Manager Ian Holloway fears he is sounding like a broken record after Queens Park Rangers failed to impose themselves on Burton Albion in their 2-1 Championship defeat on Saturday.

Burton led after 11 minutes when Luke Murphy’s 30-yard effort – Albion’s first goal of the New Year – found the bottom corner.

The visitors doubled their lead through Lloyd Dyer’s cool finish, before Conor Washington did pull one back to keep Rangers in it.

But Burton deservedly held on to claw themselves out of the bottom three with their first points of 2017.

Rangers meanwhile find themselves 17th, eight points clear of the drop zone but a full 12 off the play-offs.

And Holloway, who was reappointed as Rangers manager in November, admitted he was tired of seeing his players come up short in the key battles.

“It’s bitterly disappointing because I felt we could play better than that and give a better show of ourselves,” he said.

“I’m sick and fed up of feeling like I feel right now and unfortunately you could almost feel that out there.

“We have to assert ourselves on games and takes games to people and I didn’t feel we did that.

“We gave probably the worst performance over the last couple of months.

“At one time, I was the only person singing “come on you Rs.” That can’t be right, can it?”

The Brewers lost John Brayford to injury after just four minutes, but they took an early lead when Murphy finished a rapid counter-attack.

Matt Palmer’s flighted ball found Dyer and, though his cross was snuffed out, the ball sat up for Murphy to score his first Burton goal.

The deficit failed to rouse the Hoops who created little in the first half while Albion threatened on the counter, Marvin Sordell’s excellent hold-up play allowing Dyer and Lasse Christensen to get forward.

Groans could be heard around Loftus Road as the home crowd became increasingly frustrated with their side, who were booed off at half-time.

Holloway switched to 4-4-2 at half-time, introducing Washington in place of defender-cum-midfielder Grant Hall, but Burton went two-up after 52 minutes exposing QPR once again on the counter.

Dyer’s initial attempt to feed Sordell was thwarted, but the ball fell to Christensen, who played Dyer in to calmly slot the ball under Alex Smithies.

The Hoops got themselves back in it through Washington’s persistence, lashing his follow-up into the roof of the net from close range after his first effort was blocked.

But Albion were still dangerous and QPR were thankful for Smithies’ strong hands on 70 minutes when he denied Dyer from an identical position to his goal.

Washington almost equalised after 73 minutes but Jon McLaughlin reacted quickly to dive at his feet and avert the danger.

Idrissa Sylla saw a header trickle beyond the post in injury time, but a late equaliser would have been harsh on a much-improved Burton.