WELL the table certainly looks a little better after that doesn’t it?

We may have dropped a place back to 17th after Crystal Palace’s win over our cup replay opponents Spurs in the evening kick-off but it felt like a big step getting to 16th.

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The three points against lacklustre travellers QPR were fully deserved and in truth it should have been a lot more comfortable than the 2-1 scoreline suggests.

From the very off we took the game to the Hoops despite the blustery conditions and with a little more luck – and a better clinical edge – we could have been ahead before we were.

When the opening goal came it was well worth waiting for.

Scott Arfield drifted in from the touchline and made a fool of three QPR defenders before curling a delightful shot beyond Rob Green and in at the far post.

The midfielder had spoken last week about adding more goals to his game and you could see what it meant to him to add his first since the opening-day defeat to Chelsea.

We looked pretty settled until Charlie Austin – who else – first fired a shot against the post and then went down under a challenge from Dean Marney to win his side and hand them an unlikely way back into the game.

He stepped up and smashed a neat penalty past Tom Heaton and that seemed to rock us a little.

Our passing became a little sloppy and for a short time QPR stepped up the pressure, albeit without causing us too many problems.

As we have seen in the last few games, any lapses are only short-lived and Danny Ings soon got us back in front with another goal of the month contender.

Harry Redknapp described it as an awful goal to give away and I’d agree with him to a point.

But the Hoops’ defensive frailties should take nothing away from Ings who got the better of both Stephen Caulker and Richard Dunne with some trademark lightning-fast feet before nudging the ball under Green for his fourth in four games against Rangers.

Ashley Barnes had the ball in the back of the net but he was judged, probably correctly in the modern game, to have fouled the QPR stopper before bundling home.

We have another game against another relegation rival next week with Palace in town for the next six-pointer.

We knew this next month was going to be important and the confidence we will take from Saturday is going to be invaluable.