It nearly happened – Neil Critchley feels QPR were close to victory at Cardiff

Neil Critchley described QPR’s goalless draw at Cardiff as a “nearly performance” as he made it four points out of six at the start of his reign as manager.

“I’m not delighted, just satisfied with a point. I didn’t think we were at our best and you can look at the game in two ways: it’s either a point gained, or two points missed,” he said.

“In the first half I thought we had good control of the game without threatening the goal too many times. It was us deciding what was happening on the pitch.

“We asked the players to do certain things in the second half to give us a better chance of winning the game, but we didn’t do that. You have to give credit to Cardiff for improving their game in the second half, but some of that was down to our poor play.

“That meant we were inviting a little bit of trouble. We defended well as a team and it’s another clean sheet. We gave away very few chances, but we didn’t create too many ourselves.”

There was only one shot on target in the whole match and neither side looked like breaking the deadlock. But the result leaves Critchley’s team in seventh, level on points with Millwall in the play-off places.

“In one of my first interviews when I got here, I said we have to improve at both ends of the pitch if we want to be at the top end of the table and we improved at one end rather than the other, and that takes time,” added Critchley.

“With 25 minutes to go we felt a new front three might change the game with a bit of pace, movement and ability. We wanted to give them a different problem to face, although it didn’t quite work out like that.

“It nearly happened, but that was probably the story of our night – it was a nearly performance. I’ve got an honest group of players and they know there is room for improvement.

“My job is to ensure I am on their case every day and not accepting mediocrity. I want to drive them forward because with the ability we have in the dressing room we have to be competing at the top end of this division.”

Cardiff are still waiting for their first win on Boxing Day since 2012 and find themselves in 20th place, just two points above the drop zone.

Even so, manager Mark Hudson is not worrying about the position his side find themselves in.

“I look up not down and there isn’t much between the teams at the top and where we are,” said Hudson.

“They are a good side, and they came into the game on a high after their 1-0 win at Preston. We went toe to toe with them and we’re disappointed not to have come away with three points.

“Kion Etete had two good chances and Callum O’Dowda had another right at the end. We just need a bit more belief in front of goal.

“We created the better chances, worked hard, displayed endeavour and togetherness and showed a willingness to fight. We need to carry that on because we’ve got two tough games coming up.”