Middlesbrough moved up to second in the Championship and ended QPR's unbeaten start to the season with a narrow victory in west London.

Will Lankshear grabbed his seventh goal since his summer move from Tottenham Hotspur in the 20th minute as Boro won on the road for the first time since a 4-0 success at this ground in March.

They missed chances to go further ahead with home goalkeeper Pierce Charles making crucial saves from Lankshear and Tommy Conway.

Without that, QPR grew in belief and were close to an equaliser when Harvey Vale struck the woodwork, while Radek Vitek made some good stops as the hosts slipped one place to third with this defeat after opening with three wins and a draw.

Lankshear's fifth goal in the Championship – making him the division's top scorer – came from an excellent low cross from right-back Callum Brittain that took out the defence and goalkeeper allowing the 21-year-old to score at the back post.

The striker could have had a second just before the interval but could not beat goalkeeper Charles.

QPR's hopes were not helped by losing two key attacking players to injury before half-time as first Ilias Chair and then Richard Kone had to go off.

But one of their replacements, Rumarn Burrell, almost brought the Hoops level only to be denied by a big save from Radek Vitek.

Goalscorer Lankshear was withdrawn as Boro tried to regain control and substitute Conway had a great opportunity to make the points safe, but Charles saved the one-on-one opportunity with his leg.

QPR pushed their opponents back and thought they had levelled only for Vale's effort to come back off the angle of post and bar as Boro defended for their lives.

In each of their last six away games in the Championship, the Teessiders had scored first and failed to win but they held on for a significance victory despite some late nerves.

QPR head coach Julien Stephan talking to BBC Radio London:

"We played a fantastic second half with a lot of intensity and a lot of quality collectively. We created enough chances to score a minimum one goal but the first half we were too much in between.

"I said at half-time, we needed to play with full energy and full intensity because when we do that, we can compete against all the teams in the league. That's what we showed in the second half.

"It's something we have to learn from this game, but I'm very proud of how the players played in the second half."

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees:

"At the end, the game showed every side of what we can do. The first 65 minutes was brilliant. We had four massive chances to kill the game off.

"You always have the worry when you don't score but we defended very good. Credit to the defenders. They created very few chances. They had some shots, but they mainly had one big chance.

"It was almost everything, it shows what this team is about. We showed there's a lot of character in this team.

"This team is going to get really better and this win is a big one."