Rangers crack fragile Potters

DOES anyone really want to be promoted to the Premier League this season?

Just a few weeks ago West Brom looked odds-on to romp away with the Championship title yet are now just one of a handful of play-off contenders. Now Stoke seem intent on emulating them.

Victory at Queens Park Rangers yesterday would have lifted the Potters back to the summit ahead of unlikely new pace-setters Bristol City but it never looked like happening for Stoke, who had also been beaten in midweek at Preston.

First Tony Pulis’ side allowed the decidedly unprolific Mikele Leigertwood to score not once but twice in the opening 21 minutes. This was not so much unexpected as unheard of as the former Crystal Palace and Sheffield United man failed to record even a single strike for those sides in the previous two seasons.

Equally unexpected was City skipper Andy Griffin’s expulsion from the game two minutes before the break. This was the moment the visitors knew their canny knack of being able to come back from early setbacks would not apply this time.

Griffin, signed from Derby in January, was guilty of a lunge near a touchline as Hoops winger Hogan Ephraim appeared on the scene. Yet that was all it was as Griffin was first to the ball, with the only contact between opponents made when Ephraim arrived a split-second later.

Referee Andy D’Urso — who was not particularly near the incident — was convinced he had just witnessed a potential leg-breaker, however, and lost no time in running over, red card in hand, to Griffin’s fury.

Television replays — which will form the basis of Stoke’s appeal to the FA — proved his innocence. Griffin could not have hurt anyone because there had been no-one to hurt.

Pulis made straight for the referee’s room afterwards to make his point. He said: ‘‘I asked if he would look at it and once he does I’m sure he will make an honest decision.

‘‘If the kid was there with the ball at his feet then it would have been touch and go but the ball was free. Ephraim actually runs into Andy Griffin after the tackle. The ball was out and free — he slid into an empty challenge.

‘‘We brought replays in to confirm justice has been done. I just hope he looks at it and realises he has made a mistake.’’

That luck was with Rangers was apparent in the build-up to the first goal when Leigertwood diverted Liam Lawrence’s free-kick on to his own crossbar and watched it almost bounce over the line.

It didn’t and the counter-attack that followed saw the midfielder fire a low, left-footer past City goalkeeper Steve Simonsen. His second was also well-hit to make the most of a Rowan Vine knock-down and the third, from Akos Buzsaky just before the hour -mark, was also the product of a Lawrence free-kick.

Ricardo Fuller hit a post in first-half stoppage time to squander Stoke’s best chance before Lee Camp in the home goal was required to make a double stop late on.

Rangers manager Luigi de Canio said: ‘‘It was a good afternoon’s work.’’

QPR (4-4-2): Camp 7, Mancienne 7, Hall 7 (Stewart 78), Connolly 7, Delaney 7, Buzsaky 8, Rowlands 7 (Ainsworth 81, 5), Leigertwood 9, Ephraim 7, Vine 7 (Blackstock 75, 5), Agyemang 7.

Subs Not Used: Pickens, Lee.

STOKE (4-4-2): Simonsen 7, Griffin 6, Cort 7, Shawcross 7, Pugh 6, Lawrence 7 (Buxton 62, 5), Diao 5 (Gallagher 55, 5), Whelan 6, Cresswell 6, Sidebe 5 (Wilkinson 46, 5), Fuller 6.

Subs Not Used: Hoult, Parkin.

REFEREE: Andy D’Urso (Billericay) 5: Oh dear. Made complete hash of the red card. Yes, it looked a bit like one of those two-footed efforts he’d had the memo about. But actually it wasn’t.

MATCH RATING: **** In an afternoon that was never short of incident, both sides played some excellent football, although Stoke were three goals and a man down before they started to do that.