The hosts were unbeaten on home soil in the league in 2023 and that looked set to continue when, following a frantic start, Rob Dickie was judged by referee Dean Whitestone to have blocked Andy Lyons’ shot with his arm inside the area. Jerry Yates gleefully stepped up to score his first league goal since October by emphatically finding the top corner from the spot inside three minutes.
Blackpool were rampant and netted twice more in the next 11 minutes, courtesy of Lyons turning in a low CJ Hamilton cross and then Curtis Nelson pouncing on a Seny Dieng mistake to roll the ball into an empty net. With the Bloomfield Road faithful in dreamland, Jordan Thorniley netted a fourth before the interval when he got on the end of Charlie Patino’s corner to score his first career goal and put the result beyond doubt.
QPR had been completely blown away by an inspired Seasiders display, but they found a small crumb of comfort, ending Blackpool’s run of three consecutive clean sheets at home in the league right on the stroke of half-time when Lyndon Dykes put it on a plate for Chris Martin to head in his seventh goal against Blackpool in his last six appearances.
Faint hopes of a comeback were decimated when moments into the second half, another Patino corner was turned in; this time by Lyons who completed his brace with a free header. The Hoops’ dismal evening was capped off by conceding an embarrassing sixth, failing to clear the ball twice before Kenny Dougall fired home to round off a night for the ages at Bloomfield Road.
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