Steve McClaren was left blaming lady luck for his side’s narrow home defeat to Norwich on Saturday, as QPR went down to a fortunate Teemu Pukki winner.

Norwich’s Finnish international had to improvise to divert a deflected Marco Stiepermann cross into Joe Lumley’s goal with 19 minutes remaining.

And McClaren was aggrieved at referee Darren Bonds’ failure to award the Hoops a late penalty after Massimo Luongo was barged over in the box.

“The cards didn’t fall our way,” said the QPR boss.

“In these type of games, you’ve got to have luck and you have to have quality and that little edge – and there wasn’t really any quality in the finishing in the final third.

“They got a lucky goal; a ricochet off Toni Leistner’s toe and straight on his (goalscorer Teemu Pukki’s) chest.”

“We didn’t get the penalty we deserved at the end. It was an unbelievable challenge on Luongo – a blatant push when he’s about to pull the trigger.”

The defeat marks the end of Rangers’ four-match unbeaten run in the Championship, and means an unsavoury end to a week in which the side had already won twice in the league.

Whilst McClaren praised the grit and determination on display at Loftus Road, he bemoaned a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal.

“There was good endeavour, but it was about quality in both boxes,” he continued.

“The difference is we didn’t score. We had enough half-chances.

“It was always going to be a one-goal game, or 0-0. I’m disappointed because I said if we defended well, which we did, we’d score because we have that quality.

“But I thought it was two very good teams. Norwich were a different challenge as they play good football but for the first half an hour we allowed them too much.

“We just lacked that final pass, shot or finish that we have in the team.”