All the stats that Will Still trumpeted as being great in the last three games, were awful up at Loftus Road last night, but the ones that actually mattered were in our favour as we dug in and earned a well deserved win.

Tonda Eckhert took charge of the team for the first game after the sacking of Will Still and he rang the changes, some surprising and some not so much.

In goal Gavin Bazunu returned to replace Alex McCarthy, on the face of it this was a surprise, but the fact that the goalkeeping coach Will Still brought in, Ruben Martinez had also been sacked along with the manager, perhaps gave clues as to why Bazunu was dropped in the first place, the now restored keeper apparently having fallen out with Martinez earlier in the season.

Jack Stephens has made more comebacks than Frank Sinatra and he also made the latest one in this respect, also in the starting line up was Tom Fellows and Jay Robinson, two players that Still didn't seem to like to start much in the past couple of months.

All of these played a big part in this win, yes including Jack Stephens.

But it was never going to be easy, it was still a fragile confidence and although Saints started well, QPR came back into the game and perhaps slightly edged the first half although it remained goalless.

But it didn't take long to get going in the second, when after 10 minutes Jay Robinson exchanged passes with Adam Armstrong and fired home after a nice little run.

That settled us down for a while we made two substitutions Armstrong off for Downs & Azaz on for Robinson, a change that was wholly necessary because the youngster had run himself into the ground and was cramping up, then when with 20 minutes to go Leo Scienza surged forward and fired a 25 yard shot into the far corner, you thought that this was going to be an easy Saints win, our confidence was returning and we seemed to be holding our shape.

But it changed just 3 minutes later when Scienza was scythed down and had to go off injured, perhaps it was folly to make a double change here, but off went Scienza and Fellows and on came Aribo & Roerslev, clearly we were battening down the hatches.

But before we had found our shape QPR had got a foothold back into the game, they played a ball over the top and caught us flat footed, Gavin Bazunu came out but like his defenders he had been caught short, with the ball at chest height it was going to be difficult to get it and the QPR player got a toe in and they were back in the game.

The last 17 minutes plus 6 of injury time were mainly played in our half, we could have done with Adam Armstrong up front to hold the ball up, but we now had a very defensive line up with 5 at the back 4 in midfield but no natural left sided player which meant Ryan Manning was getting exposed far too often and just Damion Downs up front.

Downs task was thankless, he rarely touched the ball but he ran his socks off and at times got back and defended, but it was now all one way traffic.

This is when we found our spirit, if that was lacking in the last half a dozen games under Will Still, we found it in the final knockings of this game, QPR threw cross after cross into the box and we won virtually everyone of them, when they did get a rare shot on target, Bazunu was up to the task, with one superb save, one of only 5 shots they had on target all game.

We are Saints fans we expected the worst, you sensed that this might be one of those games we did in and get a result, but you also had that nagging feeling we had a mistake in us somewhere.

But we had no time for errors, it wasn't pretty but we dug in, repelled every attack and regrouped for the next one, there were a few dodge moments, but no one shirked their task, not even Damion Downs and we might not have a deserved win on the stats, but we deserved it for sheer guts and effort.

So hopefully we can now move forward, there are still issues, too many subs in a short space of time, undoubtably changed the game from what should have been a comfortable win, but we adapted and fully deserved the 3 points from effort alone.

It would be hard to pick a man of the match, some would say Jay Robinson for his well taken goal, others might say Leo Scienza for his great strike for the second, there were also unsung heroes such as Adam Armstrong who never stopped running and was on reflection taken off too early, even the usual scapegoats such as Ryan Manning who was with no one in front of him after the departure of Scienza found himself double teamed far too often, but got in blocks and tackles.

Perhaps even Gavin Bazunu, who in the final 20 minutes was rock solid, not only with a couple of timely saves, but the way he came and caught balls in his own six yard box under pressure when as we saw in the last few games, McCarthy seemed to punch too often, Bazunu gave us breathing space and stopped the relentless pressure by catching the ball.

The stat that we made 60 clearances in this game, the bulk in that final 20 minutes showed how much we had to dig in, that was from 40 crosses and 107 successful passes from the home side in our final third, perhaps highlighted that there was no one individual that contributed to this much needed win, but everyone of the 15 players that took part in this game deserve a pat on the back.

Now we have to build on this, these 3 points didn't move us up the table much, but it did take us above Pompey and that is one good thing, however if we can get a good win over Sheffield Wednesday then it could put us near the top half, we are now only 8 points behind the play off spots, one step at a time, keep winning and we can get back into the promotion race.

All Photos Via Reuters