Rangers are now the form team in the Championship following their win and Newcastle’s defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday night.
Magilton told the QPR official website: “That's our best performance so far without any doubt - probably the best I've seen from one of my sides in my time in management. We took our opportunities today; from the first whistle I thought we were excellent. The victory is as much for Martin Rowlands as it is for everyone else connected to the club. We said we wanted to put on a performance he could be proud of and we did just that. We'd like to dedicate that win to him.
“We applied ourselves really well - we looked like we could score at will. To win in the manner we did, against a very good side, is just outstanding - simply outstanding.
“Adel is a genius. He's a dying breed in today's game. He can beat men with ease. He just darts past them. Very few players can go by players like he can, but he has outstanding ability. His finish was simply out of this world.
“Let's not get carried away. We've got to follow this up on Tuesday with another performance and victory and if we do that I'll be delighted.”
Preston manager Alan Irvine was understandably less impressed with his side, that had sat fifth in the table before the start of play. Irvine told the
Preston website: “The second goal was a blow and we were unable to take our chances to get back into the game and that made it difficult for us. Goals change games there is no doubt about it. The first thirty minutes we were poor, we then finished the half quite well. The second half we started quite well and we had that chance and if we scored then it may have just changed the whole game but we didn't and that was seen as the big change in the match.
“We certainly couldn't have coped with the injuries they had that's for sure. We know it is not a level playing field in financial terms but having said that we have just got to get on with it. There is no point in complaining about it; we just have to deal with it. We have got a squad of players who are capable of winning plenty of games in the Championship."
Since the last LFW news update Martin Rowlands’ injury has been confirmed as a torn cruciate knee ligament which brings his 2009/10 season to a premature end. Rowlands is due for surgery next week after suffering a recurrence of the injury that saw him miss the second half of last season while on international duty with the Republic of Ireland.
Physio Paul Hunter told the club’s
official website: “Martin's been to see the specialist and the results of the scan unfortunately revealed that he's sustained another Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury. He's penciled in for an operation on Monday. Martin's a fighter, I've no doubts he'll come back from this. He knows what it takes after going through it last season - his attitude was spot on then and I'm sure it will be the same when his rehabilitation begins in the coming months.”
Elsewhere Heidar Helguson missed Watford’s impressive 1-0 win at Middlesbrough as he continues to struggle with the calf injury he picked up on his debut for the Hornets just under a month ago. Watford manager Malky Mackay told the
Watford Observer that Helguson was touch and go for Tuesday’s clash with Ipswich and said: “We don't want to rush him in for the sake of an extra two or three days and lose him for a couple of months.”
Off the field Flavio Briatore was at Loftus Road on Saturday for the first time since the ‘crashgate’ saga began amid continued confusion about whether he will be allowed to continue his ownership of the club having apparently failed the league’s fit and proper person test. Briatore confirmed on Sunday that he would be challenging his life ban from Formula One through the French Courts and suing the FIA.
The
AFP Newswire reported Briatore saying: “"In this case the FIA has been used as a tool to exact vengeance on behalf of one man. This decision is a legal absurdity and I have every confidence that the French courts will resolve the matter justly and impartially.”
Briatore is also said to be on better terms with fellow QPR board member Bernie Ecclestone after the pair clashed over his ban. Ecclestone told Gazzetta dello Sport: “It was me giving him a call, we met, and we went to lunch together a couple of times last week. He wasn't so cheerful. Our relationship today is fine, perfect, normal. There were other people from the world council harsher than Mosley, talking about a ban from our sport, another person objected to it. But in general there wasn't much solidarity towards him. He had caused great damage to motor racing. I say that three years could have been enough. What I didn't like was using the term 'lifetime ban', which isn't even used for murderers."
Elsewhere in the Championship this weekend West Brom retook the lead at the top of the table with a 3-0 victory at home to QPR’s visitors on Tuesday Reading, Newcastle relinquished their position at the summit with a 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest where former R Dexter Blackstock got the only goal on the stroke of half time. Paul Mariner has been confirmed as the new first team coach at Plymouth, working with under fire manager Paul Sturrock rather than instead of him initially. Sturrock came in for more stick from Argyle fans on Saturday after a 2-0 defeat at Blackpool where Marcel Seip, a player Sturrock fell out with, loaned to Blackpool and then allowed to play in the game, scored the opening goal. The Football Association of Wales is to probe the after match melee at Cardiff’s game with Crystal Palace on Saturday – City striker Michael Chopra confronted Shaun Derry after the final whistle and alleges he was racially abused.
