MARTI Cifuentes reckons there are two ways of looking at last night’s disappointing scoreless draw with 10-man Plymouth Argyle.
The Hoops went into the Loftus Road clash with their relegation rivals searching for a fourth straight win which would have taken them out of the drop zone.
Instead they struggled to cope with a hungry Plymouth side in the early stages and were fortunate on more than one occasion not to fall behind until the game defining moment happened on 25 minutes.
Ilias Chair was the victim of a reckless challenge just inside the Plymouth half from Dan Scarr, which resulted in a straight red card and left the Devon side up against it for the rest of the contest.
But credit where it is due, the 10-men battled and defended well throughout as QPR struggled to break them down.
Manager Cifuentes told the club’s YouTube channel: “I’m definitely disappointed because that was not the result we were looking for.
“I think we can look at it in two ways according to the poor first-half we had – especially really bad at the start of the game. We conceded chances.
“In some ways we could say that it was good to not go in at half-time behind.
“The other way to look at it is we played against 10-men for 60 minutes.
“We really pushed, we created some chances and during the second-half we really tried to play against a team – and fair play to Plymouth, they did really well defending the low block.
“We couldn’t find a way to really attack their last line or to create the clear chances.
“There were some situations but in that sense I’m not very happy about the final score because it was a scenario of surviving the first 20/25 minutes in the first-half.
“That is not a performance that I’m most proud of.”
It is not the first time QPR have had to play against 10-men at home in recent weeks following the 4-2 victory just over Stoke a fortnight ago.
They were unable to make their numerical advantage count last night and Cifuentes explained sometimes it actually makes things tougher once opponents lose a player.
The Hoops chief said: “It is one of the most difficult things in football, not just from today but from the whole history of the game.
“When a team sets up with that amount of players, actually they did really well because the way they were defending on the sides our crosses.
“It was not through their sides, it was through their second line.
“They really defended with a lot of players inside the box.
“It was difficult and perhaps today we missed this flow that we got in other games about this last touch, this last quality of some players just to do a little bit themselves some quality action.
“Today we missed it and that is why at the end we couldn’t score.”
It may not have been the outcome anybody at QPR particularly wanted, but Cifuentes pointed out the reaction from his squad is actually pleasing because it shows the progress made in recent weeks.
The manager said: “I want to value as well the attitude of the players today because actually they were very disappointed after the game and that shows the mentality is there.
“They know that today was a great chance to get a very important three points. They are as disappointed as we are all of us right now because it was an opportunity to really take a step in the table as well.
“I’ve been saying since I arrived it will not be all victories, it will not be all good days or good performances.
“We need to learn from this one and just try to be stronger for Saturday.”
