MARK HUGHES cut a frustrated figure after watching his QPR side held to a share of the spoils against ten-man Everton at Loftus Road.
Junior Hoilett’s early strike was cancelled out by a Julio Cesar own goal, before Steven Pienaar saw red for two bookable offences midway through the second period.
Rangers threw everything at the Toffees in a late onslaught, but despite vocal appeals for a spot-kick for a foul on Hoilett, that all-important third goal of the contest proved elusive.
Speaking exclusively to www.qpr.co.uk, Hughes said: “It’s an important point, but ideally we would have taken all three against a very good Everton side.
“Arguably the sending off – which I thought was probably a bit harsh on them – probably didn’t do us too many favours, because they put two banks of four across the pitch and made it very difficult for us to break them down.
“On another day I would have been able to put on fresh legs in attacking positions once they went down to ten, but Armand [Traore] can only manage 70 minutes at the moment and Ryan’s [Nelsen] calves were sore after travelling to the other side of the world this week.
“That was a huge hindrance to us, because we had good attacking options but we couldn’t use them today.”
Hughes added: “Overall I thought some of our play was excellent today, especially in the first half.
“We had a stonewall penalty, which when the referee sees again he will hold his hands up to making a big mistake.
“He was only four yards away from the incident, so quite why he didn’t award it is beyond me.”
Hughes concluded: “All in all, of course we’d have liked to get all three points and in terms of how we approached the game and went about our business, I thought we deserved a victory.
“Those little breaks just aren’t going for us at the moment though. The goal we conceded was due to us not picking up from a set-play, but we were unfortunate with the ball coming back off the post and hitting Julio and going in.
“I think people today saw we’re a good footballing side. We like to get the ball down and play, as we’ve shown all season against some very good sides.
“Our performances have been okay, but results haven’t gone for us.
“Competing as we did against a very good Everton side gives us confidence, because we know we can go up against one of the best sides in the division and give them a really good game.”