Manager Mick McCarthy thought his side were on their way to a good point before debutant Tom Hitchcock’s last-minute winner for QPR at Loftus Road.

Asked whether he felt the goal had been on the way after the home side spurned a number of decent chances, most notably Charlie Austin crashing a shot against the bar when he seemed destined to score, McCarthy said: “Did I hell feel it was coming. We just didn’t do enough in that 90th minute.”

QPR assistant manager Kevin Bond spoke to the press before McCarthy and said that his club’s management thought it was going to be one of those days where a team does everything but score, but McCarthy thought it was a different story before the break.

“I’m sure he didn’t feel it was going to be one of those days when Robert Green pulled off that save from Murph in the first half and we were having chance after chance and it was an even game. Strange that, isn’t it?

“I thought it was going to be a really good point until we didn’t defend it in the last minute,” he said.

As at Reading the Blues played well but without having anything to show for it, but McCarthy wasn’t in the mood for taking positives from the display: “That’s for Monday morning, ‘Pleased with the performance’. We’ve been beaten, we’ve got diddly squat to show for it. Play well and getting beat isn’t my idea of fun.

“Second half, they were better than us, I thought we were even to them certainly in the first half. They’ve got some decent players, haven’t they?”

He added: “If you’re looking for yardsticks in terms of performances, both have been pretty good. But if we want to contest the top six, pretty good’s got to be good.

“We’ve got to have a point at Reading, we’ve got to have a point here. Then they can come up and talk about whatever they want.

“But I don’t think they should have beaten us, although I know we got away with one that hit the crossbar. But it was a good performance.”

He says the players were as frustrated as he was about the result: “Bitterly disappointed, as you’d expect them to be.

“I said to them to be a team that progresses and does better than being disappointed, it’s got to be 0-0, it’s got to be a point and we haven’t got one, so there’s no point in patting ourselves on the back saying ‘Well played’ because we’ve got diddly to show for it.”

Despite some of his players protesting after the goal, McCarthy had no complaints: “It hasn’t gone out. If they’re appealing for offside with Chambo off the pitch. If the ball goes in the net you want people to complain about it because you don’t want to say ‘That’s great, a goal’.

“They were looking for it to get disallowed for some reason, I guess, maybe they thought it was offside. Chambo had slipped off the pitch but in general play he wasn’t offside and it was a goal.”

The Town boss confirmed that midfielder Cole Skuse was replaced at half-time due to injury: “He’s jarred his Achilles’ and I hope he’ll be OK, I thought he was excellent. I thought Ryan Tunnicliffe did well. But we don’t want to be losing players, we’ve only got 20.”

He says Paul Taylor’s replacement 24 minutes after coming on as a sub was tactical: “No injury at all, I put my faith and trust in him to go on thinking he was ready but I don’t think he is. He needs to get games. We’re trying to get him fit with 10 minutes here and 15 minutes there.

“He needs some games and I just thought he could have been the difference because he’d got that ability, but we were having to defend and Frank’s bigger than him and can defend corners and freekicks better than him.

“I thought he was the right one to take off. Plus Frank’s got good pace and power, he can run in the channels for us.”

Asked whether Taylor took the decision well, McCarthy added: “I don’t care. I haven’t explained it to him because it’s not the right time. Straight after the game he’s feeling sore about it, it’s not the time or place to do that. Calm, Monday.

“I make my decisions and it was the right decision. It’s not cost us at all, it’s not been that that’s done it. It’s one of those. You’ve just got to accept and try and get him some football.”

The Town boss says keeper Dean Gerken should be available again next week: “He’s got a dead leg and I’m hopeful he’ll be OK for next week.”

With Harry Redknapp still on crutches after knee surgery, his assistant Kevin Bond took on press duties and said they were delighted with their debutant match-winner Tom Hitchcock: “He’s a goalscorer. He can find the back of the net in training, that’s the thing that he can do.

“Charlie Austin had a number of good chances, they seemed to fall to him, so it was getting late in the game, and we thought we’d just try him, have a little look and there he was, he just popped up at the far post.”

He added: “We thought it was going to be one of those days. The one that Charlie brought down and smashed against the crossbar.

“When he missed that, we thought maybe it wasn’t going to be our day. But we kept going, the lads worked really hard and should have won the game. It looked like we weren’t going to do it, but thankfully in the end, we did.”

Photo: Action Images

BuckieBlue added 22:34 - Aug 17 Usual interesting mix of post match optimism and pessimism! MM has said he/squad are aiming for top 6 so i think we might as well judge things in those terms as well. Therefore bit of pressure on for next Sat-lose and we're probably 5 pts off 6th and back into (our annual) catch up type of season. Win and we're likely just a couple of points off and that'll be a decent start considering the fixs. The big question mark is whether there is anything in the kitty before window shuts? Under PJ bad starts seemed to necessitate last minute (panic?) additions, so in that case I hope they're not needed. Personally I'd like to see the continuity of current being allowed to settle, including seeing how Tunnicliffe, and Anderson can contribute. (Monday's MM/Taylor chat could be interesting-and important-, hope MM does see him as being part of his set up.

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bluefeast added 22:39 - Aug 17 When we lose to leeds next weekend what are you all going to say then >? Taylor was fabulous at Peterborough mainly on the right side of mid. Please MM play him there. Hes clever and can make things happen .Edwards is in dreamland and his distribution is so poor. Am I alone in thinking this.
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blues1 added 22:40 - Aug 17 jas. back to ur usual negative best as always. of course, ur not on ur own. all the other usual idiots are about. for gods sake, weve played 3 games, 2 of them against teams among the favourites for promotion which weve narrowly lost. in those 3 games weve scored 4 goals. and it doesn't matter whos scored them at the end of the day, we created the chances, including the 2 own goals which happened due to our pressure on those players. of course we all want the strikers to score and hopefully they will start to do so soon. but as long as we manage to win games I don't care who scores the goals. the biggest joke is that weve played 3 games and people on here are already whinging and having a go at mm, the players and anyone else they can think of. pathetic, it really is. lets hope mm isn't as negative as you lot are or well be looking for a new manager very soon. get real people, its much too early to be writing us off yet

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bluefeast added 22:42 - Aug 17 MM has done a great job , and having supported the club for 40 years I hope we have an exciting season.We wont finish top 6 and neither should we with our squad. As another point ,Hyam seems really laid back this season ,not his terrier self. Skuse fantastic as same with smith and chambers. The rest are below par.
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blues1 added 22:47 - Aug 17 bluefeast. as youre expecting us to ;ose to leeds next sat I presume you wont be attending the match? just the kind of fan this club doesn't need. for heavens sake guys, just get behind the team and the manager and stop whinging just because weve lost a game. and its strange isn't it that its pretty much the same people whinging this week that were all happy and positive last sat. be realistic guys, we wont win every game and at the end of the day weve lost 2 gamea that anyone who is realistic would know there was a chance of that happening. but then those people aren't interested in that, just want to moan whenever possible

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Walk_the_Wark added 23:02 - Aug 17 No, they're not a joke! Been saying this since his appointment. Mick is a 'big, strong , hard to beat one dimensional' manager. He will choke our creativity. Remember Wolves were in freefall long before he went. Should have got Holloway or Redknapp when we could. Those idiots on here who said they wouldn't come- Holloway went to Palace- promoted; Redknapp 'wouldn't manage a championship side' errrrrrr....... Now we are stuck with this boring, thick joker for what, 3 years.. more woe

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blues1 added 23:03 - Aug 17 bluefeast. having just seen ur last post I may owe u an apology in as much I=as u like me have been supporting the team for 40 years and I agree with what ur last post says. just ur previous comment that "when we lose to leeds" I find very negative, if would have been the right wording for me
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:08 - Aug 17 Minus me up kids! Come on! MM might even 'boring' us to the play offs but we know we can't manage in the PL. We are on a hiding to nowhere under this thick clown
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blues1 added 23:12 - Aug 17 walk the wark. what a twenty carat idiot you are. if you don't like it just go elsewhere . we don't need fans like you. but then, I doubt you go neway. only 1 clown here and that's you.
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:16 - Aug 17 One more point. Phil, can you please get rid of this +/- thing. Anyone who makes a negative/ constructive post gets a - and those 'rose tinted glasses' teenagers who always give a positive spin get +s. Its boring and predictable. Guesss what- MM doesn't always get it right, and guess what- Ipswich aren't always amazing. That's football. Unfortunately we are still very poor, and I'm tired of peoples -'s who can't wake up to that!

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blues1 added 23:21 - Aug 17 walk the wark its not that people think were always amazing justmost true supporters don't think I necessary to be so critical or as insulting as you re t the players or the management. some of us want to back the team. ok, were not playng pretty football but if you don't think were better than we were at this time lastseason then ur either blind or know nothing about football

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Walk_the_Wark added 23:22 - Aug 17 Cheers Ian. Good to know you are just as thick as MM.
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:26 - Aug 17 Blues 1. I haven't insulted the players. We just have the wrong manager. Yes, we are better than last season. But we could be so much more. I get annoyed when people give MM the accolades they do, he is no Royle, Burley and definitely no Robson. I want to see attacking intent and a desire to play football properly. It's not impossible to do it out of the championship, and carry on- look at Swansea

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ian_marshall added 23:30 - Aug 17 I am an ipswich supporter, I am philosophical on our chances of going up or having a positive season in comparison with the last few. What are your expectations?
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AbujaBlue added 23:32 - Aug 17 Walk this is the Championship, not Cuckoo Land.
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:35 - Aug 17 Ian if you are addressing me, my expectations are to see attacking creative football. Not thwarting, hard to beat hoof ball. If we stay in the league and continue to build then that is fine. We won't achieve 'stable' premiership status ala say West Brom under this manager. Give me an argument that provers otherwise..
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:36 - Aug 17 AbujaBlue- thought Swansea were from Wales- not Cuckoo land.....
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ian_marshall added 23:37 - Aug 17 Stoke city Hull "tigers"
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Walk_the_Wark added 23:40 - Aug 17 Well if thats what you call football- each to his own
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NSL added 23:43 - Aug 17 Not being funny but "on our way to a good point" WTF? Sounded like QPR were battering us and surely in every single game you are "on your way to a good point" - until you lose of course. WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GOALS GOING TO COME FROM IN THIS TEAM??????!!!!!!!!!!!! We need a quality forward brought in immediately to partner McGoldrick or we are going to be struggling big time.

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ian_marshall added 23:45 - Aug 17 I think this is stokes 7th season in prem, I'm not for a minute saying I want town to be like stoke I'm just saying that they played hoof ball out of the champ and have sustained it in prem. So it worked for them it could work for us, just because we're not playing beautiful football doesn't mean we're not going to go up/ be top 10 etc. I genuinely feel we were lucky to get mick and if we hadnt we would of been at port vale today for sure, Mick is the best man for the job and to call him thick clown etc is out of order IMO As I say I'm philosophical about things and I understand what your saying.

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Walk_the_Wark added 23:47 - Aug 17 Signing off now chaps- The reason Swansea stuck, and it took a while to go up is that they were playing the PL way before they got there. Hull will be relegated, as would we under MM. Time to start thinking ahead instead of thinking game to game . This requires an infrastructure (especially manager) who knows the PL and can anticipate that before he gets there. Sadly MM fails in the PL- it's too much for him. We shall have to wait to the next appointment

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ian_marshall added 23:51 - Aug 17 Understand what your saying in regards to the way you'd like us to play but is that realistic? If we did go up I expect we'd do what west brom did and yo yo a few seasons and then stabilise perhaps. You used west brom to make an example that we wouldn't achieve there status under mick but I'm sure you see my point.
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bennyitfc added 23:53 - Aug 17 Why is it that there was nothing bust positivity echoing around the away end this afternoon, but on here it seems the majority of us have lost hope in Town...our defence were great today, QPR had to take off Wright-Phillips, Hoilett, Zamora because they couldn't make anything happen! McGoldrick had their defence worried a number of times and what about that chance from Hewitt that he should have finished to make it 1-0. The foundations are there and we just need more games. Negative comments are purely for the sake of it in my opinion.

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ian_marshall added 23:55 - Aug 17 Basically what im trying to say is, is that I love micks hair
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