QPR manager Marti Cifuentes questioned his side’s fixture schedule over the Christmas period after they recovered from two winless matches to beat Watford 3-1 at Loftus Road.
Consecutive away games just three days apart against Swansea and Norwich saw QPR collect a single point to stall the excellent form that had seen them rise comfortably clear of the Championship relegation zone.
They returned to winning ways against Tom Cleverley’s side following a goal after five minutes on his return to the starting line-up for former Schalke forward Michael Frey, before Jimmy Dunne doubled the advantage before the break.
Watford hit back through Kwadwo Baah in the second half but within a minute Sam Field had nodded a third for the home side to make it five wins from their last nine.
“I think we need to put everything into perspective,” Cifuentes said. “When I look back at our two games away (over Christmas), I don’t understand why some teams had two games at home and others had two games away, in our case two long away games against good opposition.
“We know the Swansea game (a 3-0 Boxing Day defeat) was not good. Against Norwich (1-1) the first half was very good but the reality is that the team is working hard trying to go through adversities we’ve been facing.
“I’m very happy with seven points from four difficult games. We need to give credit to the players according to the amount of injuries, to the schedule and the level of the opposition.
“It’s not perfect, I will always ask for 12 points, but the commitment that the guys are showing even on bad days, those guys are working very hard. Today you can see leaders.”
The defeat dealt a damaging blow to Watford’s play-off hopes as they continued their trend of starting games slowly this season.
It also left them with still just two victories away from home as Cleverley was left frustrated that a good overall display was undone by lapses in defence and in attack.
“I would address what happened in both boxes,” he said. “We can get ourselves in any type of mindset we want, we can make ourselves feel like we’re going to war, but if you’re not better than the opposition team in both boxes you’re going to struggle.
“Today the general performance I thought was quite good, we created a lot of chances, we limited them to a couple of counter-attacks and set-pieces, and came unstuck.
“It’s something, when we get time to work with the players, that will be high up on the agenda. It’ll be repetitive, it’ll be boring, but it’s something that we have to address that we’re not doing well enough.”
