QUEENS Park Rangers manager Marti Cifuentes insisted the weekend’s 2-0 defeat against Middlesbrough at Loftus Road that ended the home side’s four-match unbeaten run was not a “reality check”.
Emmanuel Latte Lath and Marcus Forss scored in the second half for Michael Carrick’s side.
QPR are one point above the relegation zone.
Cifuentes was in no doubt about his side’s troubles despite their recent good form.
“Trust me, I don’t need a defeat to have a reality check,” Cifuentes said. “It’s a really difficult situation. I’m convinced that we’re going to manage to reach the target, but if anyone thought it was easy they were making a big mistake.
“I’m not a magician. I’m here to help. But to expect we’re going to win every game is delusional. It’s going to be tough. We have a sad feeling because it’s true that we had big expectations about this game and we didn’t perform, not even close to the last game.
“We had a very demanding game on Wednesday [in the 2-2 draw against West Brom], emotionally and physically, and Middlesbrough played 60 minutes against ten men against Norwich, so perhaps that’s one of the reasons they looked more energetic in the second half.
“It’s very demanding when you have three games in just a few days and especially when you have Leicester away and West Brom.”
Cifuentes added: “We were also frustrated on Wednesday, taking only one point, but that shows the mentality of the team.
“I am very sad because I think we started a very demanding week for us with two very good performances and playing a very good way.
“The feeling was that we could continue that and build on the four points that we collected but it is a difficult league and all the teams are dangerous.
“The battle at the bottom is intense and isn’t going to be easy so if we want to achieve the great escape we need to make sure that we compete, which we did today perhaps better in the first half than we did in the second.
“We knew that at the end of a three-game week the team that scored first could take a big step forward in the game.
“You could see that we had a very demanding game on Wednesday, we were not as sharp as we were on Wednesday, for sure.
“The reality is it wasn’t easy against a very well-organised defensive unit, perhaps we were a bit spread out which allowed them to pick up second balls, we tried to make some changes which made some impact but in the end, it wasn’t enough.”
QPR travel to Sunderland on Saturday. Cifuentes said: “We must keep on pushing because I think that it won’t be until the end of the season that it is decided.”
