Blackburn boss Michael O'Neill saw his new side haul themselves out of the bottom three with victory away to QPR.

Northern Ireland manager O'Neill, who agreed a deal to succeed Valerien Ismael on Friday, was in the dugout at Loftus Road to see Rovers claim their first away win in almost three months.

Danish forward Mathias Jorgensen fired the visitors in front before Koki Saito slammed in the QPR equaliser.

But Jorgensen steered home his second to make it 2-1 and Ryoyo Morishita's header soon after half-time gave Blackburn what proved an unassailable lead.

Rangers made the early running, with Saito peeling away to collect a quickly-taken Nicolas Madsen free-kick and cross for Richard Kone, who was foiled by Balazs Toth at point-blank range.

But it was the visitors who struck first when the lively Morishita skipped away from Rhys Norrington-Davies on the right flank and his shrewd low delivery across the box was gobbled up by Jorgensen.

QPR levelled after a neat one-touch passing move as Isaac Hayden drove into the penalty area and found Saito, who turned his marker and drilled a thunderous finish into the roof of the net.

However, Rovers regained their advantage just minutes later after Saito was caught in possession by Sondre Tronstad, who swiftly played in Jorgensen to fire his second beyond Hoops goalkeeper Joe Walsh.

Tronstad was also the architect of Blackburn's third shortly after the break, dropping a cross from the right straight onto the head of the unmarked Morishita, who nodded home from close range.

The R's, who are four points outside the play-off spots in 13th, rarely looked like retrieving that deficit and, although Kone had an attempt deflected wide, it took them until stoppage time to seriously threaten Toth's goal again.

The Blackburn keeper clawed away Ronnie Edwards' glancing header from a free-kick, with the follow-up hacked off the line and, despite having to survive 11 minutes of added time, the visitors saw out the game.

The only downside for Rovers, who climb three places to 19th in the table, was the loss of half-time substitute Lewis Miller, stretchered off just minutes after his arrival on the pitch.

QPR head coach Julien Stephan said:

"I think we started the game well, in the first 20 to 25 minutes we showed some good movement and we had two or three good chances to score the first goal.

"It's a question of efficiency – Blackburn had two shots in the first half and scored two goals. It's unusual for us to concede three goals and it was too easy for the opponents to score these three goals.

"The players found the solution to equalise and it was a good goal, but when we conceded the third goal I think we dropped mentally and we played too many long balls, we didn't find the connections.

"Now it's question of how we are able to react and improve and make sure we don't drop like this mentally after we concede a goal."

"It was a great result for us – this is a difficult place to come. The work was done by (caretaker manager) Damien Johnson, he prepared the team and picked the team and did a fantastic job. The credit really lies with him.

"We got a great response from the players and I thought the level of performance merited three points. Our reaction to going level was good and the desire was the biggest thing.

"The front two have a lot in them. I thought the distance they covered, the way they played off each other was really good and they were also the first line of defence.

"It's a positive step but we have to make sure we take another positive step next week against Preston."