Aaron Connolly scored a brace to help Hull produce one of the comprehensive football scores of the weekend in the Championship. Connolly was a key contributor to his team’s first victory at the MKM Stadium since defeating Wigan on October 5. Connolly is on loan from Brighton until the end of the season. After 10 minutes, the Republic of Ireland player opened the scoring. In the 65th minute, he added a second with a skillful finish. Three minutes before to Connolly’s second goal, Rob Dickie diverted Ozan Tufan’s right-sided cross into his own net, putting QPR 2-0 down. The visitors struggled the whole game, and their winless streak in all competitions now stands at seven games.
Hull exploded out of the gates and rightfully jumped out to an early lead. Connolly will be grateful to Cyrus Christie for his work in the development of his first goal. Minutes earlier, Connolly came close with an opportunistic hit that flew wide of the right post. Christie fought his way into the penalty area and squared the ball from the right side toward the spot. Connolly had work to do, but with a smooth, looping finish over Seny Dieng, he made it appear to be quite easy. Hull may have—and perhaps ought to have—gone for the kill in the opening period as QPR appeared frightened and disorganized.
Despite this, the home team’s efforts yielded another promising opportunity after 32 minutes when Christie shot across the goal from the same spot where he assisted in the first goal. Oscar Estupinan of Hull was just stopped on the rebound by Dickie’s late lunge after Dieng’s poor parry. The first-half injury to Kenneth Paal did not help the cause of irate QPR manager Neil Critchley, who then introduced Sinclair Armstrong and Andre Dozzell.
After that, Rangers made a small improvement, but undoubtedly not to Critchley’s desired level. They didn’t even come close to tying the score until the 55th minute, when defender Alfie Jones skillfully dealt with Armstrong’s frantic charge-and-cross into the right six-yard box. But given their team’s terrible home record, it was understandable that home supporters started to get concerned.
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