Ian Holloway said his QPR side only had themselves to blame after falling to a 2-1 defeat at home to Preston North End on Saturday.

The Rangers boss was disappointed with the way his players performed and didn’t feel they did enough to win the game, despite a confidence-boosting win over Sheffield Wednesday in midweek.

The defeat leaves QPR in 15th place, while Preston moved to within three points of the play-off places.

Holloway said: “Losing 2-1 doesn’t look that bad, but it feels worse.

“I wanted to see a lot more from the people that were out there.

“The fundamental things we spoke about, for some reason we didn’t do.

“We managed to get ourselves in front, albeit probably against the run of play, but unfortunately it then turned into a bit of a stalemate.

“We couldn’t get those on the ball who we wanted to and in the end, we’ve gone and lost and it’s a little bit disappointing to be honest.”

READ MORE: QPR have belief to beat Preston, says Holloway

Matt Smith put Rangers ahead after 13 minutes, but Callum Robinson equalised on the stroke of half time, before finding the winner for the promotion hopefuls 16 minutes from time.

Holloway said: “They’re a well organised team. They kept doing what they’ve been doing to get results.

“The game was ruined by the stop-start nature of it, but Preston played a part with their professionalism.

“We’ve only got ourselves to blame, we should have dealt with the first goal much better.”

Holloway admitted that having one eye on this Saturday’s west London derby against Brentford influenced his team selection for the Preston visit, making five changes to his starting team that had performed so well to beat Wednesday 4-2 in midweek.

He said: “I wanted to look at what I might have available for the Brentford game and how I might need to play against them.

“I also looked at how many games people have played.

“But most important, I looked at beating the opposition.”