Despite QPR missing the opportunity to go top of the Championship with a disappointing defeat at Birmingham, the Hoops had arguably already enjoyed their biggest result of the week.
The news that head coach Mick Beale had turned down Wolves’ advances to replace Bruno Lage as their new manager would have meant a huge collective sigh of relief reverberated around W12.
Had the 42-year-old been enticed away just over four months since taking charge, it would have signaled another false dawn for the club and an abrupt end to a project that had already shown signs of fruition.
With Beale at the helm, QPR have a real chance to return to the top-flight for the first time in eight years in contrast to a struggling Wolves side devoid of ideas and one of the Premier League relegation frontrunners.
Beale’s decision to stay proves the grass is not always greener on the other side as there is a genuine excitement around a side that is sitting third in the Championship table with a game in hand on the two teams above.
Relationships are being built, both on and off the pitch with Beale calling it a “huge compliment” that fans had put their trust in him to move the club forward, saying: “A lot of QPR fans were probably waiting to see how the team came together.
“It’s still early days but at the moment, they’ve been fantastic and they are really playing their part so far this season.”
Under Beale, QPR are looking much more threatening and clinical while there is undoubtedly a greater resilience in the side than perhaps in previous years.
In the past, QPR’s form has been patchy – going on long winless runs like last season when they lost six of seven games from February to April that ultimately put them well out of reach of the Play-Offs.
However, Beale has brought a new-found bounce back that has seen the side go unbeaten immediately after a defeat, demonstrating an ability to put a loss behind them and move onwards and upwards.
After the loss to Luton, Beale summed it up perfectly: “There’s two things you can do – you can make a mountain out of a molehill or put it in perspective of where we are as a young team.
“Then you have to go and put it right and overcome that little blip because in this league, there’s danger lurking around every corner!”
With just four more games to go before the season pauses for the World Cup, QPR fans can feel cautiously optimistic about where they are while also remembering the side were sitting sixth at the same point last season, only to fall apart later down the line.
Greater squad depth could help avoid a similar situation this time around with Beale already doing a fantastic job in recruiting talent either on free transfers or loans while getting the best out of existing talent Lyndon Dykes and rising star Sinclair Armstrong.
Having already seemingly transformed the Hoops’ fortunes in such a short period of time, there is no doubt Mick Beale deserves a place in the Premier League and achieving it on his own merit at QPR is something that is more than achievable.