Sunderland will head into the Sky Bet Championship play-offs without a win in six matches after losing 1-0 to managerless QPR at the Stadium of Light.
The Black Cats failed to recover from Nicolas Madsen’s calm finish in the fifth minute and that resulted in a fifth straight defeat for Regis Le Bris’ side.
Sunderland had already secured fourth spot before this match, and a dramatic final day’s action in the Championship means they will face Coventry in the play-off semi-finals.
QPR, despite surprisingly placing head coach Marti Cifuentes on garden leave this week, displayed why they have climbed away from relegation trouble this season under interim bosses Kevin Betsy and Xavi Calm.
After securing the early lead, the Hoops created a couple of other openings but defended well to claim maximum points and finish seven points clear of the drop zone in 15th.
Now Sunderland must find a way to recover from this end of season slump before playing the first leg at Coventry on Friday, May 9.
For a game where the result had little riding on it at the Stadium of Light, there was plenty for fans to talk about following Cifuentes’ exit and Sunderland’s poor run of form.
The hosts would have been desperate to end their losing steak but soon found themselves trailing when Harrison Ashby found himself in space to cross down the left.
His ball into the area was controlled by Madsen before he picked his spot to the left of goalkeeper Anthony Patterson to put QPR a goal up.
After that Sunderland had possession for the rest of the half without finding a breakthrough. The only real chance that was created was a Eliezer Mayenda flick from Enzo Le Fee’s delivery, but the QPR goal remained unbreached.
And, despite allowing Sunderland to have more of the ball, QPR should have done better with another chance midway through the half.
Jonathan Varane had managed to break in behind the Sunderland defence but from a tight angle he dragged an effort across the six-yard box rather than test Patterson.
Other than those there was very little to concern either goalkeeper before the half-time whistle.
Sunderland were quick out of the blocks after the restart and should have tested Joe Walsh when unmarked Patrick Roberts’ downward header from Le Fee’s cross bounced off target.
But QPR kept plugging away too and could have had a second when Jimmy Dunne, who spent time on loan on Wearside, headed wide from a free-kick with the hour approaching.
The home fans’ frustrations grew as the second half wore on and that was heightened by a few decisions from referee Anthony Backhouse that went QPR’s way.
Sunderland substitute Dan Ballard had a header saved by Walsh in the closing stages, otherwise QPR stood tall to see the game out and end the season with a win.
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