Mark Warburton insists QPR on right track despite defeat

QPR boss Mark Warburton told his players not to lose belief after their 2-1 defeat at home to Bristol City.

Warburton’s side made an excellent start to the season and were unbeaten prior to recent back-to-back losses.

Their former striker Nahki Wells scored a last-gasp winner for the Robins, who were on the back foot for most of the game.

Warburton said: “The message to the players is to not lose sight of the fact that we’re going in the right direction. We’re a very good team.

“We’ve got to go under the radar, keep playing our football and just be a bit more ruthless. You can see we’re a good team.

“We’re creating chances and scoring goals – our goal difference tells you that. We’re creating chances against good teams both home and away.”

Chris Martin put City ahead against the run of play a minute before half-time.

Sam McCallum equalised early in the second half and QPR had a host of chances as they pushed for a second goal.

They were then hit with a classic sucker punch, with City breaking forward in the final moments and Wells firing home.

“The stats tell you we dominated the second half,” Warburton said.

“We went in at half-time 1-0 down but I think everyone knew we were on the front foot and we were an attacking team. We had so much of the ball.

“We got the goal early in the second half. We then had so many chances and we’ve got to be more ruthless.

“It’s about goals. We’ve spoken so many times about that – we’ve got to be ruthless. But when we create that many chances we know we’re a good team.

“The fans can see it was chance after chance after chance. But it’s about putting the ball in the back of the net.

“I got the feeling that if we get the second goal we get three, four or five, because we had so many chances.

“They were hanging on for a point and I’m sure would have been happy with a point. Them going away with three is a bitter pill to swallow.”

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson praised his team for weathering the storm and taking the points with two clinical finishes.

“I’ve got to be honest, we came up against a very good side today,” Pearson said.

“I’m not kidding myself. QPR are a very good side. Mark went very positive with his selection against us today.

“It’s good to get three points and we’re moving in the right direction. What was most pleasing was the collective effort and the desire to get a positive result.

“We know it was a huge effort to come away with three points. Certain players will get the headlines but you need a strong collective effort to come out the other side with a positive result.

“But we weren’t lucky. They were two great finishes and the second one was a tremendous counter-attacking goal.

“When you get chances you have to take them and we did today – we were pretty ruthless.

“Today was a great example of Championship football at its best, with two sides trying to win it.”