match report from Teamtalk

QPR: Bull , Murphy , Warren , Burgess , Cochrane , Koejoe , Duncan , Rose , Brkovic , Tangara , Brisset QPR lost 1-0 at Luton Town, with Carl Griffiths' 47th-minute strike sufficient in a match that Town dominated against a below-par Rangers side.

Griffiths' goal arrived two minutes after the break, following a through-ball from Lee Mansell, when he beat QPR keeper Nikki Bull with a shot into the bottom right-hand corner, in a one-on-one confrontation. Luton had the better of the first half chances at Kenilworth Road, against a QPR side largely comprising trialists and few players of note to please the home crowd. Griffiths went close twice early on, with a chip seven minutes in that went just wide, from inside the penalty area.

The former Orient man was found by a great Adrian Forbes through-ball eight minutes later, but his effort was well-saved by Bull. Forbes himself had a great chance to open the scoring eleven minutes before half-time, when alone with the ball inside the area, but he mis-hit his shot straight at Bull. Rangers fielded several trialists, including Griffiths' former Orient colleague Ahmet Brkovic, a fine creative midfielder, one-time Arsenal trainee Jason Brisset plus Abdu Tangara and Lyndon Duncan.

Shortly after the game's only goal, Forbes hit a post with a shot that had Bull beaten and Steve Howard managed to pump the rebound wide. Rangers did not pose a great deal of threat and their best chance came at the death, when Sammy Koejoe produced a fine shot after a ball through from Brisset, but Luton's substitute keeper Mark Ovendale saved well.

Reserves boss Tim Breacker was a happy man after last night's match at Luton despite Rangers going down to a 1-0 defeat at Kenilworth Road. Rangers fielded their reserve side in the game, giving run-outs to several of their younger players with Lyndon Duncan, Wesley Daly, Olly Burgess, Justin Cochrane, Danny Murphy and goalkeeper Nikki Bull all featuring in the match.

Breacker said: "For our younger lads it was an excellent game. The basis of that team was our Under-19 team from last year and as yet they haven't played many reserve games, let alone games against other first teams. "It was a great workout for them and shows them where they need to go and what they need to improve on. We enjoyed it. "It's a shame about the result but that's not everything. We've got a far smaller squad this season and there are some younger lads here that need to progress in the reserves.

"The situation is that they're going to be right on the edge of the first team and we need to get them up to a standard where they can hopefully play a big part in our season."

There were several plus points to come out of the game, particularly the performance of left-back Murphy who is rated by many as the best youngster at the club. He performed well while Burgess looks to have grown in stature over the last few months and caught the eye in midfield.

On the negative side, the strange central defensive partnership of Matthew Rose and Christer Warren looked very shaky and Sammy Koejoe had a poor game up front, fluffing Rangers' only two openings of the match.