Town boss Mick McCarthy admitted that QPR were the better side as they beat the Blues 2-1 at Loftus Road but was unhappy with the home side’s opening goal with referee Andy Davies having missed a handball by former Blues loanee Massimo Luongo in the build-up.

Asked whether it looked like handball to him, McCarthy said: “It did to me, it did to the QPR bench, who were laughing at the decision once it’s gone in the net. It’s handball, I’m relying on the officials to give it.

“I’ve spoken to the referee, I’ve been to see him, he was gracious enough to accept me. I’ve been in and I’ve told him what I think of the decision and what it’s done to the game because the game was pretty much going nowhere and it’s just before half-time.

“I know, we’ve lost the game and I seem like a right moaning old git, but it’s handball.”

He added: “I thought the first half was just a scrap, pretty much, I think they were the better of it. I think the goal before half-time has knocked the stuffing out of us a bit.

“I thought we started the second half all right but the defending for the second goal was really poor. And 2-0 up here, they’re a good side.”

Regarding his decision to play Dominic Iorfa at centre-half alongside Jordan Spence rather than Jonas Knudsen, who returned to left-back, he said: “I’ve not got many defenders to pick and choose from, to be honest.”

Iorfa has said he sees himself as a centre-half long-term and McCarthy says the on-loan Wolves man has the attributes to play there: “He does and if that’s where he wants to play, he’s certainly got all the tools to play there. We’ll see, see how it pans out, that one.”

McCarthy admitted that Bersant Celina’s terrific late goal made his team’s display appear better than it was: “It put a gloss on it. The goal from Bersant was brilliant and it put a gloss on the performance it doesn’t really deserve, they were better than us.

“I’m pissed off at the helping hand that they got, certainly. We all know that if we’re at Portman Road and we get a goal just before half-time we come out a much better team, and that’s how it proved to be.

“[Bersant] showed what his qualities are and he’s done himself a lot of good in terms of being in the team.”

Everton loanee Callum Connolly made his debut at right-back and spent much of the game battling with Mackie

“He did,” McCarthy continued. “Jamie Mackie’s pulled on to him and he’s had a tough baptism with us because he’s played in the league before.”

Having won their first four league games the Blues have now lost two in a row, but McCarthy says he wasn’t getting carried away by the start.

“I’ve not been conned by it, I don’t think we’ve got a top-two team that’s going to be there all season long,” he said.

“But there’s no point not enjoying it when you are there and you are getting results and are scoring goals. But we’ll have to be far more resolute than we were today and I think tougher and more aggressive.

“Those have come and gone and we’ve got the points, they’re on the board and we’ve now got Bolton at home. We need to have a response for that one.”

Did he feel there was enough of a response to the Fulham defeat in terms of being tougher and more aggressive? “I think we’ve done that, but I think they were better at it than we were. I’m not going to keep whinging about that.”

McCarthy says skipper Luke Chambers continues to make progress and isn’t ruling him out of next week's home game against Bolton.

“He’s been back on the grass training, making noises. We’ll see how he goes on this week,” he said.

“We’ve lost three good centre-halves and we’ve cobbled together a back four and it doesn’t make it any easier, but we’ll see whether he’s fit.”

Rangers boss Ian Holloway admitted his side were fortunate with their opening goal.

“It was tough, it was close, it was a very good game, I felt," he said. "There was a period in the first half when we were a little bit open, they were a little bit open and it was very exciting.

“I thought the crowd helped us, I felt we had a bit of fortune, a massive stroke of fortune where the referee should have seen handball.

“We were just about on the halfway line and the ball’s popped up off of Massimo Luongo and I think he’s just moved it with his hand past the fella it was going to hit.

“I thought I could see his movement and I think the fourth official should have seen it and he should have the power to tell the referee, but he says he didn’t see it.

“Mick saw it, I saw it and that’s one of the ones you get away with. Did I ask him to do that? You could say did he deliberately cheat, he’s hit it with his hand but the referee’s paid to look at that and see it.

“And I tell you what, I’d be fuming if I was Mick. Tiny little things like that. We had a meeting in the summer and they were talking about 'game-changing moments' and that’s a 'game-changing moment'. That referee missed a slight handball which everybody else seemed to see.

“That’s what they’re paid to do, they’ve got eyes everywhere, they should see that. Luckily for us today we managed to capitalise on that and then get the second goal because up until that point anybody could have scored.

“I was pleased with what we were doing and I was pleased with how we competed with Mick’s team because we needed to.

“I thought we defended brilliantly today against a team which has hardly missed. They’ve taken nearly every single chance they’ve created and we didn’t let them create too many. There was only McGoldrick who tried to take Alex Baptiste on and he didn’t beat him.”

Photo: TWTD

OohOohSamassiAbou added 13:21 - Sep 11 Not a brilliant performance by any stretch of the imagination, but over the first 6 games of the season I think it sums up where we are, a mid table side. I would certainly have taken 12 points out of 18 at the beginning of the season. I would much prefer to see us play 4 in midfield with Rowe/Celina down the wings, as playing three of Garner/Waghorn/McGoldrick from the start leaves us with little in the way of goalscoring off the bench

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gt81 added 19:02 - Sep 11 "They were better than us, they've got some good players" - Mick on every side in the division
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