Luigi De Canio was left ruing referee Phil Joslin's fifth minute decision to dismiss R's defender Damion Stewart as QPR went down 3-0 at Norwich City.

Stewart's sending off stunned the Rangers First Team Coach, who told www.qpr.co.uk afterwards: "The referee made some crucial errors, and that cost us today.

"Maybe Norwich would have won the match even if the sending off hadn't happened.

"They had far more to play for than we did, but we will never know that now because of that early decision."

"We have to accept the judgement of the referee, even if we don't necessarily agree with it.

"Referees have to make split-second decisions, and it can be difficult for them, but I feel we were unlucky with an important one today."

Moments after Stewart's departure, Ched Evans opened the scoring for the hosts, forcing De Canio into a double substitution in the eighth minute.

Hogan Ephraim and Gareth Ainsworth were replaced by Mikele Leigertwood and Zesh Rehman.

"We needed to keep two up front to give us any chance," De Canio explained, "but when the deflected effort gave them their second goal in the second half, we ran out of options.

"The red card and the deflected goal rather summed up our day.

"We did what was possible. The task was really difficult after the sending off, but I am pleased with the players' efforts.

"They never stopped running and we kept fighting until the end."