Gavin Peacock announced his return to first team action by scoring, but his goal and QPR's late flurry wasn't enough to avoid defeat at Molineux. Three first-half goals did the damage for the home side, who were cruising before a late goal from Steve Slade threatened to reverse Wolves' first-half thrashing of a QPR side that struggled to cope with the pace of Ade Akinbiyi.

Rangers played their part in a totally nondescript first 23 minutes. Seven minutes later, they were three goals down and politely accepting a third consecutive defeat. The match turned decisively in Wolves' favour courtesy of a defensive mix-up and an injury to former QPR midfielder Simon Osborn.

A straightforward-looking ball aimed deep into the Rangers half took a wicked bounce which forced Darlington into an uncomfortable header to Baraclough, who miscued his attempted back pass to gift the Colin Lee's side a corner. Enter substitute Neil Emblen, who within seconds of replacing Osborn flicked Sinton's well-taken corner to Sedgley, who gave Harper little chance by stabbing home from close range.

Two minutes later, Wolves doubled their lead and effectively killed the match when Michael Branch beat the offside trap and touched the ball over the advancing Harper before heading into an empty net.

Emblen fired narrowly over, before a superb strike by Akinbiyi made Rangers' already difficult task as good as impossible. Akinbiyi allowed Muscat's ball towards the edge of the box to bounce before sending an unstoppable volley beyond Harper and into the top corner of the net.

Inevitably given the scale of the first-half debacle, Gerry Francis made major changes at the break and Peacock replaced Paul Murray, while Steve Slade also returned to action following an injury to replace the ineffective Paul Bruce as Rangers switched to three up front in a bid to claw their way back into the match.

The two substitutes almost created a Rangers goal 7 minutes into the second-half. Peacock's smart pass set up Slade, who would have scored had his finish been as well executed as his perfectly-timed run behind the Wolves back-line. But Slade's shot was straight at Stowell, who was down quickly to block with his legs. Rangers' early second-half vigour quickly deteriorated and Kevin Muscat went close to scoring Wolves' fourth after 58 minutes, with a left-footed shot that flew just wide of the post.

But Rangers did break through with 11 minutes remaining. Once more the two substitutes combined as Slade flicked the ball into the path of Peacock, who poked the ball past Oakes to register his 8th goal of the season.

A week ago Francis accused his players of "going out with a whimper" against Bolton. That they certainly didn't do this time as Slade followed Peacock in marking his return with a goal. Langley's 89th minute shot was blocked by Oakes, but Slade pounced to set up a tense finish. But there was to be no repeat of the comeback at Stockport earlier in the season. Wardley fired well over the bar and Slade volleyed straight at Oakes as Rangers battled manfully but ultimately, in vain.