Roy Keane was pleased with the reaction from his players to the Boxing Day defeat at Crystal Palace with a winning finish to 2009 against QPR.

A brace from Jon Stead and an early goal from Jon Walters gave Blues a 3-0 win against Rangers, with the Town boss saying: "To be fair to the players we had some important players missing at Palace and played with 10 men for an hour.

"I said I wanted a response today and we got one. We had some good chances on top of the goals we scored but then so did they in the first-half.

"The scoreline was probably harsh on QPR. They had a lot of possession, particularly in the first-half but in the end Steady could easily have had a hat-trick.

"I'm pleased for Steady. He took his goals well. I said to my strikers a few weeks ago that one of them needed to come out of the pack and score some goals and Steady has done that and hopefully he'll continue to do that."

Roy was pleased with Jaime Peters' display at left-back after deciding not to risk David Wright, who had five stitches in an ankle wound following the defeat at Selhurst Park.

"Wrighty wanted to play but the medical staff said it would be a risk and Jaime has played at full-back for us before and he did well," added Roy.