isla made a vital defensive challenge to stop Osman going through on-goal. Everton looked dangerous going forward upon occasion after that, but substitute Vargas made the scores level once more with 25 minutes left to play after latching onto Sandro's attempted effort and slamming the shot home from close range. Rangers then pushed to take the lead but Lennon scored his first goal since his January loan move from Tottenham Hotspur to put the Toffees back in the lead with 13 minutes left to play.
Former Spurs attacking midfielder Adel Taarabt came within inches of snatching a point at the death, but ultimately it was not enough for QPR, who succumb to yet another league defeat. The Moroccan took advantage of an unfortunate mistake from John Stones but his curling effort hit the side netting.
This win will give Everton some much needed confidence going into the last few fixtures of the season after the embarrassing defeat in Kiev midweek, they might have been under pressure for most of the game from their opponents but these three points crucially put Martinez’s side nine points above the drop zone.
This defeat puts QPR in even more trouble than they already were going into clash, they did show promise and despite the defeat they pretty much dominated the game and came close at the end to snatching the point. If they can show that type of performance going into the last few games of the season there could still be hope of survival - but as it looks currently, anything but good.
| QPR (1) | Everton (2) | ||
 |  |  |  |
| Green | 5 | Howard | 6 |
| Isla | 6 | Coleman | 7 |
| Onuoha | 5 | Stones | 8 |
| Caulker | 6 | Jagielka | 8 |
| Yun | 5 | Baines | 6 |
| Phillips | 5 | McCarthy | 6 |
| Sandro | 5 | Gibson | 6 |
| Barton | 5 | Osman | 6 |
| Hoilett | 6 | Lennon | 6 |
| Zamora | 6 | Lukaku | 6 |
| Austin | 7 | Kone | 5 |
| Substitutes: | |||
| Vargas | 7 | Naismith | 5 |
| Taarabt | 6 | Barkley | 5 |
| Henry | 5 | ||