Cameron Bragg scored his first Championship goal as Southampton extended their unbeaten home league run to 17 matches with a 4-1 victory over QPR. Kuryu Matsuki, Keven Schlotterbeck, and Welington also got on the scoresheet, leaving Saints in fifth place and in touch with the league leaders after all seven top-flight contenders won on Saturday.
Southampton had won the previous six meetings between the sides. Despite entering the fixture with three wins in four, the hosts remained wary of a Rangers team that had demolished Swansea a week earlier.
Japanese winger Kuryu Matsuki should have opened the scoring in the fifth minute but fired over the bar while unmarked in the box.
Keven Schlotterbeck celebrates after scoring for Southampton against QPR
He made amends six minutes later, registering his third goal in four matches with a neat spinning finish after an adventurous run from Leo Scienza.
The goal sparked 20 minutes of free-flowing football between two sides buoyed by recent wins, though neither side managed to add to the scoreline immediately.
QPR began with off-target efforts from Paul Smyth and Kwame Poku, the latter thrashing one into the side netting.
Southampton goalkeeper Daniel Peretz was called into a pair of saves, first clawing away a looping header and then pushing away Smyth’s fierce drive with strong hands. The hosts responded with equal threat, as Pierce Charles acrobatically denied Schlotterbeck’s header, while Jimmy Dunne’s sliding block kept out Matsuki at point-blank range.
Southampton thought they had taken the lead in first-half stoppage time when Lewis Dobbin flicked an in-swinging corner past Charles, but referee Tim Robinson and assistant referee Rob Smith determined that Jack Stephens had interfered from an offside position as the ball crossed the line.
If anything, the disallowed goal galvanized Southampton in the second half. Ryan Manning and Scienza were denied before Bragg bagged his first league goal, drilling a shot from Manning’s cutback that went in via a deflection.
Saints then pushed for the knockout blow as Scienza and Dobbin forced diving saves from Pierce. In the 67th minute, the QPR keeper could do nothing to stop Keven Schlotterbeck’s powerful unmarked header at the back post from Manning’s corner.
The points appeared secure, but 85 seconds later Richard Kone steered the ball in off the post from the edge of the box, following up his hat-trick against Swansea and injecting late jeopardy into the contest.
After Finn Azaz was thwarted on the line, substitute Welington added a fourth for the hosts with the last kick of the match.