U23 Professional Development League
Team: Lumley, Kakay, Hamalainen, Manning (Crichlow), Arthur (Williams), Lynch, Prohouly, Akinola (Adams), Darbyshire, Eze, El Khayati
Sub Not Used: Dieng
First chance of the afternoon fell to Danny Darbyshire, whose effort was comfortably smothered by Jordan Smith.
This was soon followed by a superb long ball way over to the right flank to find Axel Prohouly, who then cut in and his shot appeared to be handled by a Forest defender but Mr Howard wasn’t interested.
With the R’s defence looking very square and against the run of play, the visitors took the lead in the 8th minute. In fact, it was only their second attack and despite appeals for offside, Ben Brereton managed to squeeze the ball through Joe Lumley’s legs.
Worse was to follow five minutes later when Forest doubled their lead from only their third attack of the game. The Reds No. 9 notched up his second goal with a low shot wide of Joe Lumley.
Nasser El Khayati, one of two over-age players included in the starting line-up, went close with a shot wide of the post.
Joel Lynch was on hand to make a good interception close to the goal-line and clear the threat. Then Joe Lumley in his occasional secondary role as a sweeper left his area to produce a solid header to avert the danger.
Half-time: 0-2.
As the R’s looked to pull a goal back, Axel Prohouly’s shot dipped just over the crossbar, then it was Danny Darbyshire who had his effort blocked.
A solid but fair challenge from Osman Kakay saw the Rangers captain booked.
The visitors really should have scored a third when the Reds player flicked the ball seemingly goal-bound, but then had to watch it roll very close past the far post.
Jeremy Arthur became the second QPR player to be shown a yellow card.
A close range header ended up well over the bar, but not surprisingly the Reds then made no mistake acquiring their third goal in the 58th minute. Ben Brereton grabbed his hat-tick from an acute angle with a shot into the far corner.
Paul Hall then brought on Gianni Crichlow to replace Ryan Manning.
Axel Prohouly’s deep shot/cross nestled in the roof of the net. And in the 68th minute Jack Williams and Brandon Adams were introduced at the expense of Jeremy Arthur and Romeo Akinola respectively.
Joe Lumley went down outside his area to sweep the ball away, but in the 74th minute Forest scored their fourth. With some suspicion of offside, Ben Brereton received a through ball then squared it to Lewis Walters to knock in.
Jack Williams became the third Rangers player to be booked.
Danny Darbyshire flicked his header just wide of the target, but the Forest danger man helped himself to his fourth goal in the 87th minute after rounding Joe Lumley.
Many R’s fans clapped Ben Brereton when he was subbed in the closing stages and it will be interesting to see how his career progresses.
If I had to pick out one Rangers player it would have to be Niko Hamalainen who looked very assured and composed throughout.
Steve Russell