When Julien Stéphan described Blackburn Rovers‘ three goals as “too easy”, it wasn’t a deflection from the result, but rather a diagnosis of the defeat.

Queens Park Rangers went into this match as strong favourites against a Blackburn side sitting in the relegation zone, managerless until Friday, and without an away win in nearly three months. By 5pm on Saturday, Rovers had not only won at Loftus Road, they had done so with a clarity of plan and ruthlessness in transition that the home side could not match.

This was supposed to be a match that would “validate” the bore draw at Charlton Athletic last weekend, but instead felt uncomfortably familiar.

Rangers began the game brightly and certainly on top. Koki Saito was his usual busy self on the left, Richard Kone was dangerous and Nicolas Madsen’s quick thinking from a free-kick nearly brought an early breakthrough as Kone was denied point-blank by Balazs Toth.

Then came the first sign this afternoon wasn’t going to follow the script.

Ryoya Morishita, lively all afternoon, superbly nutmegged Rhys Norrington-Davies, before delivering a perfectly weighted through ball that was finished brilliantly by Mathias Jorgensen for 1-0.

One attack. One goal.

Stéphan...