Rumarn Burrell scored for the second time in five days as QPR held 10-man Swansea at bay to win 1-0 and climb to eighth in the Championship table.
Burrell – who was a scorer in his team’s 2-1 weekend defeat at Millwall – grabbed the only goal of the game in the 18th minute.
Swansea had teenage Brighton loanee Malick Yalcouye shown a straight red hard in the 34th minute after he appeared to clash heads with QPR defender Steve Cook.
Yet Swans substitute Zan Vipotnik might have earned the 10 men a point in added time but failed to turn in a cross from two yards out.
It is just one defeat in eight games for QPR, but Swansea – who drop to 16th in the table – have not won at home since August.
Swansea had already received a warning of QPR’s ability to hit the hosts on the counter-attack, even before the away side went ahead.
Burrell had found space behind’s Swansea’s defence and when the ball found its way to Nicolas Madsen, it needed a fine save by Lawrence Vigouroux to keep out the Danish defender’s effort.
Burrell then gave Rangers a deserved 18th-minute lead when he latched on to Isaac Hayden’s chipped cross to clip a volley past Vigouroux.
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Rumarn Burrell gives QPR the lead against Swansea after finishing a well-worked team move.
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Malick Yalcouye received a straight red card after the assistant referee recommended the Swansea City midfielder be dismissed for a headbutt on Steve Cook.
Swansea had failed to track Hayden’s run and basic errors elsewhere meant they carried few threats of their own in the early stages.
They were just starting to press with more cohesion around the half-hour mark when Yalcouye was shown a straight red card after a clash with Cook.
Seconds earlier, Yalcouye went down under a challenge from Hayden but appeals for a penalty were waved away.
Cook appeared angered by Yalcouye’s fall and the players squared up with foreheads pressed together. When Cook tumbled backwards, referee John Busby consulted his assistant before sending off Yalcouye and showing Cook a yellow card.
The friction remained, though, and soon Swansea striker Adam Idah was booked for a late challenge on goalkeeper Paul Nardi, before Swansea head coach Alan Sheehan was also cautioned for protests on the sideline.
QPR came under pressure from Swansea at the start of the second half.
A header from Marko Stamenic went over the crossbar before Nardi had to clear a teasing cross from Josh Tymon.
Swansea substitute Ronald had an effort blocked by Sam Field as QPR clung to their lead.
Rangers replacement Ilias Chair had a chance to make the game safe for his side in the 78th minute when he was sprung beyond Swansea’s defence, but was denied by Vigouroux.
Jimmy Dunne then came close to making it 2-0 when he ended a surging run by striking the post before Jonathan Varane put the rebound wide.
But Swansea still had a chance to snatch a point, only for Vipotnik to waste their best chance.
The managers
Swansea’s Alan Sheehan:
“He’s devastated in there. Obviously we suffered from that. It changes the game. It makes it an uphill battle.
“I think you see a young 19-year-old lad up against a very, very experienced player and I think that’s the way it happened. Obviously Steve Cook and Malick came together, he’s been enticed, and he went down like he got hit by an absolute truck.
“I haven’t seen the incident totally, but I don’t think he’s headbutted (him), but I think both players at different instances have stuck their heads together and probably whoever has that momentum.
“But the reaction of jumping back. That’s an experienced player or doing what has to be done, really, and we’ve suffered from that tonight.
“But look, Malick is a young player. We have him on loan from Brighton and he’s a talent and we’ve suffered from that tonight, but I’m not going to throw anybody under the bus or anything. This is just a learning curve and he’ll get better for it.”
QPR’s Julien Stephan:
“I am very happy with the win and especially how we managed to control the second half without the ball.
“It was not perfect because it would be perfect if we scored the second or third goal.
“It’s just a question of efficiency – to kill the opponent – and we didn’t do that.
“It’s a good win for us. But in this kind of game you never know at the end what can happen when you stay at 1-0 the last five minutes.”
