Shashoua on QPR win: 'Third goal was a psychological blow'

Samuel Shashoua pointed to our third goal just after half-time as the key moment in our youngsters’ FA Youth Cup victory at Queens Park Rangers.

We had full control of the first period at Loftus Road on Tuesday night thanks to strikes from Jack Roles and Reo Griffiths, only to concede to Kingsley Eshun after sloppily losing possession just before the interval.

However, we snapped back into action on the resumption and Samuel, who caused all manner of problems for Rangers with the ball at his feet on the night, set up Roles to restore our two-goal lead just 23 seconds into the second period.

From there we saw the game out comfortably with George Marsh completing a 4-1 win to book a fifth round clash with Norwich City.

Assessing the performance, 17-year-old attacking midfielder Samuel said: “I thought we did well as a group. It was testing at half-time with the 2-1 scoreline but we did well to come out and score an early goal in the second half.

“I think that was a big psychological blow, it almost killed them off and any chances of a comeback after that looked slim so it was good from us.

“QPR made it more difficult in the second half and we almost played more into their hands which we could have done better with, but I think we got through the scrappy parts and in the end, played some good football.

“Personally I was quite pleased with how it went but I think I need to score in these sorts of games and create more chances, so there’s a lot to improve on.”