GARETH Ainsworth was left to rue QPR’s sloppy start which ultimately led to another defeat at Huddersfield Town yesterday.
Fellow strugglers Huddersfield raced into a 2-0 lead inside 14 minutes thanks to strikes from Kian Harratt and Jack Rudoini.
Jake Clarke-Salter’s header halved the deficit shortly before the interval and there were big chances to rescue at least a point in the second half, notably when Clarke-Salter hit the woodwork and Sinclair Armstrong was unable to convert the rebound.
The result leaves the Hoops four points from safety and will inevitably pile more pressure on an under-fire Ainsworth going into Tuesday’s game at West Brom.
Asked by QPR’s YouTube channel why his side failed to fly out of the traps, the manager gave a frank response.
“I have no idea,” responded Ainsworth.
“After the reaction I wanted from the Blackburn game, after we’ve had two weeks training, why were we so slow to start the game?
“It has cost us the game because for 70 minutes we were the better team.
“We had the chances, we were the aggressors. It looked for all the world that we were going to score but you can’t give yourself a mountain like that to climb. You cannot do that.
“In that first 20 minutes we looked all over the place. We looked shocked. We were waiting for the other team to score against us.
“We have to be better at the back and it isn’t as if we haven’t worked on this, but I will have to pick the bones out of it.”
QPR are now without a victory since beating Middlesbrough 2-0 in early September, a run which has put Ainsworth’s position under the spotlight.
But the boss remains convinced he can turn the club’s fortunes around, ideally by avoiding any more repeats of what happened early on at Huddersfield and taking the positives from how they responded to going 2-0 down.
He said: “We’ve scored the first goal from a corner this season, we looked threatening from set pieces, we looked like we were the aggressors, we looked like we were going to get something and for all the world we ran out of a bit of steam.
“In the second half I’ve changed it and freshened it up again. It gave us some energy.
“We’ve had crosses flash across the penalty area.
“The problem is that their crosses fell to them or picked them up, our crosses don’t seem to fall to us at the moment.
“They don’t seem to be picking a man out and that’s the story.
“But again, I will work on it.”
Ainsworth added: “This is stuff to work on but we all knew it was going to be a tough season.
“We said that. Surprise, surprise – it is a tough season but we are so, so much better than we are showing at the moment. We are going to get out of this without a shadow of a doubt, I’m sure.
“When I see that second half, I’m saying why can’t we start the games like this? Why can’t we be in the games like the start like that?
“It’s on me, I’ll do it, again. But I have to say the boys gave everything, they did.
“They were shattered at the end of the game and I’m disappointed because we lost that game in the first 20 minutes.”
