MARTI Cifuentes admitted striker Zan Celar “had some difficult days” before he spectacularly opened his Queens Park Rangers account with both goals in the 2-0 win at Cardiff City on Wednesday night.
Cifuentes said QPR were providing the Slovenia striker Celar with “love and support” after he missed a penalty in the 1-1 draw against Stoke City at the weekend.
Celar put the R’s in front with a brilliant strike in the 40th minute before he broke clear to chip over goalkeeper Jak Alnwick a minute into stoppage-time.
Cardiff had chances but were denied by goalkeeper Paul Nardi as QPR won just their second league game this season.
“He has had some difficult days after missing the penalty on Saturday, in a game that we didn’t win,” Cifuentes said. “Strikers live off confidence and scoring goals.
“He is still a young player who is playing in a new league and when you don’t score in your first months, it’s not easy.
“But he showed tonight that he’s a good player, hopefully those two goals are the first of many.”
Cifuentes added: “They have been working so hard and I thought it was a deserved win.
“Perhaps it wasn’t the best game of football, but football is about achieving and we achieved tonight.”
QPR are still in the relegation zone but closed the gap to the Bluebirds in 21st to two points.
“From a football perspective, I am probably more happy with the first half than the second,” Cifuentes said. “Cardiff attack really well, especially since their change in manager, they are playing with a lot of attackers in front of the goal.
“We were lower than I’d like in the second half – it was a very long one.
“But in the end we got our reward by using the space because of the risks they Cardiff were taking.
“It’s difficult. We’ve not been achieving what we want to achieve and when you are leading in that situation, you are probably more protective than you should be.
“But the guys continue to work really hard and we just need to keep improving.”
“We needed a win especially away after that period that we had,” Celar said. “I’m really happy I could hep the team with the two goals. We keep going like this.”
QPR travel to Watford on Saturday for a 12.30pm kick-off.
Cifuentes said: “We still need to improve and one win will not change that, but ever since I’ve been here we have shown that we are a family.
“The supporters have been excellent with us. We’ve had so many sell-outs and tonight, they were helping us along yet again.
“Hopefully we can build on this win now. No team in the world goes without its struggles and going twelve games without a win was hard.
“But what I know is that we’ve always competed, in some games better than others.
“As I said, we just need to keep on improving.”
