Teenager Rayan Kolli’s first senior goals helped Queens Park Rangers to their first home win since April as Norwich City’s away misery continued at Loftus Road.
The Algeria Under-20 international who made his debut against the Canaries in last season’s EFL Cup, went on as a 13th minute substitute for the injured Zan Celar.
Defender Jimmy Dunne took advantage of woeful defending to give Rangers the lead and Kolli doubled it with a header deep in first half added time.
The visitors were toothless in difficult conditions and Kolli finished them off by capitalising on more uncertain defending to add the third goal in the second half.
The script going into the game was all about the division’s top scorers, Norwich, with 10 goals in their last two games alone, against a side that collectively had not scored as many as the Canaries’ prolific Borja Sainz on his own.
On a day when the wind and rain tested character rather than ability, it was the Rs – now unbeaten in four games – who rose to the challenge and after a scrappy opening from both sides, they went ahead.
Norwich failed to deal with a corner and after Ante Crnac had taken two swipes at the ball in an attempt to clear, Dunne – whose father died earlier this week – saw his opportunity and prodded the ball past Angus Gunn in the visitors’ goal.
At the end of the half, Kolli seized his moment for his first goal to set the Rs on their way to their first win over Norwich in nine attempts.
Kenneth Paal swung another free-kick towards the near post and this time the London-born youngster was in acres of space to dive and head home.
Norwich boss Johannes Hoff Thorup sent on Ashley Barnes and Ben Chrisene at half-time and Sainz quickly had the ball in the net only to be flagged for offside, denying him his 17th of the season.
Play switched to the other end and when defender Callum Doyle slipped in possession, Kolli stole the ball, raced clear and found a large gap between Gunn, having a miserable 150th appearance, and his near post.
Rangers survived a loud penalty appeal as the ball struck Harrison Ashby’s hand in the box, and Crnac then thought he had scored only to be the victim of another tight offside decision.
Kolli twice went close to his hat-trick goal but after Emiliano Marcondes’ corner deflected onto a post at the other end, QPR held out for a deserved win, their first at Loftus Road since beating Leeds United 4-0 during a strong finish to last season.
The win also means they move out of the relegation zone for the first time since the end of September, while Norwich slide to 11th.
Massive win for QPR against Norwich
