QPR 0 ALBION 1

In the land where Fabian Huerzeler was born, sports coaches often talk about offence coming out of defence.

They spell the key words with an ‘s’ rather than a ‘c’ and, when they say them, put the emphasis on the first syllables, which actually makes the line sound a bit better.

But it is a theory you hear often, especially in basketball.

Texas-born Huerzeler is a cosmopolitan character and will be well aware of this piece of sporting wisdom.

It essentially explains how they scored the goal at Loftus Road which went with the desired clean sheet and secured another pre-season win.

Yankuba Minteh went full-court press as QPR passed the ball about at the back.

The pay-off came when he nicked possession off Jake Clarke-Salter and made tracks into the penalty area.

Jack Colback brought him down and Danny Welbeck calmly sent goalkeeper Paul Nardi the wrong way from the resulting spot kick eight minutes into the second half .

It was a goal born from defence from the very front.

Huerzeler was generally pleased with this latest pre-season exercise and said: “We worked very well against the ball.

“There was not a clear chance for our opponent and that was our goal for this game.

“That we worked together, that we worked out of a compactness, that we have clear press signals.

“That we defend to score.

“I think out of the compactness we had some chances and with the ball there were some good things, bad things.”

Huerzeler’s main pluses from the afternoon in West London included the clean sheet, something they had not achieved in their two high-scoring wins in Tokyo.

A couple of balls flashed across the face of their goal but the shut-out was never really in jeopardy.

Where Albion had scope for improvement was in taking chances – or creating more from situations they had worked in the final third.

Huerzeler said: “I would never judge players if they miss a chance.

“I think they want to score so I would never say to them, ‘You must score’.

“I think we are creating chances, that is the positive thing.

“In the end I would be happy of course if we scored more goals but we try to help the players, to give them advice on how to behave in the box.

“We have to give them advice maybe that they have more time in the box than they think.

“It’s not ‘we have to score’ because I think then you put pressure on the players, you won’t get better.”

There were certainly moments when Albion should have netted in open play.

In the first half, Nardi pushed away shots from Jeremy Sarmiento and Kaoru Mitoma and grabbed a deflection off ex-Albion defender Steve Cook after Minteh had cleverly released the over-lapping Joel Veltman.

Sarmiento miscued when poor play at the back by QPR and harrying from Minteh presented a chance.

In the second half, Nardi made a sharp save from Ayari and was fortunate not to be dispossessed right in front of goal by substitute Mark O’Mahony.

Amario Cozier-Duberry thrashed a shot wide of the near post after a sublime first touch to bring down a towering crossfield pass.

But arguably Albion’s best moment in open play came very early on when Ayari sent Minteh through the middle.

He managed to clip the ball over the dive of Nardi, who might have got something on it, before Clarke-Salter got back to hook the ball off the line.

That meant Minteh, who one fancied to convert as he bore down on goal, did not score for a third successive game.

But he was to be matchwinner in a different way as the Seagulls showed defence can be a great form of attack.

Albion: Steele; Veltman, Webster (Samuels 74), van Hecke (Weir 74), Baleba (Hinshelwood 62); Minteh (Cozier-Duberry 74), Milner (Wieffer 62), Ayari (Moran 74), Mitoma (Osman 62); Sarmiento (Buonanotte 74), Welbeck (O’Mahony 74). Unused subs: Rushworth, Yalcouye, Peupion.