Swansea City make it five in a row at QPR as Sheehan strengthens grip on top job

Swansea City beat QPR 2-1 in west London to rack up a fifth Championship victory on the spin

Resurgent Swansea City made it five consecutive Championship wins by beating QPR 2-1 and further boosting Alan Sheehan’s chances of taking permanent charge.

Sheehan has now presided over seven wins and just two defeats from his 11 matches at the helm since taking over as caretaker boss, following the sacking of Luke Williams in February.

It would have been five clean sheets in a row had Karamoko Dembele not pulled a goal back for Rangers, with the west London side’s first effort on target. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here.

Morgan Fox’s 29th-minute own goal put Swansea in front and Harry Darling doubled the score early in the second half for the Welsh side, who were only six points clear of the drop zone just over a month ago.

They will end the season much closer to the play-offs than relegation places as they currently sit just six points away from the top six.

Swans went ahead when Josh Tymon picked up possession and was allowed to surge into the QPR half on the left-hand side and send the ball into the box, where Fox attempted to stop it reaching Liam Cullen but inadvertently shinned it into his own net.

Fox, initially named as a substitute, was only playing because he replaced Jonathan Varane in the starting line-up after the Frenchman pulled up during the pre-match warm-up. WHATSAPP: Sign up to the Swansea City WhatsApp service to get breaking news and top stories sent to your phone

With his team failing to present any kind of goal threat, Rangers boss Marti Cifuentes sent on striker Michael Frey after 53 minutes in an attempt to find a way back into the match.

However, two minutes later, the Swans doubled their lead with Darling’s third goal in six matches.

Eom Ji-sung tricked his way past Jimmy Dunne on the left of the box and fired towards goal, where Cullen bundled the ball in from a couple of yards out.

Dembele, one of the visitors’ later substitutes, hauled them back into the match with a goal after 72 minutes.

Nicolas Madsen played a lovely pass in behind the Swansea defence for Dembele to sprint in from the right and fire past goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux at his near post.

But the Hoops were unable to find an equaliser and Eom missed a chance to add a third for Swansea when he headed Ronald’s cross wide of the target.