Late winners have become a Queens Park Rangers trademark in recent weeks as their Premier League promotion push gathers real momentum.
On this occasion, despite plenty of perspiration, they just couldn’t find that moment of magic to break down stubborn Swansea.
Mark Warburton’s side didn’t quite do enough to clamber above Bournemouth and into third position in the Championship but extended their unbeaten run to a sixth game in all competitions.
They came closest when Luke Amos struck the woodwork in the second-half but hardly peppered the Swansea goal and there could be few complaints with the stalemate.
The Welsh side are 17th but have games in hand on almost everybody above them because of Covid postponements.
Russell Martin is clearly trying to get Swansea playing in an attractive fashion and you can’t rule them out of a late play-off surge if they can string some wins together.
They ended the contest with 10 men after Flynn Downes was shown a second yellow card for a skirmish with Charlie Austin in stoppage time.
A dreary first-half tested supporter dedication on a chilly January night. QPR tried to manoeuvre the ball into wide areas and Moses Odubajo saw plenty of it on the right flank without producing a decent cross.
Some of Swansea’s passing moves were neat and tidy but the killer pass so often evaded them when in the orbit of the Rangers box.
The first chance of note took 26 minutes to materialise and Chris Willock’s bobbler was light work for Swansea keeper Ben Hamer.
Willock did far better when permitted crossing space on the left a few minutes later. His whipped delivery was inch-perfect for Austin but the usually reliable marksman guided his header straight at Hamer from point-blank range.
Austin was relieved in the circumstances to see the offside flag go up but television replays showed the linesman was incorrect in his judgement. Not that it mattered as Austin couldn’t convert anyway.
Swansea started the second-half with intent and David Marshall was troubled for the first time to touch Joel Piroe’s shot around the post.
The game finally came to life and down the other end, Amos strolled through the Swansea defence on the right but saw his effort agonisingly come back off the inside of the far post.
Warburton threw on Albert Adomah and Lyndon Dykes in an effort to force a breakthrough and Hamer made a fine save to deny Dykes in the closing minutes.
And Swansea momentarily thought they’d snatched it when Michael Obafemi nipped in to slot home only to glance around and see the flag raised for offside.
There was still time for Swansea’s Flynn Downes to receive a second yellow card in stoppage time for an off the ball tangle with Austin.