High-flying QPR emerged triumphant by the odd goal in three from an entertaining clash at Hillsborough on Saturday.

Owls summer loan target Jay Simpson fired the R's into an early lead but Wednesday hit back with Jermaine Johnson's fifth goal of the season to restore parity.

But after both sides had also struck the woodwork, the visitors sealed victory in the closing stages through Kaspars Gorkss to leave the Owls without a win in four games.

Brian Laws kept faith with the same starting line-up that earned a point at Bristol City last time out, although the manager reverted back to a 4-4-2 formation as opposed to the 4-3-3 deployed against the Robins.

After a cagey opening, during which neither side imposed any real authority on the game, the contest suddenly burst into life, with two goals and a flurry of activity inside three minutes.

Rangers burst into the lead in the tenth minute after Akos Buzsaky found space just outside the penalty area and played an inch-perfect ball in to Simpson, who turned to drill a low drive past Lee Grant in front of the Kop.

And the R's should have doubled their lead two minutes later when Wayne Routledge sprang clear down the right and cut inside to place across Grant but the ball clipped the post and rolled to safety.

That miss worked in Wednesday's favour as the hosts promptly broke upfield on 13 minutes and scored from their first attack. Darren Potter sent Johnson racing free down the left and the Jamaican advanced on goal before aiming a precision shot into the far corner off the post.



The pendulum began to switch in Wednesday's favour and Luke Varney had a half-shout for a penalty refused after tumbling under a challenge by Fitz Hall.

Varney was at the centre of the action again on 23 minutes and came within a whisker of sending the Owls into the lead. The loanee striker skipped his way past two lunging tackles and came face to face with Cerny, who breathed a sigh of relief when Varney's close range shot smacked the foot of the post.

Rangers responded with a Ben Watson drive from distance that Grant safely parried before Johnson drove wide following some trademark JJ trickery in the box.



Routledge then brought the best out of Grant from close range just before the half time whistle and in truth, it would have been harsh on either side had the other gone down the tunnel in front.

Wednesday came back out on the offensive as Rangers struggled to move the ball out of their own half. Potter went close with a free kick on the edge of the box and Johnson continued to cause concern in the visitors' backline.

But Rangers did look dangerous when they did break out, as Adel Taarabt and Simpson had snapshots that reminded the Owls of the Londoners' threat.

Wednesday, however, almost edged in front on 64 minutes, with the woodwork again coming to Rangers' rescue. A slick passing move ended with the ball landing at Tommy Miller's feet just outside the penalty area and his curling shot beat Cerny but struck the outside of the post.



Routledge fed Watson a perfect ball from the right but the midfielder screwed wide from six yards while substitute Leon Clarke almost made an immediate impact with a driven effort deflected into the side netting.

But it was Rangers that stole the points nine minutes from time through Gorkss. Substitute Alejandro Faurlin swung over a corner that the Latvian international headed powerfully beyond Grant and the R's returned to the capital having cemented their slot in the play-offs.

Owls: Grant, Simek (Wood 72), Buxton, Hinds, Spurr, Johnson (Clarke 76), O'Connor, Potter, Miller (McAllister 72), Tudgay, Varney

Unused substitutes: O'Donnell, Beevers, Esajas, Sodje

QPR: Cerny, Mahon, Watson, Hall (Connolly 27), Gorkss, Simpson, Ramage, Taarabt (Vine 88), Buzsaky (Faurlin 68), Routledge, Leigertwood

Unused substitutes: Heaton, Ephraim, Alberti, Agyemang

Referee: Nigel Miller

Attendance: 19,491