Marti Cifuentes hails QPR’s ‘courage and personality’ in draw with Huddersfield

Posted Monday, January 29, 2024 by PA

QPR boss Marti Cifuentes praised his team for showing fighting spirit in their 1-1 draw at home to fellow strugglers Huddersfield.

The hosts were poor in a vital match for both sides at Loftus Road, where Jack Rudoni’s late goal looked like leaving third-from-bottom Rangers six points adrift of the Terriers who are immediately above them in the Championship table.

Kenneth Paal equalised in the fifth minute of stoppage time by kneeing a cross from Ilias Chair into the top corner of the net.

“Not a good performance and it was generally a poor game. I’m not very pleased with our performance,” Cifuentes admitted.

“Having said that, we knew there would be tension in this game because it was so important to both sides, so you could see we couldn’t get the grip on the game that we would have liked.

“Then we had to accept that the picture of the game was a lot of fight, a lot of duels and aerial situations.

“So I want to praise the guys, because after conceding a goal in that minute and having the courage and personality to chase the draw, and then to keep pushing to try to get the victory, shows that even when we’re not having our best performance the team is competing well.”

A win would have taken QPR out of the relegation zone, where they have been since September. They remain in deep trouble.

However, Cifuentes insisted: “To be able, on a day like today, when many things didn’t go well, to pick up a point, I think is a step to the next level and in the right direction.

“The first thing is to be competitive and the second is that, even on the bad days, you can pick up points. Hopefully we can maintain that.”

Huddersfield have won just one of their past 11 league matches and the draw was their 13th of the season.

Boss Darren Moore said: “To not come away with the points, we’re disappointed with the result.

“The positives are that it’s another solid performance. We’ve come to a difficult place and really controlled the game for large periods.

“You have to come here and set your stall out and I thought the boys did that today. We certainly felt we should have taken all three points.

“When you lose a goal that late in the game, especially when you’ve dominated large periods of the game, we certainly feel it’s two points dropped.

“My message to the players has been that we’ve got to keep pushing and believe that those three points are not far away.

“When we get the three points, I really think it will be a glue in terms of performances, confidence and our fans seeing it and us pushing on and going forward.

“We’re nearer to turning draws into victories than losing.”