Neil Critchley got off to the perfect start as QPR manager on Saturday as his Hoops side earned an impressive 1-0 win against fellow playoff hopefuls Preston North End.
QPR travelled to Lancashire with hope rather than confidence as they sat bottom of the form table, while Ryan Lowe’s side were expected to be on top of their game after a morale-boosting 4-1 win over Blackburn Rovers last time out.
Ahead of the game, QPR had earned just one point and scored one goal from their last six, but Jimmy Dunne’s second-half goal proved enough to beat the Lilywhites and hand Critchley’s side a vital three points.
While the former Burnley man stole the headlines after rectifying his mistake from last weekend and scoring the only goal of the game at Deepdale, it was arguably Tim Iroegbunam who was QPR’s best performer on Saturday.
As per Sofascore, the on-loan Aston Villa man would earn an impressive 7.5/10 rating for his display, with only Dunne (8.2) rated higher from both sides.
During the 90 minutes, the 19-year-old would run the midfield and looked highly dangerous in attack, finding himself extremely unlucky not to open the scoring in the first half when his superb long-range effort came back off the post.
In total, the teenager would register two shots on target and two off target, having averaged just 1.6 shots per game in the Championship so far this season, which emphasises how much he raised his game on Saturday.
He also completed an impressive three dribbles and three key passes, which again was a significant increase on the 0.7 key passes and 1.1 dribbles he has averaged per game in the second tier this campaign.
Ahead of his arrival at Loftus Road, former QPR boss Michael Beale described Iroegbunam as “super-impressive” and it seems as if the Hoops are starting to see the best of the Villa wonderkid in the Championship.
The youngster was certainly one of Critchley’s first heroes on Saturday afternoon and he will be hoping that the loanee can play a big part in pushing QPR back up the table in the second half of the season.
