QPR boss Marti Cifuentes felt his side’s performance in the 2-1 win at home to Preston was their best of the season so far.
Rangers suffered a major setback when influential captain Steve Cook sustained what looked like a potentially serious injury and fell to the ground in agony, which allowed Milutin Osmajic to run through and score the opening goal.
But the hosts hit back, with Rayan Kolli equalising and Jimmy Dunne netting an 89th-minute winner either side of Preston having Liam Lindsay sent off.
The R’s, bottom of the Championship a few weeks ago, are now unbeaten in seven matches, have won three in a row at home and are up to 14th in the table.
“For me it was our best performance of the season,” Cifuentes said.
“Starting the game so well – something that we had spoken about, because the last two first halves were not great – and then conceding a goal and losing our captain, that is something that can be mentally hard.
“The response, which was such a good performance, says a lot about the mentality of the group.
“I saw a lot of players performing at a high level, everybody contributed, and that’s important.
“And we need more of that. The Christmas schedule is crazy and we need to be ready.”
Cook’s foot injury is a real worry, however. The 33-year-old defender is due to have a scan on Sunday.
Cifuentes said: “That’s the only negative part, that we got another injury.
“I don’t want to play doctor. Let’s see the test tomorrow. He felt an acute pain.
“It seems it’s the sole – a soft-tissue issue. We need to make some tests. I’ve spoken with him and we’re not sure if it’s going to be a big one or not, but he was in some pain.”
Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted Rangers deserved to win – but insisted Lindsay should not have been sent off.
Lindsay was shown a second yellow card following a challenge on Kieran Morgan in the 83rd minute.
Heckingbottom said: “The best way to sum it up is that we would have been celebrating a draw. QPR were the better team – helped by the officials all game, but they were the better team.
“It would have been a big point for us, but they deserved the win. QPR were very good and competed against us very well. But the referee helped them out massively. We didn’t get any decisions.
“It’s not a sending-off. It’s totally killed us because we’ve got all our attacking players on the pitch. We’ve then got some players out of position and that was a big, big problem for us.
“Morgan has come inside and unless Liam turns invisible, he can’t get out of the way. There’s nothing he could do.
“Just before the sending-off there was a foul on Ali McCann (by QPR striker Michael Frey) that was far worse. Frey’s actually picking him up, apologising, and we don’t even get a free-kick.
“We were competing to try to get something out of the game and the sending-off really hurt us.”
