Two new bosses went head-to-head at Ewood Park today as Blackburn Rovers and QPR embarked on fresh eras - and it was Rovers manager Jon Dahl Tomasson who was left smiling thanks to a Lewis Travis screamer.
Tomasson and Michael Beale, his opposite number, were both getting their first taste of life as managers in English football and Travis made all the difference on an occasion that never fully sparked into life.
Beale has stepped up to the top spot after enjoying a brilliantly successful coaching career at the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Sao Paulo and more recently as one of Steven Gerrard’s right-hand men at Rangers and then Aston Villa.
After knocking back several earlier managerial chances, Beale could eventually resist the attraction of being the main man in the dugout no longer and has big hopes for a QPR set-up that looked like rock-solid promotion contenders last term before falling to bits after Christmas.
For Rovers, Tomasson replaced Tony Mowbray after he left the club at the end of last season and the former Denmark international wants his team to sparkle and entertain.
He has promised the Ewood faithful that Rovers will play an attacking brand of football as they also look to forget the way their own Premier League promotion dreams fizzled out towards the end of last season.
On a match played in the kind of wet and drizzly conditions that mocked the idea that the season starts in July this year, neither side got going early on and Tomasson’s side had certainly not read the memo relating to playing with flair.
It was tense and too close to call in the opening half an hour as little of note happened apart from a 20-yard drive from QPR’s Osman Kakay that clipped the top of Thomas Kaminski’s crossbar.
But the game woke up shortly after the half-hour mark when Travis curled home a fantastic shot from a full 30 yards out. With the pitch opening out in front of him, he chanced his arm and it paid off spectacularly as his effort beat Seny Dieng with room to spare.
Travis played for Beale in the Liverpool under-16s side but he showed his old boss precious little sentiment with a superb effort.
Straight after the break, QPR went close as Ilias Chair rifled into the side netting before Ben Brereton Diaz saw his close-range effort blocked by Dieng.
The pace of the contest picked up towards the end as Beale threw substitutions on in a bid to grab a point but the visitors lacked the class needed to make the difference.
Ben Brereton Diaz had a late goal chalked off for offside and Rovers held on for the win.
It was not pretty but Tomasson and his team will not worry about that for a moment while Beale will know that it may still only be July but getting QPR’s first three point cannot come soon enough.
Blackburn Rovers (4-2-3-1): Kaminski 6; Brittain 7, Ayala 6, Wharton 6, Pickering 7; Travis 8, Buckley 7; Gallagher 7, Hedges 6, Brereton Diaz 6; Vale 6 (Dolan 64, 6)
Unused subs: Pears, Edun, Markanday, Dack, Barnes, Wharton
QPR (4-3-2-1): Dieng 6; Kakay 7, Dickie, Clarke-Salter 6, Paal; Johansen 6 (Armstrong 77,6), Dozzell 6 (Thomas 64,6), Field 6, Chair 7 (Richards 77,6) , Shodipo 6 (Adomah 65, 6); Dykes 6 (Bonne 6, 77).
Unused subs: Walsh, Dunne