NPower Championship: QPR face anxious wait after earning top flight promotion

QPR have done enough to secure promotion to the Barclays Premier League on the pitch - and now they are hoping for a result off it.

Goals from Adel Taarabt and Tommy Smith secured victory at Watford, meaning they cannot be caught by third-placed Cardiff and should have booked their place in the top flight as well as clinching the npower Championship title.

Neil Warnock and his coaching staff all embraced on the touchline, but the celebrations will be slightly muted with the club now nervously awaiting the outcome of next week's FA hearing into the transfer of Argentine midfielder Alejandro Faurlin.

Their fans shrugged off fears of a points deduction and hailed their side as 'champions', but Watford's fans responded by warning them 'you're gonna lose in the play-offs'. The wheels fell off Rangers' promotion push at Vicarage Road last season courtesy of a 3-1 defeat and a dressing-room bust-up which led to the departure of Jim Magilton as manager. And their cause was not helped this time around when goalkeeper Paddy Kenny was injured in the warm-up, while Fitz Hall's hamstring lasted only 20 minutes longer.

However, the goal Rangers had been threatening all afternoon finally came in the 76th minute when Smith charged down the left and crossed for Taarabt to sidefoot past Loach at the near post.

It was a fitting strike as Taarabt's goals, tricks - and tantrums - have illuminated Rangers' promotion push.

Smith ran through and tucked in the second in stoppage time to spark wild scenes in the away end, and Warnock and Co will now wait and see if the celebrations are premature.