Rs lost after Jordan Hugill netted a late winner for Lilywhites

Ian Holloway was proud of his players QPR even though they slipped to a last-gasp 1-0 defeat to Preston in a game that also saw Rangers shown two needless red cards.

Jordan Hugill’s late winner ended Rangers’ brave resistance at Deepdale after Jamie Mackie saw red for a dangerous tackle in only the 22nd minute.

And, after the final whistle Alex Baptiste was also shown a red card by the referee Jeremy Simpson for what Holloway is calling a case of mistaken identity.

“Now I’ve got two sendings off in a game where I didn’t see a bad foul,” said Holloway.

“I think it was a second yellow for Alex, he got the first for bouncing the ball down.

“Then Alex refused to shake (former team-mate) Ben Pearson’s hand and he called him something. The referee told me that he thought he’d said it to him.

“We will be appealing Jamie Mackie’s red and that’s all I can say about it.

“When you are as low on the ground as we are it makes it tough, particularly when we feel aggrieved and week in week out at the moment we seem to have a lot to be aggrieved about when it comes to the man with the whistle.”

Rangers are now five games without a win in the Championship but Holloway is staying positive.

“It was a bitterly disappointing day on the road again because our performance with all the people we’ve got out was absolutely terrific,” he added.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got no points when we should have got at least one.

“We’ve lost 1-0. But am I proud? Yes. Is it a bad run we’re in? Yes. Can we get out of it? Yes.”

Meanwhile Preston boss Alex Neil - whose side huffed and puffed for 88 minutes before Hugill broke clear and slotted home - can celebrate a four-match unbeaten run in the league.

“Relief is the emotion as much as anything else,” he said.

“When you play against 10 men people think it’s easy to roll them over and win the game. We had to be on our guard and be patient and move the ball quickly.

“I’m unsure whether it’s a red card for Mackie. I do know that Tom Clarke got to the ball first, whether there’s enough contact for that to be a red card, I don’t know because I was behind them. The ref had a good view of it.

“It was just relief that we’ve won the game. Hopefully we can kick on and try and pick up some more points.

“I am really pleased for the fans. We’ve been through a sticky spell but I said all along to judge us when we get all our players back. I had options today which I didn’t have in previous games. That was pleasing.”