Steve McClaren revealed after QPR’s goalless draw with Reading that he scrapped plans to bring on substitutes because his team improved as the second half wore on.
Rangers manager McClaren was minded to make significant changes after a poor first-half performance by his team.
He delayed doing so – and continued to as Rangers got stronger as the game wore on.
“After the first half I was thinking very much of making two or three changes at half-time,” explained McClaren, who did not make a substitution until the 90th minute.
“But I thought I’d give them 10 minutes and to be fair we gained a bit of momentum.
“We were still looking to bring at least two on, but we got momentum and kept going.
“I wanted to make the change, or was aware of (the possible need to) but the team did so well.”
McClaren admitted QPR initially struggled in the absence of Massimo Luongo.
Already without injured midfielder Geoff Cameron, McClaren might be without Luongo for as many as seven matches because of his involvement for Australia in the Asian Cup.
Jordan Cousins replaced him alongside Josh Scowen in midfield and Rangers looked disjointed in the first half an hour.
McClaren said: “It was a game of two halves. They dominated the first half and it took us a while, with Luongo going out, to adjust with Jordan and Josh in there.
“We couldn’t quite get the press on Reading and they had too much possession, but we sorted that out at half-time and I thought in the second half we were excellent.
“I thought in the second half Josh and Jordan were very good and were instrumental in us just getting a bit of front foot – a bit of pressure on Reading.
“Once we did that and got about them we created chances. We’re disappointed and frustrated that we didn’t win the game, because in the second half we certainly had the best chances.”
Rangers were unable to secure a fourth consecutive win despite a rousing finish – and a decent shout for a penalty shout after Nahki Wells went down under a challenge from Andrew Rinomhota.
But they have kept three successive clean sheets, remain eighth in the Championship table, and McClaren is more than happy with their progress.
“I don’t think many teams win games on the bounce. In the Championship it’s so hard,” he said.
“That’s our third game in seven days and I thought in the second half we were strong. I’m delighted about that.
“It was also another clean sheet. We were keeping clean sheets before, stopped doing that and needed to get back to doing it.”
This post was last modified on 29/12/2018
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It's a worrying situation that we have a very limited squad & we rely heavily on loan players. Now without mas we lost shape. We have massive restrictions on us in the up coming window with little chance of adding to our squad. We must try to avoid bookings as the suspensions could cripple us