Southampton 4-1 Queens Park Rangers: Saints continue charge with thumping win
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Southampton and Queens Park Rangers at St Mary's on Saturday; Saints ease to victory as Cameron Bragg gets on the scoresheet.
Saturday 31 October 2026 17:10, UK
Cameron Bragg scored the first Championship goal of his career as Southampton made it 17 home league matches in a row without losing with a 4-1 victory over QPR.
Kuryu Matsuki, Keven Schlotterbeck and Welington also got on the scoresheet as Saints stayed fifth, but kept pace with the rest of the leaders - with the top seven all winning on Saturday.
Southampton had won the last six meetings between the two sides, and despite coming into the game with three wins in four, feared a Rangers side that had demolished Swansea a week before.
Japanese winger Matsuki should have scored in the fifth minute when he fired over the bar when unmarked in the box.
But made up for it six minutes later when he grabbed 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 side buoyed by big wins last weekend which should have, but did not add to the scoreline.
QPR started with off-target efforts from Paul Smyth and Kwame Poku - who thrashed into the side netting.
Southampton goalkeeper Daniel Peretz was called into a pair of saves, the first a claw away to deny a looping header, and then with two strong hands to push away Smyth's fierce drive.
The host's responses were equally as threatening with Pierce Charles acrobatically denying Schlotterbeck's header, while Jimmy Dunne's sliding block denied Matsuki a second at point-blank range.
They thought they had gone a step further in first-half stoppage time when Lewis Dobbin had flicked an in-swinging corner past Charles.
But referee Tim Robinson and his assistant referee Rob Smith paused, conferred and decided that Jack Stephens had interfered as the ball flew in while in an offside position.
If anything, the disallowed goal galvanised Southampton in the second half, as Ryan Manning and Scienza were denied, before Bragg bagged the first league goal of his career.
Bragg, who was sent off in the first half of the south coast derby victory earlier in the month, drilled a shot from Manning's cutback, which was finished via a deflection.
Saints now felt in control, and went for the jugular as Scienza and Dobbin forced diving saves out of Pierce.
The QPR keeper could do nothing in the 67th minute to deny Schlotterbeck's powerful unmarked header at the back post to convert Manning's corner.
It felt the points were safe for the home side, but 85 seconds later Richard Kone snuck the ball in off the post from the edge of the box - to backup his hat-trick against Swansea last week - to add some jeopardy into the final 20 minutes.
But after Finn Azaz was thwarted on the line, substitute Welington added a fourth for the hosts with the last last kick off the match.
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The managers
Southampton's Tonda Eckert:
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QPR's Julien Stephan:
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