Gray nets QPR winner, but goes off injured

LONDON (CMC):

REGGAE BOY Andre Gray’s participation in Jamaica’s two World Cup qualifiers later this month was left in doubt, after the striker scored Queens Park Rangers’ (QPR) winner at Cardiff on Wednesday night, before an injury forced him off after 54 minutes.

Gray netted his third QPR goal of the season in the 37th minute as the Londoners moved back into the English Championship play-off spots with a deserved 1-0 win over a lacklustre Cardiff City in the Welsh capital.

Gray, 30, rifled home after Andre Dozzell’s pass split the Bluebirds’ defence.

QPR manager Mark Warburton said: “It’s a very pleasing win that. It is a proper Championship win because we had to grind out a result.

“We spoke about rapid passing before the game, and it was a great ball in from Andre Dozzell for the goal and a tremendous finish from Andre Gray.”

The win lifted QPR to fifth in the table, while managerless Cardiff, who are 21st, are just a point and a place above the relegation zone.

QPR forward Chris Willock, who is of Montserratian descent, missed the game because of unspecified personal reasons.

Gray, who was forced off after a knock early in the second half and replaced by Charlie Austin, was earlier named in Jamaica’s 24-member squad for their World Cup qualifiers away to El Salvador on November 12 and home to the United States four days later.

It was against the US that Gray made his Reggae Boyz debut in March – a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Americans in a friendly.

The Reggae Boyz, whose only appearance at the World Cup Finals came at France 1998, are sixth in the eight-team final round of Concacaf qualifying with five points from six matches.