Beale ‘disappointed’ for Dozzell but ‘had to shake things up’

Mick Beale felt sympathy for Andre Dozzell after taking him off at half-time during QPR’s goalless draw with Stoke.

With his team struggling to create chances, boss Beale made an attacking change by replacing the midfielder with striker Lyndon Dykes.

Beale said: “I’m disappointed for Andre. I had to make a call at half-time. He won’t thank me for it, because it’s never nice to come off at half-time.

“But we had to shake things up. The game wasn’t going how we wanted. I was honest with the players and told them I was bored in the first half.

“If I was bored then everyone in the stadium was bored and that’s not how we want to play, so (I said): ‘Any chance of taking the handbrake off and have a right go at this and Lyndon can you go and put yourself about and we’ll run harder and ask more questions of Stoke?’.

“I thought we did that in the second half and the thing that was missing was the goal. We got in the right areas, we just couldn’t score.”

Rangers go into the international break sixth in the Championship table – a decent start to the former Aston Villa and Glasgow Rangers assistant boss’ first job in management.

“I’m very comfortable in the job. It’s a transition I wanted to make,” Beale said.

“You’re really starting to see what I want. But there are baby steps with it.

“We’ve got 15 points from 10 games. We’re probably around the target we need to be at.”