McClaren on ‘lucky’ Norwich goal, Rangel injury, being denied a penalty and waiting to make substitutions

QPR’s four-game unbeaten run came to an end against Norwich City on Saturday evening. Here’s what Rangers boss Steve McClaren had to say after the 1-0 defeat at Loftus Road. 

On whether it was a fair result

“No. No. It was very harsh. We didn’t deserve that. We deserved more. We didn’t deserve to lose.

“It was a typical third game in a week – you could see that. A lot of endeavour, lot of attitude – two very good teams I think.

“Norwich dominated the first half an hour and once we started to get on top of them and press them a little bit more we got hold of it, in the second half especially, and I could only see one winner.

“In these type of games you’ve got to have luck and you have to have quality and that little edge – and there wasn’t really any quality in the finishing in the final third.

“They got a lucky goal; a ricochet off Toni Leistner’s toe and straight on his (goalscorer Teemu Pukki’s) chest.”

On not being awarded a penalty

“We didn’t get the penalty we deserved at the end. It was an unbelievable challenge on Luongo – a blatant push when he’s about to pull the trigger. The cards didn’t fall our way.

“I said we’d take a minimum six points out of nine this week. We’ve got that but we should have had more.”

On Angel Rangel

“He has an injury. He has a groin strain, so we didn’t risk him.”

On Geoff Cameron

“Geoff Cameron would have played, but that was his first 90 minutes on Wednesday. It’s difficult to recover and Josh (Scowen) gave us good energy in there.”

On not bring on Matt Smith earlier

“I thought we were creating chances and doing OK. It was just that final ball or quality shot. We didn’t really test their keeper.”

On failing to score

“I thought it had 0-0 written all over it, or one goal, and they got it. We dust ourselves down and we need to go on another run now.

“Our defending and our organisation was terrific. Lynch and Leistner were excellent, the back four and the goalkeeper.

“But we’ve got to score. And we have enough quality in the team to score. But why we’ve lost is that we didn’t score. It’s simple.

“I could write the script before the game because it was one of them games; it’s 0-0 unless someone produces that bit of quality.

“I thought it would be us with the quality we have in the team. But we haven’t scored and that disappoints me.”