“It’s not quite going our way” – R’s boss Mark Warburton on Reading’s late winner

BY NICK KITUNO

Mark Warburton insists Queens Park Rangers must react strongly after falling to a late winner against promotion-chasing Reading.

Michael Olise snatched all three points for the Royals when he curled home the winner with only a minute of normal time to spare.

The R’s welcomed fans back to the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium for the first time post-lockdown but were left without any points after Olise’s 89th-minute strike.

QPR have slipped to 19th in the Championship table following the defeat to Reading, and are still searching for their first win in five games.

Warburton said: “It is frustrating. I can sit here and bemoan the fine margins of the game at this level, but the fact is it reads 1-0 Reading. If Ilias Chair’s [effort] had gone in there, I think that was the game over. I’m not sure they would have bounced back from that.

“You look at [the performances against] Brentford, look at Bristol City, look at today, I think you’re looking and say: ‘We lacked a little bit of quality maybe on the final ball, the final cross, the final touch hasn’t quite gone in.

“You look at the first half with Osman Kakay, he’s almost pulled the ball over the line. It’s just that final bit of quality, and sometimes you have these runs where it doesn’t go your way. At the moment it feels a little bit like that, that it’s not quite gone our way.

“I thought, first half, we looked a good team. We looked composed, the two centre-halves [Rob Dickie and Yoann Barbet] looked very solid with and without the ball, Tom Carroll and Geoff [Cameron] in midfield, and all around I thought we looked a good team against a very good Reading team. A good opponent.

“[We] didn’t feel threatened. I can’t think of a save Seny’s [Dieng] really had to make, but as I say that last 87th, 88th minute, whatever it may be, it certainly hurts you.”

Bright Osayi-Samuel and Kakay both went off late during the second half of the 1-0 defeat. Warburton says injuries are a worry for Rangers as they have a “tight squad”. Both will be assessed tomorrow morning.

On Osayi-Samuel, Warburton said: “I don’t know. He had some tightness, Geoff had some tightness, but these are the fatigue injuries they are going to get. All teams are going to suffer from them, but you’re seeing players go down.

“It’s always after the hour mark and the fatigue just kicks in. Slightly heavier pitches and you’ve just got to see how they are.

“It’s a worry because we’re a tight squad. We’ve lost Lee Wallace for a couple of weeks and it’s a difficult one. We’ve got to see how he is, how he reports in the morning.”

On Kakay, he added: “Similar. We’ve got to see how he is. It was an impact injury, but he tried to carry on. You saw him hobbling.

“He’s a brave kid, he’s a very committed defender, but again we’ve got to see how he is in the morning.”