Queens Park Rangers manager Ian Holloway is pleased with his side’s efforts in their 2-1 defeat to rivals Fulham.

Brent & Kilburn Times: Fulham's Rui Fonte (left) and Queens Park Rangers' Massimo Luongo in action at Loftus Road (pic Jonathan Brady/PA)Fulham's Rui Fonte (left) and Queens Park Rangers' Massimo Luongo in action at Loftus Road (pic Jonathan Brady/PA) (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

The R’s fell to their first lost at Loftus Road this season and although disappointed with the result, Holloway heaped praise on his players.

“I’m gutted to be honest with you,” he said

“I can’t fault the players one bit, because they gave me everything.

“Fulham are a really-good team, we knew they were going to be.

“They’ve got some wonderful movement, but I felt we tried to be the home team and tried be on the front foot.

“They got through us a couple of times, but I felt we gave a good fist of it.”

The Hoops boss believes his side created plenty of chances and were unlucky not to get more success.

“We put their backline under a lot of pressure late on. There was lots of good stuff, lots of good movement.

“We might not be as pretty as them sometimes, but I thought we were very effective.

“We caused them problems, but we just couldn’t force home an equaliser, which I thought we deserved.

“We came close two or three times, we just need to calm down.

“We needed ice in our veins.

“We’re missing too many chances to make things count.

“Goals, at the right time for you, really do build your confidence.”

The late fight-back was too little too late on the night and Holloway was pleased as his side never gave up and ket fighting until the 99th minute in hope of salvaging a point.

“As you could see, we’ve come an awful long way.

“I think the crowd will go home and think, wow, the boys had a right go there.

“At the minute, we’re dropping off where we want to be and our away form isn’t where we need it to be.

“We’ve just lost at home for the first time, despite having chance after chance at the end.”

Holloway did admit it was disappointing to concede a second after Fulham’s Rui Fonte put a penalty over the bar just two minutes before.

“The disappointing thing was the second goal after the penalty miss, we all felt justice was done, if you look at how he went down,” he said.

“To be honest with you I don’t think anyone has got anywhere near him, so that should be the action that they’re bringing in, I don’t know the boy or who is he is, but look at it and tell me how I’m wrong.

“You fall over to gain a penalty kick, but it was after when they broke down in our end.

“That should have been a knife through our heart, but we kept going.

“We should have actually got a point out of that, last year we did and we didn’t anywhere near as good as that, but such is life and i’ll be realistic we can’t miss that many chance.”

The R’s goalkeeper Alex Smithies even went close in the dying stages for the hosts as he run up for a corner and got his head to it.

“I just told him, if I knew he had a triangluar shaped head, I wouldn’t have sent you up for it,” Holloway joked.

“Toblerone head the boys have just called him.”