Chris Ramsey felt Leroy Fer’s stunning winner against Newcastle underlined how badly QPR missed the Dutchman while he was sidelined.
Fer was in excellent form when he suffered a knee injury soon after Ramsey was placed in charge following the departure of Harry Redknapp.
His absence for more than two months was a major setback for Rangers, whose relegation back to the Championship was confirmed when they were thrashed 6-0 at Manchester City last weekend.
“He’s been a massive miss for us,” admitted Ramsey, who is close to being confirmed as manager for next season.
“When you look back, you don’t want to make excuses but Leroy was a major part of our win at Sunderland and that night he got a bad injury.
“Another player who was a massive loss for us, as you saw today, is Richard Dunne. We have missed some important characters this season.”
Rangers at least rounded off a miserable campaign at Loftus Road by winning their final home match of the season.
Their 2-1 victory over the Magpies was secured by Fer’s 25-yard strike after Matty Phillips had equalised with a far-post header.
Ramsey said: “I’m really pleased, because we’ve had a lot of good support.
“The fans have been very loyal and unfortunately last week we didn’t perform in a way which befits a club of this stature.
“But today, after we gave away another sloppy goal, the players came back in the second half and really put it in for the fans and the owners.
“It was really important to show the fans that next season we will be looking to redress the situation and make sure the club is on an even keel and that we’ll be doing our best to get back to this division.
“We didn’t want to go away from here after being relegated with an even worse taste in our mouths.
“We wanted people going away thinking positive things this summer about what’s going to happen.”
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This post was last modified on 17/05/2015