Hughes at loss as Rangers flop again on road

QPR manager Mark Hughes accepts his team need to improve their away form and show more consistency if they are to secure Premier League survival.

The Rangers boss was left frustrated by the level of his side’s performance in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at West Brom, courtesy of a brilliant 30-yard strike from Graham Dorrans, which left them hovering just above the drop zone.

It was in sharp contrast to the 3-0 midweek home triumph over Swansea and meant they have gone 11 away games without a win and collected just two points during that dismal run.

Hughes said: “It’s a little bit of a roller coaster for us. We need to be more consistent than we are able to produce at the moment.

“Against Swansea we were magnificent, really worked hard and made it happen for us.

“Against West Brom, we found that difficult and in terms of the performance level, it was nowhere near the last game. Wednesday against Swansea was an emotional night and that game was of vital importance to us.

“But against West Brom was equally important and the frustration was we weren’t able to produce the same sort of show.”

QPR have a difficult run-in with home games against Tottenham and Stoke and away trips to Chelsea and Manchester City.

Hughes said: “Everyone was looking at our run-in and saying it was really difficult for us to pick up points.

“We’ve been able to do that at home but unfortunately what we’re finding is we can’t hit the same sort of level to win away games.

“The first goal is vitally important and when we have gone away and conceded early it has been difficult for us and the West Brom game was another example of that.

“With 10 games left, we said we needed to improve our home form and we have done that but we’ve not been able to improve on the road.”

West Brom boss Roy Hodgson was delighted with a win that ensured a third successive season of top-flight football.

He said: “We’ll fight, we’ll try to get every point we can, work as hard as we can.

“If we are going to have a goal now it would be the selfish and parochial one of trying to finish above Aston Villa for the first time in 33 years.

“That would be nice.”