Warburton rues dropped points despite QPR comeback

Mark Warburton felt QPR dropped two points at Reading despite fighting back from 3-1 down to claim a dramatic late draw.

Rangers dominated the first half and went in front, only for John Swift to score the first goal of a hat-trick when the visitors were caught out by a ball over the top from Alen Halilovic.

Rangers continued to control possession, but found themselves 3-1 down 13 minutes from time when the outstanding Swift scored twice to leave Rangers facing the prospect of a first league defeat of the season.

However, the introduction of Albert Adomah led to a Rangers’ fightback with the winger crossing for Andre Gray to mark his debut with a goal and then putting in a ball that led Rangers’ equaliser for Stefan Johansen.

But despite grabbing a point, manager Warburton insisted his team should have left Berkshire with all three.

He said: “We have to say that is two points dropped, but if that is a bad day at the office for us then it speaks highly of the players and how hard they worked.

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“We controlled long parts of the game but it is about putting the ball in the back of the net and we didn’t do that and to be honest. didn’t look really dangerous until the last 10 minutes.

“We had to change the formation, we were dominating the ball but not hurting them and we found ourselves 3-1 down. We went to a 4-3-3 and put Albert on.

“We spoke all week about getting crosses into the box, but we didn’t do it until we were 3-1 down.”

Rangers’ back three struggled to deal with long balls over the top from Reading and Warburton admitted it is something that will need to improved upon ahead of Tuesday’s clash at Bournemouth.

“That was something that was poor, we can’t dominate for long periods and then be beaten by a long ball,” he said.

“We need to be better there. George Puskas is a very good player aerially, but we didn’t deal with it well on occasions and to find ourselves 3-1 down was bemusing.”

Both Chris Willock and Ilias Chair picked up injuries from heavy challenges and Warburton is hopeful the attacking duo will be fit to face the Cherries.

“There were a couple of bad tackles, you should see the marks on their legs, but that is the game,” he said.

“They played on, but it’s the turnaround now and how they present in the morning.”