Vale was almost taken off before QPR winner

Julien Stephan revealed he considered taking Harvey Vale off before his winner for QPR against Stoke.

The head coach thought about sending Kader Dembele on to attack left-back Aaron Cresswell, but Vale was having an excellent game on the flank and was kept on.

And the former Chelsea man broke the deadlock on 75 minutes – his first Rangers goal – to secure a third consecutive win for Stephan’s side.

Stephan explained: “In the last 20 minutes I had a lot of hesitation and, to be honest, I imagined that Kaddie would enter on the pitch for Harvey, yes. It was the plan.

“I wanted to create something different with Kaddie one-v-one against the left-back.

“But we didn’t change and in the last 15 minutes I felt that the players were continuing to do well physically and to enter the pitch in these kind of games is not easy. So we chose to stay like this.

“Sometimes you feel that you have to change and sometimes you feel you don’t have to change.”

Rangers have responded emphatically to a recent 7-1 drubbing at Coventry.

“In the season you have some good moments and bad moments and that was a bad moment,” said Stephan.

“It’s finished now and we learned a lot. And now we have won three in a row, that is (also) finished and we have to be focused on the next games.

“All credit to the players. We will enjoy tonight and tomorrow but from Monday we need to prepare.”

Stoke boss Mark Robins, meanwhile, appeared to question his players’ attitude.

The Potters have made an excellent start to their season but were second best at Loftus Road.

“We didn’t deserve anything from the game because we didn’t do the non-negotiables you’ve seen us do in previous games,” said Robins.

“We just didn’t do enough. There was a lot not to like in the game and it was frustrating.

“If you start to believe your hype, press – whatever – then you’re in trouble. Unless you do the fundamentals and the basics properly then the chances are you’re not going to get anything from the game, and we didn’t deserve anything from it.

“It was almost like we were not thinking through it, but only taking part in the game.

“Unless we do the fundamentals, unless we do the things that are non-negotiable properly, then you’re not going to get anything.

“A 1-0 defeat and it might be perceived as narrow, but I didn’t think we were anywhere near our best.”