A sloppy start resulted in no real chances until the 11th minute when Darel Russell released Ade Akinbiyi, but despite holding off his marker, the striker's shot was well saved by Chris Day.
Shots were not easy to come by as the game tightened up but Marc Bircham managed to squeeze one in after darting inside from the left and having his effort deflected narrowly over in the 21st minute.
After having a penalty shout turned down came the incident that changed the face of the match.
After fouling Bircham in the 37th minute, Gerry Taggart raised his arm towards the QPR man causing him to dramatically drop to the ground and earn the defender an early bath.
The 10-man Potters then proceeded to batter the away goal early in the second half but more quality goalkeeping from Day turned down any chance of the deadlock being broken.
Kevin Gallen finally gave QPR the lead in the 69th minute when, after being given time and space on the edge of the box, he finished accurately into Ed de Goey's bottom right-hand corner.
The substitution of Bircham 10 minutes later proved the only other talking point with Akinbiyi and the crowd both angrily expressing their opinions of the earlier incident.