After four clean sheets in eight, Lumley’s form highlights QPR’s defensive improvements

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The 23-year-old has enjoyed a strong start as QPR’s no.1 after replacing Matt Ingram

Queens Park Rangers start to the 2018/19 Championship campaign saw the west Londoners ship an alarming 13 goals in just four games, with new boss Steve McClaren overseeing QPR’s worst ever start to a season.

Four straight defeats meant the R’s were rooted to the bottom of the table but most noticeably, were defensively woeful. Joe Lumley was installed as QPR’s no.1 and has repaid the faith shown in him with a number of top performances.

Lumley has played the last eight league games and has kept a clean sheet in four of those games, pretty contrasting stats to how Rangers started the season with Matt Ingram in between the sticks.

Ingram has plenty of potential but unfortunately, a series of mistakes and an eventual drop in morale has seen the former Wycombe Wanderers man lose his place to the impressive Lumley.

The back four themselves have also shown large improvements since McClaren reshuffled his pack. Angel Rangel has come in and performed well and Toni Leistner, Joel Lynch and full-back Jack Bidwell have all gained a better understanding of each others game.

Rangers still find themselves in the lower reaches of the table but the ever-improving Lumley is starting to become a key member of the squad and rightfully so. The former Blackpool loanee is likely to win points on his own and that’ll prove huge for QPR.

So far, Lumley has shipped just six goals in 720 minutes of Championship football and he’ll be full of confidence going into the next batch of games. Credit is due to Lumley and the rest of the squad for how Rangers have tightened up at the back and given themselves more of a chance.

A trip to Portman Road awaits Lumley and co. next Saturday but until then, Rangers will be looking to carry through their strong defensive work. After Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa are the visitors to Loftus Road whereby Lumley can really test himself.