Ipswich 3-0 QPR

So that’s that. QPR’s season ended with a 3-0 loss at Portman Road that confirmed Ipswich Town’s promotion to the Premier League and left the Hoops languishing in 15th place – the same position we ended up in last season. Indeed, 15th is were we’ve averaged finishing since being demoted from the Prem in 2014-15. The only improvement on last season was our points tally, which at 58 is two more. Hardly a ringing endorsement of Julien Stéphan, given what the club has spent on players since he was appointed. Who’s to say Martí Cifuentes wouldn’t have done better with Richard Kone and Rumarn Burrell leading the line instead of Michy Frey and Zan Celar? Fifteenth place is pretty disappointing, given where I’d hoped we’d be in August, and I imagine the Board isn’t too impressed either.

Going into this one, I was under no illusions and didn’t join the 1,700 or so Hoops fans making the trip. Ipswich needed a win to be certain of promotion – although a draw might have done it depending on Millwall’s result against Oxford. The Tractor Boys went into the game second in the table with 81 points, having recovered from a faltering start. For us, there was nothing to play for except pride in the shirt, which, in QPR’s case, often seems in short supply.

To be fair to Stéphan, the squad has been plagued by injuries all season, and the team he put out against Ipswich was a good illustration of that. We have three strikers at the club, but all were injured ahead of this game, forcing the gaffer to start Daniel Bennie. As one exasperated fan posted on X, one of those strikers – Justin Obikwu – was signed in January as a replacement for Burrell, who was injured, and who has since come back and got injured again, all before Obikwu has made an appearance. Meanwhile, Kone, whom Stéphan was forced to play more often than he would have liked, finally succumbed to injury in the last game.

The only good news was that Ilias Chair was back in the starting line-up for the first time since returning from injury, although the little Moroccan still isn’t back to his best. Beyond that, Stéphan made two changes to the side that had faced Derby. Joe Walsh was back in goal instead of Paul Nardi; and Nicolas Madsen returned in central midfield in place of Paul Smyth. That meant we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Walsh between the sticks; Amadou Mbengue, Ronnie Edwards, Jake Clarke-Salter and Rhys Norrington-Davies in defence; Madsen, Jonathan Varane, Kieran Morgan and Chair in midfield; and Daniel Bennie and Harvey Vale up front.

Stéphan had warned us beforehand that the opening would be “a wild 15-20 minutes” and so it proved to be. The hosts came flying out of the traps and we spent most of the opening exchanges chasing shadows. Walsh did well in the second minute to get his right foot to a Lief Davis effort – Davis had been played clean through by Jack Taylor and might have scored had Walsh not got something on it. But it was a brief reprieve.

George Hirst put them ahead a minute later. A smart passing move involving four Ipswich players ended with Davis putting a ball across the mouth of goal. Mbengue had been too easily beaten in midfield before the move developed, and Edwards and Clarke-Salter both failed to intercept Davis’s cross. Hirst stabbed it home from almost point blank range.

The hosts chalked up a second six minutes later. Hirst turned provider this time, playing the final pass to Jaden Philogene-Bidace, who dummied Mbengue before slipping the ball into the net. Two goals in nine minutes, Mbengue at fault for both, and the promotion party at Portman Road was already underway.

Incredibly, we didn’t get out of our own half until the 12th minute, but Madsen’s effort from range failed to test James Walton, the hosts’ keeper. Chair then danced around a series of challenges only to be fouled right on the edge of the box. It looked a decent opportunity, but he skied the free kick.

Walsh kept us from going further behind in the 53rd minute, pulling off a fine save from Philogene-Bidace’s volley, and Walton had to stretch again nine minutes later to deny a shot from Koki Saito, who had come on for Chair. But by then we were going through the motions and it was just a question of counting down the minutes until the pitch invasion.

Paul Smyth, who came on at half time for Madsen – along with Tylon Smith for Clarke-Salter – was our best player in the second half, making a couple of weaving runs from the halfway line. His shot in the 58th minute forced Walton into a save; another shot on target in the 83rd minute was palmed away by the keeper, only to fall kindly to Bennie, who put it over the bar. The Australian’s lack of composure in front of goal is the biggest weakness in his game.

The Ipswich bench underlined the gulf in quality. Kieran McKenna, who’s taken them from League One to the Premiership, was able to bring on Kasey McAteer, top scorer Jack Clarke, Anis Mehmeti and Iván Azon – four players who would be welcomed into any other Championship side – and it was this quartet who sealed the result. In the 85th minute, Mehmeti and Azon caused chaos on the edge of our box, the ball broke to Jack Taylor whose shot cannoned off Walsh into the feet of McAteer who swept home. Portman Road erupted.

We saw two QPR debuts in the closing stages: Isak Alemayehu Mulugeta, an attacking midfielder, came on for Morgan in the 80th minute and looked competent enough in the brief time he had. Then, in the 85th, Leon Scarlett – with the Copybet logo blacked out on his shirt because he’s under 18 – replaced Bennie. Both will presumably be back next season.

Ipswich had 14 shots to our 13, seven on target compared to our four, and an xG of 2.53 to QPR’s 0.84. According to stats wizard Jack Supple, we’ve conceded 3+ goals in 11 different games in all competitions this season – our highest such total since 2012-13.

This loss means we ended the campaign with four consecutive defeats, the first time we’ve lost the last four games of the season in the club’s history. We lost 20 games in total in 2025-26, 10 of them at home, and won just 16. Overall, we’ve scored 61 goals and conceded 73, the second-worst defensive record in the league.

Stéphan, speaking afterwards, was characteristically guarded, although didn’t sound like he’s on his bike in spite of the rumour that he’s being eyed up by a French Ligue 1 side.

“It was a season with a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I don’t know which is the level of this group.”

Was that a subtle dig at Ben Williams, our Director of Performance, who hasn’t done a great job of keeping our first-team players fit? Stéphan went on to say we were a club with “good foundations” capable of pushing on next season, but the development prospects he’s tried to bring on – Kieran Morgan, Daniel Bennie, Esquerdinha, Tylon Smith – have shown scant signs of progress. I’m sure he’d do better with a fitter squad and some strengthening in key positions (a goalkeeper, a right back, a left back, an attacking midfielder), but he hasn’t proved to be the cup specialist or talent magnet we’d hoped. The board will have to decide whether to cut their losses or back the Frenchman for another go, bearing in mind a play-off place is more achievable next season, with those clubs finishing in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th place going through.

On X, the West London football journalist Ian McCulloch summed up the positive spin the club will try to put on things: “15th again. Be prepared to be told: we gave many young players their debuts; injuries were not as bad as you lot think; not being in a relegation fight is a success; it’s unfair to compare us with what Millwall, Hull and Derby have done – and can you pay more next season? You R’s.”

I’ll be back next season with my sons, in spite of the hike in ticket prices. You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.