Charlie Austin scored his first league goal for Queens Park Rangers as his side claimed a narrow victory over Birmingham City at Loftus Road in the Championship.

QPR started brightly and had a chance inside the first minute when Junior Hoilett latched onto Danny Simpson's cross, but he struck his shot over the bar.

Austin struck a low shot wide for the home side before Lee Novak met a cross from Andrew Shinnie but his header came back off the post.

Birmingham came close again in the 36th minute when Novak found Shinnie in plenty of space, but he could only fire his shot over, as the scores stayed level at the break.

Rangers took the lead four minutes into the second-half through Austin, who headed home from close range.

Kyle Bartley had a great opportunity to immediately equalise for Birmingham, but headed wide when unmarked from Shinnie's corner.

The visitors felt that they should have had a penalty when Jonathan Spector looked to have been caught by Richard Dunne when clean through on goal, but instead the referee felt that the American had dived.

Joey Barton nearly added a second for the home side in stoppage time, but his long-range free kick came back off the post.