Mark Warburton has laid down the gauntlet for his QPR side ahead of this weekend’s game against Cardiff City, as they look to reverse their wretched run of results.

The R’s are currently on a streak of seven league games without a win, stretching back to the 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the season. 

Those results mean the Hoops are lingering in the lower reaches of the Championship table after eight games played, with just a single point in a 0-0 draw with Bournemouth from their last three matches.

Tuesday night saw ten-man Rangers go down 3-0 to Barnsley at Oakwell after Rob Dickie’s red card, and Warburton is expecting a reaction from his players at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium this weekend.

“We’ve got to be angry and we’ve got to respond,” the manager told the QPR official website. “We’ve had a bad fortnight and we can’t do that. You can talk about Bournemouth and being unlucky not to get all three points; irrelevant. The table doesn’t lie and we have to respond well.

“We know what we’ll face against Cardiff – a very good team and a very physical test – and we have to make sure that we roll our sleeves up and deliver a performance.

“They are professional sportsmen and when things don’t go right, their emotions understandably run high. You have to respond quickly; you have to analyse and learn from the games very quickly and move on.

“That’s how it is, such are the demands of this schedule. We’ve had two very disappointing weeks and when the games come at you every three or four days, you can’t have periods like that because it costs you.

“We are not happy with that, of course we are not, and we know that we have to be more ruthless in the opposition’s penalty area and defend our own box with a real intelligence.”

Warburton will be without the suspended Dickie for the visit of Neil Harris’ side, after the defender’s straight red card in Tuesday night’s horror show. 

Conor Masterson came on to fix up the backline at Oakwell, and could be in line for a place in the starting line-up on Saturday, as the R’s look to get back to winning ways. 

The QPR boss will also have a decision to make over Bright Osayi-Samuel, with the winger omitted from the squad in midweek amid his lengthy contract negotiations. 

A number of clubs are said to be interested in the 22-year-old, with Celtic said to be among the front-runners after his signature, but Warburton admits a return at the weekend is far from certain.

“As a manager, you want your best players on the pitch, especially when you have one or two knocks and you have a tight squad," he added.

“It was the right thing to do on Tuesday, irrespective of the result, and when a lot goes on then sometimes a player can’t concentrate on his football.

“He is developing at the club. I hope very much he can see that is the case. The contractual talks have been ongoing for a while now.

“He is a great lad Brighty, you know what I think of him, but his head has got to be in the right place for a game of football. I just want Brighty to have a clear head and make the right decision.”

“Brighty knows exactly what I think of him as a person and as a player and I hope very much that he will be available.”