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| Portsmouth 1 v 3 Queens Park Rangers EFL Championship Saturday, 15th August 2026 Kick-off 15:00 | Chair shines bright in QPR's fun in the South Coast sun – Report Sunday, 16th Aug 2026 21:46 by Clive Whittingham Ilias Chair was back to his best and QPR looked slick on the front foot (once they’d recovered from a ropey start) against Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Saturday. Can I just shock you? I like hydration breaks. Despite what I just said earlier. I don’t know what they put in the pop, or said in the speeches, during the one in the first half at Portsmouth yesterday afternoon, but it flipped QPR’s poor start to the game on its head and set the R’s up for a first opening day win since 2020. To begin with it looked like everything we’ve come to expect from Rangers at this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localised entirely within Fratton Park. Injuries to key players – Nicolas Madsen left at home, Jonathan Varane and Paul Smyth put to the bench, Boy Kemper forced off 20 minutes into a league debut after a heavy blow to his ankle. Square pegs in round holes – a centre back in central midfield, soon a right back at left back, last season’s top scorer on the bench. Portsmouth stronger, sharper and in possession of tape – Pierce Charles predictably roughed up twice in the first eight minutes after erring on his debut against Millwall. Terry Devlin looking like – or being made to look like – Brazilian great Cafu. And a beautiful, arcing, 25 yard shot under no pressure bends away into the far corner of the net for a one goal lead. Wild team selection begets wild results. Don’t win many games by losing midfield. Here we go again. There was a smattering of boos when referee Will Finnie called drinks, and not entirely because people are unhappy about a sport of four quarters being introduced by stealth. Another summer of optimism and apparently positive recruitment draining away into more insipid nonsense like this on the road from a team that only won two of its final 15 away games last year will not go down well with a support tired of 11 years on the Championship circuit. It was a period that ended with Ronnie Edwards giving the ball away then collecting a yellow card for a robust attempt to retrieve it. His positioning would surely be high on the agenda if the game drained away from here. What was the worst call: starting in a black kit in a million degrees (QPR should know better than most the perils of that on the opening day), or starting without a midfield? Etc. Etc. This season might be different. Whatever was said in that huddle was transformational. An hour later it was all fun in the sun: Rangers popping the ball around to a chorus of ‘olé’; crowd baying for a repeat of the 6-1 inflicted on Pompey at Loftus Road in March; Mbengue having a very busy day on the riverbank, fishing for bites in the side stand; Pierce Charles carving the hosts apart with Wilkins-like distribution prowess; and goal threats raining down on Nicolas Schmid in goal from all angles. A sweat box away end united in their new songs, soon reflecting on one of the great away days, one of the great opening days. Julien Stéphan made a few big, bold calls in his first season at the club and was rewarded for them. This was a very promising start to year two for the former Rennes gaffer. In a game of four quarters this was a half of two halves. QPR scored three goals before the next break, the first time they’d done so in the first half of an away game since a 4-1 victory at West Brom in the Premier League in 2015 (Jack Supple’s also back for the new season). Harvey Vale’s chipped assist behind a static back line for the first was delicious. You’d expect a keeper of Schmid’s physical stature to take two steps forward and clear the whole thing out but, when he passed up that opportunity, Ilias Chair nipped in for a cheeky leveller. Chair soon turned provider for Koki Saito. Vale won possession back in midfield, Chair worked a wall pass with Burrell and then set the Japanese winger away against Poole who he backed up right into the penalty area and then scuffed an effort goalwards which deflected off Devlin, past Schmid, and into the net in front of the jubilant travelling fans. Jubilance quickly turned to complete delirium when Amadou Mbengue got a low cross absolutely right (!!) and Chair did just enough to keep himself onside and bundle a chipped finish over the stricken goalkeeper and into the net for 3-1 in the second minute of time added on at the end of the half. Maybe Mbengue did go to that meeting after all? I’m not sure we’ll be winning any prizes for aesthetics with the finishes – we built this victory on rotten goals – but the move for the second, and particularly the third, was sumptuous stuff. Charles spraying a ball out to Kwame Poku starting wide right, he feeds into lone striker Rumarn Burrell with Mbengue already charging forward on the overlap from right back, Burrell turns it round the corner first time and Mbengue showing hitherto absent levels of composure and final ball to put it on an absolute plate for Chair in the middle of the penalty box. The sort of goal QPR have wanted to score for years but not had the players to do it. The sort of goal you don’t mind paying to see. It’s also the sort of goal that sums up what a difference Pierce Charles can make to this team. He’s going to terrorise us at times – one second half miskick put Abu Kamara clean through on the Rangers goal and he needed to bail out his own mistake with a smart save – but he enables the team to play out, over and round exactly the sort of high press teams like Portsmouth like to execute and that we’ve had such trouble with in general, and in particular on our last two visits here. Chair’s first goal had started with a ball out exactly like this as well. Add Tariq Lamptey down one side and Dennis Cirkin down the other with out balls like this and we could have exactly the sort of fire raging that sparks national government alerts. Could be a very exciting season if we’re going to play like this. That said, let’s not dismiss the full backs who played here too quickly. Mbengue had one of his best games for the club on both sides of the ball, revelling in winding up home players and fans alike, looking positively possessed in his tongue-out cheerleading to the away end. In fixtures like this he can either be exactly what you need, or a total liability (see Millwall away in April). Here he was fantastic. Controlled aggression, pace in recovery, attacking threat down the side, and end product. The idea of development prospects and models is you buy them raw and they improve. This was a very promising first track in Mbengue’s second album. He seemed to be grabbing his dick in celebration of the third – he wasn’t the only one. Kealey Adamson, who I’ve just never felt up to this level, was dealt a very tricky hand playing out of position on the left against a winger like Kamara but stuck at that task very diligently and without error. Good physically, good positionally, barely gave his man a sniff. A big day out for both players, and that decision to have Edwards in front of Dunne and Jake Clarke-Salter proved a very shrewd addition of height and physicality in the box to crowd out the Portsmouth attack. Dunne was often unfairly penalised for bashing the Bishop by referee Will Finnie, but he won’t mind that with the result in the bag. It took Clarke-Salter 80 minutes to put a foot wrong, and the closing stages were a bit ragged as Josh Murphy got going off the bench, but Charles finished up with only one save of any note – and that one was hit straight at him from point blank range. We looked very solid back there to me, certainly in comparison to the central defenders in the home defence between whom you could have sailed most of the nearby Naval yard without either of them noticing. Pompey have conceded six in two games to begin their year, and there’ll be lots more where that came from setting up like this. After the helter-skelter, harum-scarum first half the second was always likely to be a more staid, controlled affair with the away team protecting a two-goal lead. Glen Kamara was soon summoned for a QPR debut, and a first airing of his catchy song, and you can see exactly why they’ve been willing to break their model and loan in an older player in his case. Rangers were well in control for most of the second half, with Kamara just ticking things over efficiently. I was astonished to find the official possession stats marked down 55-45 in Portsmouth’s favour, continuing QPR’s 19-month, 21-win wait for a victory while holding more of the ball than the opponent. It certainly didn’t feel like that to me watching from behind the goal. “We want six” was the cry from the Milton End, and from the bench as well it seems. Stéphan afterwards expressing disappointment his team hadn’t killed the game off with a fourth goal. “I’m going to be very demanding of the group this season”, the Frenchman said. Music to my ears. Standards have been too low here for too long, mediocrity has been accepted too many times, 15th has been dressed up as success too often. With the players we have, the money we’ve spent and the play-offs down to eighth it’s time for QPR to start demanding more of themselves. Wonderful to hear the manager singing from that hymn sheet after a 3-1 away win. His team looked a lot fitter, a lot more physical, than they have starting recent seasons. Compare this to the second half wilt at home to Preston this time a year ago. A first win at Fratton Park in six visits going back to the final day of 1999/00 when the R’s won by the same score. Still, if you do find yourself with your foot on their throat, please do press down this season. Ruthless, Rangers, not charitable. Not again. In pursuit of said fourth Vale got Chair in down the left for a low shot saved by the keeper with his legs. Vale then curled a free kick wide I felt sure Chair would use to pursue a first senior hat trick. That might have been costly had Murphy’s cross found sub Milovanović at the near post on 82, or a big penalty appeal against Jimmy Dunne as a fisted corner was returned with interest in the first minute of added time been awarded. Alfie Lloyd from the bench instead of Richard Kone may seem a strange choice but he ran hard yards in a pesky pressing role and nearly did so much more than that when Vale’s low cross found him in the middle of the goal but he failed to steer the ball home. Likewise, Paul Smyth, who was crowded out of a good attacking situation but then ran 80 yards back the other way to cover his own give-away with a tackle. ABC. A – always, B – be, C – closing. Always, be, closing. Always, be closing. The effects were writ large across a beaten home side. Ebou Adams completely lost the plot with Finnie for failing to show Edwards a second yellow for taking on a shot after a whistle had been blown (I thought demanding yellow cards for opponents was a booking myself but apparently not). You wouldn’t have wanted to do 20 minutes with ten men in an oppressive heat that quickly turned the away end into what Delia Smith might have termed a “cool oven”. But Portsmouth looked spent long before full time to me despite the enterprise of White City-born Chelsea loanee Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, who looked lively as a second half sub considering he’s only 17 and twice put dangerous balls through the box that deserved a better forward on the other end than Bishop. Consecutive 3-1 defeats to start the year for the hosts and another season of struggle in the offing. QPR, meanwhile, go into a table-topping six-pointer with Bolton. Knew Sky would regret not picking that one. Links >>> Ratings and Reports >>> Message Board Match Thread Pompey: Schmid 5; Devlin 7, Poole 5 (Milovanovic 72, 5), Shaughnessy 5, Swanson 5 (Arthur 72, 5); Shein 5, Adams 6 (Bailey 83, -); Kamara 5 (Murphy 65, 6), Segecic 5, Brooke-Smith 6 (Kavuma-McQueen 46, 7); Bishop 5 Subs not used: Bielica, Dia, le Roux, Swift Goals: Devlin 15 (assisted Adams) QPR: Charles 7; Mbengue 8 (Varane 74, 6), Dunne 7, Clarke-Salter 7, Kemper 6 (Adamson 20, 7); Vale 6, Edwards 6; Poku 6 (Kamara 58, 7), Chair 8, Saito 6 (Smyth 58, 6); Burrell 6 (Lloyd 74, 6) Subs not used: Alemayehu, Kone, Morrison, Ward Goals: Chair 33 (assisted Vale), 45+2 (assisted Mbengue), Saito 40 (assisted Chair) Yellow Cards: Edwards 25 (foul) QPR Star Man – Ilias Chair 8 Plenty of candidates this week but I love it when Chair comes back strong from criticism like this. A QPR player with three goal contributions in the first half of an away game for the first time since Martin Rowlands at Watford in December 2007, a first double away from home on the opening day since Clive Allen at Wrexham in 1981. (@JTSupple). Referee – Will Finnie (Luton) 6 An official we described as out of his depth doing Oxford QPR last season given a pretty punchy opening day fixture here. At one point second half seemed to have completely lost control of it, and there was some very soft stuff given all day, but in the end he just about clung onto a difficult game and I think the PGMOL will be pretty pleased with how he went. Attendance – 20,479 (2,197 QPR) Whoever’s idea that Glen Kamara song was, if you’d like to come round today and take it back out of my head now so I can get on with my week that would be great thank you and please. 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