Leon Balogun scored the winner to help Rangers produce one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Championship. After Nathan Broadhead’s equalizer, Rangers took the lead thanks to Sam Field, and Leon Balogun swiftly gave them the advantage back. The victory for Rangers, their sixth in as many games, came 48 hours after manager Mick Beale surprised supporters by declining the opportunity to lead Wolves.
After 12 minutes, Field scored with a deft left-footed volley off of a corner kick from Stefan Johansen’s left wing. Field scored his second goal for QPR—his first came on his debut in February 2021—from nine yards out after Johansen’s delivery went over Lyndon Dykes. Ten minutes later, Wigan leveled the score after Rangers botched the clearance on a long free kick. Will Keane nodded the ball down to Broadhead, who then sent a right-footed volley past goalkeeper Seny Dieng and into the bottom corner of the net after Jack Whatmough and Max Power won the ball in the air.
But Balogun scored his first goal since joining the Rs in August in just a few minutes, and it was against his former team. Once more, it was a Johansen corner, but this time it came from the right, and Balogun rose to head it beyond goalkeeper Ben Amos. Johansen was forced off in the last seconds of the first half after taking a hit, giving Wigan a break from his set-piece deliveries. At the same time, intriguing teenage striker Sinclair Armstrong was taken out at halftime.
The recent success of Rangers without their stalwart Chris Willock will be a very positive development for Beale. Last time, their season collapsed under Mark Warburton, Beale’s predecessor, in part as a result of Willock’s March hamstring injury. Earlier in the season, Rangers battled mightily without Willock; however, ever since he had a second hamstring injury, they have excelled, with Chair in brilliant form. Despite surviving a late scare when Josh Magennis’ acrobatic effort touched the inside of the post following the forward’s discovery from Graeme Shinnie’s cross—who appeared to foul Balogun in the buildup—they were deserving winners.
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