James Folkes bagged a hat-trick as QPR Under-18s produced a five-star show to clinically dispose of Yeovil Town on Saturday.

Rangers' hopes of qualifying for the next stage of the Puma Youth Alliance League Cup were already dead, but nevertheless, gaffer Joe Gallen was keen for his side to impress against the side that kicked off the day lying joint bottom of the group.

And that's exactly what they did, producing a performance of guile and class to run out worthy winners at Harlington.

The R's started brightly with Matt O'Connell and Folkes causing the Yeovil defence constant problems with their pace and piercing runs.

Amazingly though, it was the team from the West Country who took the lead on 28 minutes, when a quickly taken free-kick caught the Rangers defence off guard, to leave Liam O'Brien with no chance.

Folkes could have equalised less than 90 seconds later, but somehow he failed to connect properly with Karl Yelland's cross and the ball was scrambled to safety.

The goal Rangers' impressive display deserved arrived five minutes before half-time, albeit courtesy of the most unlikeliest of goalscorers, Billy Coyne.

Billy Coyne

The defender picked up a clearance on the edge of the Yeovil box and fired an unstoppable shot into the far corner of the goal.

Instructed by Gallen to take the game by the scruff of the neck at the start of the second half, Rangers eventually took the lead midway through the half.

Folkes was in the right place at the right time to convert O'Connell's low cross, before the pair combined again two minutes later, with O'Connell making it 3-1.

Buoyed by his role in goals number two and three, Folkes took the remainder of the game to Yeovil almost single-handedly, scoring two fantastic individual goals to seal the rout.

Matt O'Connell

"Hopefully we can gain confidence from this result and take it forward,''Gallen told www.qpr.co.uk.

"We've been threatening to score goals for weeks now and this scoreline was coming.

"I must congratulate James as he has worked his socks off all year and yet before Saturday he hadn't scored. It must have been getting to him, and I could see how relieved he was when his first goal went in, and then he couldn't stop scoring!''