QPR boss Warburton: Win over Middlesbrough was a statement result

Mark Warburton commended his QPR players for the character they showed during their 3-2 away victory against Middlesbrough at The Riverside Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Lyndon Dykes, Chris Willock (pictured) and a Jonny Howson own goal gave them all three points despite Moses Odubajo being sent off early on in the second-half.

It means the R’s have won back-to-back league matches and sit third in the Championship after three games.

Warburton said: “That was a real statement tonight. There were certain moments in games and certain moments in seasons that define your team.

“We can get praise and plaudits for playing nice attractive football but you also have to win ugly sometimes, and that there after an outrageous [penalty] decision after six minutes which changed the nature of the game.

“To then have that sending off given as well, I haven’t seen the replay. To make those types of calls and then show that character is absolutely outstanding.

“Without being rude and I’m not showing any disrespect at all, we know the ball is going to come into the box [against a Neil Warnock side]. They’re a huge team and we know the likes of Crooks, Ikpeazu, Fry and Hall, these boys are a big team.

“We were poor in the first-half in terms of giving away cheap set-pieces. We had to defend more intelligently and to many times we gave away loose free kicks and then had to defend our box.

“But at 1-0 down we hadn’t started playing, we had a ten-twelve minute spell where we started to move the ball and we saw that we could open them up and then to get the goal early in the second-half and then build from there.

“They get the equaliser and you can hear the momentum in the stadium, they think they are going to go on and win it and we go on and get a third goal so we showed some real character and what a fantastic victory.

“There’s no doubts about the quality in the squad, their self belief, their confidence and their togetherness. It was a real fantastic team effort and many would say just take a point.

“But to come here and get all three points in that fashion, dealing with some decisions we had to deal with, fantastic effort from the players.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD