Dozzell scores and then departs as battling 10-man QPR fall to late Leicester City winner
QPR (1) 1 Dozzell 40
Leicester City (1) 2 Mavididi 30, Winks 80
If ever there was a banker away win in the EFL this weekend, this was surely it.
But it needed a fine 80th-minute strike from ex-Spurs midfielder Harry Winks to see off a spirited Rangers side reduced to ten men for the final half an hour after Andre Dozzell was sent off - the midfielder having earlier cancelled out the Foxes' opener.
Leicester City are tearing up the Championship as they look for an instant return to the top flight and after winning 12 of their opening 13 games - and six out of six away from home - they were not about to feel intimidated by Rangers.
The struggling Hoops had lost four of their opening five at W12 and were still seeking a first win on home soil since a victory over Watford in March.
Only one win in a whole calendar year and no wins in 15 in west London makes it a small miracle that they are not yet plying their trade in League One. But they are sailing close to the wind again and Gareth Ainsworth - loved as he is - may be on borrowed time unless fortunes can change soon.
Rangers acquitted themselves well enough in the opening passages of play, but the Foxes looked like a team under no pressure and confident of getting another job done. The Premier League-class of personnel suggests this visit to the second tier will be brief.
They had not threatened that much before finding themselves a goal to the good when Stephy Mavididi cut in from the left edge of the area and his effort deflected off Albert Adomah and beyond Asmir Begovic.
Yet Ainsworth's men dug in and levelled it up when Adomah's good work ended with a cross for Lyndon Dykes that was cleared off the line by Hamza Choudhury before being swept in by Dozzell on the rebound.
The goal had a galvanising effect, as did a smart save from Begovic to deny Abdul Fatawu early in the second half.
But the game turned sour just before the hour when the Hoops goalscorer was sent off after wrestling Fatawu off the ball after he had been beaten around the outside.
When a furious Fatawu confronted Dozzell, the QPR midfielder pushed him to the ground and the result was a double yellow from ref Leigh Doughty.
The Foxes found it hard to get past some determined defending after that, and credit to the R's for making it difficult for the visitors. But Winks, signed for £10m in the summer, showed his extra class when he fired into the top corner from outside the box. It was a fine strike to break QPR hearts.
So that's six defeats in a row for the R's and no wins in nine. The distress signals continue to fly over Loftus Road.
Rangers: (4-4-2) Begovic - Cannon, Kakay, Field, Paal - Adomah (Smith 87), Colback (Willock 90), Dozzell, Chair - Dykes, Kelman (Dixon-Banner 63)
Foxes (4-3-3) Hermansen - Choudhury (Pereira 67), Coady, Vesetrgaard, Justin - Casadei (Iheanacho 83), Winks, Dewsbury-Hall - Fatawu (Albrighton 83), Vardy (McAteer 83), Mavididi
Attendance: 17,385
