Ainsworth insists QPR ‘gave everything’ and will stay up

Gareth Ainsworth admitted QPR were no match for Watford after a terrible start to the season for his side – but insisted they will upset the odds and stay up. 

Rangers lost 4-0 at Vicarage Road, where all the goals came in the first half.

Ainsworth said: “Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say we weren’t good enough.

“The boys gave everything and that’s what everyone’s asked [for]. They did give everything.

“On the day, Watford were much better than us. I think they played really well.”

Rangers stayed up by six points under boss Ainsworth last season and are among the favourites to go down this term.

They certainly looked like relegation material in an embarrassingly one-sided first half in which they went behind after just 36 seconds.

But Ainsworth, who is expected to add to the squad in the coming few weeks, insisted they will avoid the drop.

He said: “We played a good side today. I don’t know where Watford are going to finish but I expect them to be up and around it.

“On the flip side, we know where we are. We’re favourites for relegation, favourites for bottom of the league.

“If we’d have been favourites for the play-offs or favourites for promotion I would have been really struggling and thinking ‘What the hell’s gone on today?’

“But we’re building where we build [from], and we have been for one or two seasons now – I think we were one of the favourites for relegation last season as well. We scraped it, and I tell you what: we’ll get out of it again, no problem.

“I think we can be better than we were last season, but it’s going to take a bit of time and a bit of patience and probably one or two more players coming through the door, which will happen.”