Derby 1 Queens Park Rangers 0

Queens Park Rangers boss Ian Holloway had no complaints after his side’s 1-0 loss at Championship rivals Derby County at Pride Park last night.

The home side controlled proceedings in Gary Rowett’s first match in charge, creating chances and limiting Rangers until very late on.

Johnny Russell fired wide in the 14th minute and fired at Alex Smithies when a Matej Vydra free-kick deflected off the wall before the half-hour mark.

Smithies saved from David Nugent and saw Russell waste another good chance, before the deadlock was finally broken.

Russell came inside to set up Tom Ince and Smithies spilled his shot, Vydra converted the rebound from eight yards.

Rangers almost snatched an equaliser in the 88th minute when Idrissa Sylla headed agaist a post, but Holloway said: “I thought the best team won on the night. I was disappointed with our effort and the longer the game went on, the better Derby got and the worse we got I’m afraid.

“None of us when we see that back will be very happy with our choices and what we did but I’d like to give Derby some credit for their pressing and closing and they caused a lot more problems than we did.

“I think we are better than that but unfortunately I’ll have to take that and say good luck to Derby and Gary. They were the better team and I’m going to trudge home with my tail between my legs.”

Rowett admitted he came close to giving his players an earful after almost letting victory slip from their grasp, adding: “I spoke to the players afterwards and it was the one thing I forget to mention because I was so pleased we won the game.

“If I did my team talk again I would give them a telling off for that one because after such a dominant performance if we had lost points on a lack of concentration, aggression and doing the things that win you games it would have been cruel.

“We have to do better at it but I thought our game management was better and we didn’t invite too much pressure.

“We are at a point of the season when there’s not much point settling for a draw, we might as well go for it and occasionally if that means we lose a game late on we’ll take it on the chin but we saw a team today that want to be proactive.”