QPR 1 Millwall 0: Great Dane Nygaard puts bite back in Rangers

Crowd violence mars flying start for Loftus Road's caretaker manager Waddock

Who needs John Gregory? QPR did just fine without him in Gary Waddock's first match in charge as caretaker manager.

Gregory is favourite to succeed the suspended Ian Holloway on a permanent basis but he could have a rival in Waddock. A scrappy winner from the Danish target man Marc Nygaard ended a run of three defeats in succession to give Waddock the perfect start after his promotion from reserve-team duties.

The 43-year-old is QPR through and through, having spent eight years as a player in west London and he might just turn out to be a popular choice after promising to bring back free-flowing football.

Nygaard's winner was anything but, however, coming as it did after the Millwall goalkeeper Andy Marshall could only parry his thunderous header from a simple right-wing cross by Gareth Ainsworth.

Marshall was still lying prone when Nygaard followed up to score his fifth goal of the campaign with a close-range volley on 55 minutes. But Waddock will not worry about that. "It was a great start," he said. "The manner of the win and the way we played was encouraging for the future. We opened them up and had opportunities.

"I played as a schoolboy here, then in the youth team and the reserves before I made it into the first team. I've coached the youths, the reserves and the first team.

"To be caretaker manager of this club, which is in my heart, how can you describe that?" He added: "I've got no idea whether John Gregory's been offered the job. But the chairman has said I'm here until the end of the season. I'll take it as it comes."

For Millwall, it was a dreadful afternoon. Not only did they fail to muster a single decent shot on target, but they had their midfielder Alan Dunne dismissed for two bookings in five mad minutes late on, first fouling and then elbowing Steve Lomas, and their fans traded missiles with the home supporters before riot police restored order.

The Millwall manager, David Tuttle, admitted: "The boys think they're getting relegated. When you're in the bottom three for so long you're going to be low on confidence. We need that spark to get us going but it's not happening at the moment. We were poor."