Warburton declares ‘we’re a very good team’ after dramatic QPR loss

QPR boss Mark Warburton told his players not to lose belief after their 2-1 defeat at home to Bristol City.

Warburton’s side made an excellent start to the season and were unbeaten prior to recent back-to-back losses.

Their former striker Nahki Wells scored a last-gasp winner for the Robins, who were on the back foot for most of the game.

Warburton said: “The message to the players is to not lose sight of the fact that we’re going in the right direction. We’re a very good team.

“We’ve got to go under the radar, keep playing our football and just be a bit more ruthless. You can see we’re a good team.

“We’re creating chances and scoring goals – our goal difference tells you that. We’re creating chances against good teams both home and away.”

Chris Martin put City against the run of play a minute before half-time.

Sam McCallum equalised early in the second half and QPR had a host of chances as they pushed for a second goal.

They were then hit with a classic sucker punch, with City breaking forward in the final moments and Wells firing home.

“The stats tell you we dominated the second half,” Warburton said.

“We went in at half-time 1-0 down but I think everyone knew we were on the front and we were an attacking team. We had so much of the ball.

“We got the goal early in the second half. We then had so many chances and we’ve got to be more ruthless.

“It’s about goals. We’ve spoken so many times about that – we’ve got to be ruthless. But when we create that many chances we know we’re a good team.

“The fans can see it was chance after chance after chance. But it’s about putting the ball in the back of the net.

“I got the feeling that if we get the second goal we get three, four or five, because we had so many chances.

“They were hanging on for a point and I’m sure would have been happy with a point. Them going away with three is a bitter pill to swallow.”

Warburton said he opted to change formation because wanted Rangers to be on the front foot.

He switched to two up front, pairing Gray with Dykes in attack.

Asked about his decision and whether it perhaps left his team susceptible on the counter-attack, Warburton said: “It was to be on the front foot really, that was the idea.

“We thought that they would think that we’d play Dom (Ball) and Stefan.

“We wanted to be on the front foot, we wanted to be attacking, we wanted to create chances. I wanted to see Andre Gray up top with Lyndon as well to see how that worked.

“We were on the front foot and that was the idea, with the wing-backs getting forward and making sure we maintained our shape in behind.”

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson praised his team for weathering the storm and taking the points with two clinical finishes.

“I’ve got to be honest, we came up against a very good side today,” Pearson said.

“I’m not kidding myself. QPR are a very good side. Mark went very positive with his selection against us today.

“It’s good to get three points and we’re moving in the right direction. What was most pleasing was the collective effort and the desire to get a positive result.

“We know it was a huge effort to come away with three points. Certain players will get the headlines but you need a strong collective effort to come out the other side with a positive result.

“But we weren’t lucky. They were two great finishes and the second one was a tremendous counter-attacking goal.

“When you get chances you have to take them and we did today – we were pretty ruthless.”