Cifuentes insists QPR are making progress

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Marti Cifuentes admitted frustration at QPR’s inability to score against 10-man Sunderland – but insisted there were signs of progress.

Rangers drew 0-0 with the Championship leaders, who had Jobe Bellingham sent off early in the second half.

“That (frustration) was the mood in the dressing room,” said R’s head coach Cifuentes. “But, at the same time, I told the guys that in the situation we are it’s very easy to look just at the negatives and my job is to keep balance.

“The performance in the first 60 minutes was hopefully giving us the direction to achieve the three points and then after the red card perhaps it seems easy, but I knew that then the game would be totally different.

“You know how it is; sometimes you just find a way to manage (with 10 men) for the final 30 minutes and survive.”

Second-from-bottom Rangers are still without a home win this season.

Already without a number of players, they suffered another setback when key defender Jake Clarke-Salter was ruled out because of a recurring calf problem – and when full-back Harrison Ashby went off injured shortly before half-time.

But a second successive goalless draw against one of the division’s heavyweights – they held Burnley in their previous match – seems like another step in the right direction.

Cifuentes said: “I see my team playing with big personality and despite some setbacks, trying to be strong and focus on what we can control, which is our performances.

“We contained a team like Sunderland to almost no chances. There are a lot of positives and my job is to make sure that we reflect on that.

“No excuses – keep on working until it works. I’m aware we’re not here to draw games, we’re here to win, but the better we play the more chances we’re going to have to win and this performance is a step in the right direction.

“We’re missing the victories, I’m aware of that, but look at the progress and trust in what we are doing.

“We need to do better, but I see progress in the team that hopefully will give us the results that we’re chasing. I think this team is progressing.”

Cifuentes also backed striker Zan Celar, who has not scored since his arrival in west London.

Celar missed a great chance early on after being set up by Paul Smyth and later sent a shot wide, but some of his link-up play was decent.

“He’s working to get to the level he knows he can get to,” said Cifuentes.

“He’s working to adapt to a completely different league, a different way of playing, and I think that today he took some steps in the right direction compared to the last few games.

“We’re going to keep supporting him. I need to help him. I need to make sure that we give him the right scenarios to show his qualities.

“He got in a shot that was very close to being a goal and then probably the question would not be about the situation that he missed but how good and important the goal he scored was.

“We just need to make sure that as a team we improve and help him to get the scoring chances that we know he can convert.”