Saturday could mean only one thing – it’s time for football again and Nottingham Forest welcomed Queens Park Rangers to the City Ground for our latest Championship action.
Manager Aitor Karanka would’ve been hoping three points on the day to edge us from our seventh spot in the second tier table and into the Play-Off positions, but QPR under manager Steve McClaren have turned into a tough side to beat in 2018/19 after their poor start and they were only four points behind us in the table.
The visitors, unfortunately, opened the scoring on the day in the final minute of the first half and despite dominating the ball and creating good chances, we struggled to get them on target and test their goalkeeper.
With a lack of a clinical punch up top, that was how the scores stayed at the final whistle and whilst it obviously doesn’t mean an end to promotion hopes, it is a massive disappointment.
Speaking to the BBC following the result, Karanka explained.
“We need to forget this as soon as possible but also, at the same time, to know that if we continue in this way it will be impossible to win games. We had intensity at Derby and it’s difficult to understand. The players should be committed, they should be supporting each other, but today we didn’t see that. If we go in this way I do not like it at all. We looked like we had a mid-table team mentality. We need to go home and think about this because if we continue like this it will be difficult. I think we started the game thinking it was a friendly or a training session. We didn’t approach the game in the way we had to.”
💬 "When you relax or don’t play your best in the Championship, it is impossible to win games."#NFFC manager @Karanka was disappointed with his side’s attitude in the 1-0 defeat against QPR this afternoon.https://t.co/diTg4lTZql
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 22, 2018
