QPR boss backs Austin’s call for positivity

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Mark Warburton has backed Charlie Austin’s calls for QPR fans to remain positive after the side slipped out of the top six ahead of Saturday’s derby clash against league leaders Fulham.

Rangers were booed off the pitch following an abysmal performance against relegation-haunted Peterborough before the international break in what was arguably the worst display by a Warburton team since his appointment in May 2019.


The 3-1 defeat after going ahead through Luke Amos’ first-half strike has made Rangers’ hopes of securing a play-off berth all the more difficult.

After the visit of free-scoring Fulham come three successive away trips, with visits to promotion-chasing Sheffield United and Huddersfield taking place either side of a clash at Preston, where QPR have won just once in 42 years.

This week Austin tweeted a passionate call for the fans to stick with the players and Warburton said his squad are desperate to silence the critics and prove they are still a side that should be in the promotion shake-up having spent most of the season ensconced in the play-off spots.

“Against Peterborough in the second half it was an unacceptable performance and we have a responsibility to the supporters, the club and ourselves and if we don’t do them there will be consequences,” Warburton said.

“The crowd pay their money and have the right to boo and everything else, but we need the crowd more than ever before.

“We have had a tough February and March and we have to recognise that is down to us with eight games left.

“But I have read some very derogatory and derisory comments about us. But we have to accept we let ourselves down particularly at Barnsley, Millwall and at home to Cardiff.

“But the players have worked tirelessly all season. We have been in the top six for 95 per cent of the season but now we have dipped out of it.

“People are writing us off, telling us we have the hardest run in with five away games coming up.

“But what this team have done has is shown they can go anywhere on the road and win. We have showed that last season and again this season.

“There is enough quality, confidence and desire in this squad to achieve those results.”

The FA’s release of intermediary fees paid to agents for transfers between February 2 2021 and January 30th 2022 this week placed Rangers in 16th spot in the Championship, with £925,000 spent.

Luton, with £565,000, are the only club in the top 10 to have forked out less, with Fulham topping the list having shelled out over £10m – and Warburton said it is proof his side are still holding their own against some clubs with greater resources available to them.

“The team is building, we were 13th and then ninth and have been top six all season,” he said.

“I think it came out we are 15th (out of 24) in this league in terms of budget, so the boys deserve credit for what they have done.

“They have been punching above their weight, but we did expect to do that because we had such a strong ’21 and first half to this season. We absolutely expected to be pushing hard.

“But there is no lack of recognition for the budgets of the teams around us. All credit to the likes of Luton and Huddersfield but there are some big, big budgets around us as well but all we can do is push on.

“Charlie’s points were very valid. He is very passionate and very vocal and he Stefan Johansen, Lee Wallace have been there and done it before – played in massive games and that experience will be vital to the younger players in the squad.

“Right now we have given ourselves and issue to deal with and the right way to solve it is to go out and play.”