Hodgson salutes Dorrans´ impact

Roy Hodgson praised match winner Graham Dorrans for his superb first-half strike that secured West Brom a 1-0 victory over QPR at the Hawthorns.

The Scottish midfielder has been plagued by injuries this season but has started the last three games for Hodgson’s side, and his manager was delighted with the impact he had on the game.

“It was a marvellous strike and he deserves a lot of credit,” Hodgson told reporters.

“He’s had a long period of time out and every time he’s looked like getting back in the team he’s had to drop out again.

“I think it was a flying week for him, and he settles the game for us. We’re delighted with that and we’re delighted with him.”

The victory takes West Brom past the 40-point mark and Hodgson spoke of his delight after the club all but secured their top-flight status for another season.

“It’s been a long hard season,” Hodgson said.

“We’ve lost a lot of quality players on the way so a lot of people have been thrown in to the breach but still we’ve got over the line with some margin of comfort.

“Forty-two points from 34 games is a good achievement in my opinion. I’m delighted with them.”

For QPR counterpart Mark Hughes the match marked another away defeat, the London side’s 12th of the season.

After a midweek victory over Swansea, the QPR boss spoke of his disappointment at not getting something out of the game.

“(Away from home) you need to do the fundamentals well,” Hughes said.

“You need disappoint the home crowd and the team itself but today we gave them too much encouragement and as a consequence they quite enjoyed themselves.

“It’s a marked contrast to how we played on Wednesday, we hit good levels but we can’t be consistent over a longer period, that’s something we’ll have to address.”