McClaren: QPR chased the game too soon

Steve McClaren said QPR chased an equaliser too soon after going behind in the defeat at Brentford.

Rangers were beaten 3-0 at Griffin Park, where all the goals came in the second half.

And McClaren felt his side were guilty of losing their composure after going behind to Neal Maupay’s penalty shortly after the interval.

The Rangers manager said: “I said at half-time I was delighted in terms of our attitude and defending well. I said ‘0-0 at half time; perfect’.

“We just needed to be better on the ball – the only thing that disappointed me in the first half was that we gave the ball away too much.

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“I said that if we could do that better, we’d create. We didn’t. We conceded after two or three minutes and the first goal is always important.

“I was disappointed from then on. We chased the game too much. There was no real leadership on the field to say ‘we’ve still got 40 minutes to go’.

“We chased the game too early and you’re always going to get punished against a very good Brentford team.

“It was just a case of keep doing the job – no panic, just a case of ‘OK, still 40 minutes to go’. Just keep doing the same things.”

The defeat was Rangers’ eighth in their past nine league matches and came four days after they ended a seven-match losing run by beating promotion-chasing Leeds.

“The football we played wasn’t good enough, especially in the second half,” McClaren admitted.