Hughes positive in defeat

QPR boss wondering what might have been after defeat at City

Mark Hughes felt his side were unfortunate not to take something from QPR's 3-1 defeat at Manchester City on Saturday.

Despite City dominating the early stages at the Etihad Stadium and taking a first-half lead through Yaya Toure, the Hoops found an equaliser through the head of Bobby Zamora.

But Edin Dzeko scored soon after and although the visitors were in the game right up until Carlos Tevez's stoppage time goal they were to end the game with no points to show for their efforts.

The QPR boss thought that was harsh on his side as he saw signs that his team were causing the champions difficulties.

He said: "I think we are a little bit disappointed.

"In the first half we restricted them to a few chances and the most problems we had were from set pieces. In general play I thought our shape was good.

"But we were working hard without putting them under enough pressure to affect the game going the other way.

Problems

"I thought we addressed that in the second half and really put a shift in and caused them some problems. I thought we were in control of the game.

"Obviously when we equalised it was a real body blow to concede so soon after that. If we had maintained the position at 1-1 maybe we could have caused them even more problems.

"I sensed there was apprehension in the stadium and that was filtering through to them.

"We fed off that but in the end we were disappointed. In general we can take positives from it."

In midfield, Hughes paired Esteban Granero, the club's new signing from Real Madrid, alongside Alejandro Faurlin, who was making his first Premier League start since returning from long-term injury.

And the Hoops boss was pleased with what he saw from the duo.

Hughes added: "Faurlin had another 70 minutes on the road to his recovery and I thought Granero was excellent all day.

"I took him off as a precaution. He hasn't had a great deal of football but showed what a good player he is going to be for us."