Leaders Burnley have returned to action in the Championship with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers.
The Clarets went into the break for the World Cup holding a three-point lead over second-placed Sheffield United and being five points clear of Blackburn Rovers, who they beat last time out, in third position.
As a result of Blackburn's heavy defeat versus fellow North West rivals Preston North End on Saturday, Burnley went into their fixture at Loftus Road with an opportunity to go eight points clear in the race for automatic promotion.
Achieving that target was never really in doubt from when Johann Berg Gudmundsson fired the visitors into an early lead from a free kick.
QPR offered very little during the opening 45 minutes and were made to pay when Vincent Kompany's side doubled their advantage in added-on time through Ian Maatsen.
Gudmundsson opens the scoring with a SUBLIME free-kick! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/8KWi5lFcPv
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) December 11, 2022
After a Vitinho effort was saved by Semy Dieng, the Chelsea loanee was on hand to emphatically convert the rebound to put his team in control.
To their credit, QPR, who were playing their first fixture since the departure of Michael Beale to Rangers, were much improved during the second half as they chased the game.
However, soon after Burnley goalkeeper Arijanet Muric had prevented Sam Field from halving the deficit, Nathan Tella made sure of the three points after latching onto a weak pass to Dieng before rounding the goalkeeper and finishing into an empty net.
On an afternoon where Burnley strengthened their bid for a return back to the Premier League, QPR now sit in ninth spot after suffering a fifth defeat in sixth outings.
Darren Plant
