91Èȱ¬

Hull City moved seven points clear of the Championship relegation zone with victory over QPR at the KCOM Stadium.

Harry Wilson opened the scoring shortly before half-time, his chip over Alex Smithies flying in via the post.

Abel Hernandez doubled the lead when his curling shot struck the bar and bounced in off keeper Alex Smithies.

Kamil Grosicki guided the ball beneath Smithies and Hernandez added his second before QPR's Nedum Onuhoa was sent off after charging into Marcus Henriksen.

Markus Henriksen cut a pass across the face of goal for Hernandez to tap home.

Ian Holloway's side had a penalty appeal waved away after Eberechi Eze fell to ground under Ola Aina's challenge, but failed to register a shot on target.

Their cause was not helped by losing defender Joel Lynch after 15 minutes with a suspected hamstring injury.

In a cagey first 45 minutes, Massimo Luongo missed a chance to equalise when his arcing shot flew over from close range, before Nigel Adkins' men began to pull clear.

The Tigers have lost just one of their last 11 home league games, winning four and drawing six, while QPR are destined for a mid-table finish.

Hull City boss Nigel Adkins told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Humberside:

"We scored four really good goals, we've kept a clean sheet and we've got the three points.

"I would suggest we've played far better this season from a performance point of view, but I was really pleased on the back of the two performances we've had this week. We've gone and done what we needed to do today to go and win the game.

"Queen's Park Rangers have been in good form. They've been in excellent form so we knew it was going to be challenging."

QPR manager Ian Holloway:

"Life is tough as we all found out this week (with the death of Ray Wilkins). I wanted my team to give a performance that would have made my old team-mate, my old manager proud. Unfortunately I didn't see any of them do that.

"We got beat by the better team on the day. We gave the ball away so badly that it is almost unrecognisable. We didn't press well.

(on challenge by Josh Scowen which led to Henriksen-Onuhoa incident) "Scowen should have been sent off. It's an absolutely scandalous tackle, in my opinion. I'm going to hammer him.

"He got angry because they were playing around us. That's why you have to take your medicine son. Don't kick out at someone like that.

"Nedum came across to protect him from number 22, who looked as aggressive, but my man should have got sent off then that would have taught him the right lesson."