Middlesbrough made it four wins from four under new head coach Kim Hellberg as they cruised past Queens Park Rangers in the Championship.

Boro dominated from the start and were two up by the break thanks to David Strelec and a sixth goal in six games from Morgan Whittaker.

A penalty from Tommy Conway - his first goal since August - wrapped things up five minutes into the second half.

The victory keeps them within five points of leaders Coventry City, but they extended the gap to third place to seven points.

Nicolas Madsen pulled one back for QPR from the penalty spot in what was only a second loss in six games for the Hoops, who dropped down to ninth.

A few weeks ago, few on Teesside would have known who Hellberg was, but the man who guided Hammarby to successive runners-up finishes in Sweden's Allsvenskan, is making a great impression at his new club.

After three fine wins, his side showed plenty of confidence against a QPR side that had travelled north on the back of four wins in five.

Only a crucial last-ditch block from Amadou Mbengue and saves from Paul Nardi prevented them from scoring before they did.

But the breakthrough came when Hayden Hackney's pass sent Strelec through and the Slovakia forward finished well to make it goals in consecutive appearances after he netted in the win over Hull City.

That run is nothing compared to Whittaker, who has eight in 12 matches, having gone 26 games without one at the start of his Boro career.

This one owed a lot to goalkeeper Sol Brynn, who launched a pinpoint kick upfield after claiming a catch allowing Whittaker to cut in on his left and curled a shot beyond Nardi.

The moment Boro wanted, though, arrived early in the second half after Callum Brittain was brought down by Koki Saito.

Conway had gone 16 matches since his last goal and had one disallowed for offside in the first half, but he took responsibility from the spot to get back on the scoresheet.

The only blot of the afternoon came when Brittain fouled Paul Smyth and Madsen reduced the deficit from 12 yards out, but with Millwall losing, Hellberg and Boro have opened up a very useful cushion in the automatic promotion spots.

Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees:

"I'm just glad to give back a little bit. I was well received here and everyone has been excellent to me, everyone in the club and everyone around the club, including the supporters, so it's fun to get some wins and to give back.

"The first half was unbelievable. There was a lot of feelings like, wow, my players are so good.

"It is difficult to keep up the quality for 90 minutes but they did amazing in the first half - it really was top level.

On what stood out in the performance: "The players' energy, their quality on the ball, and their determination to win it back - that's a good way of stopping Queens Park [Rangers] from a lot of counter-attacks."

QPR boss Julien Stephan told BBC Radio London:

"We have to be honest and say that is probably the best team we have faced since the start of the season.

"Especially in the first 60 minutes, they played technically, collectively, physically very, very well and they were stronger than us - I think they deserved the win and it was a logical result.

"We scored one goal and we had more opportunities to score another one but in the end they [Middlesbrough] deserved their win.

"We will play against them again in March at home and let's see in the next three months if we are able to improve in order to compete because we know they will be playing for promotion. It was difficult for us today."