QPR’s mentality in win at Blackburn impresses boss Julien Stephan

Julien Stephan lauded his team’s mentality after an ‘enjoyable’ second half which saw QPR come from behind to win 2-1 at Blackburn and end their unbeaten start to the Sky Bet Championship season.

The R’s made the first-half running but could not make it count and were undone early in the second half through Ryoya Morishita’s sumptuous volley.

But Paul Smyth equalised minutes later with his second goal at Ewood Park in as many visits and the visitors took hold of the game from there, with Rumarn Burrell, Kwame Poku and Ronnie Edwards all going close as they threatened to overpower Rovers.

The pressure told in the 74th minute when former Burnley player Jimmy Dunne thundered a header beyond Balazs Toth.

It maintains their 100% start away from home and Stephan praised the ‘dominant’ second half performance.

He said: “I think we started well. The first 15-20 minutes, it was under control. We played good football, good position, (were) quite dominant on the pitch.

“(I) didn’t enjoy the last 20 minutes of the first half. We dropped too much in terms of quality, even the level of intensity dropped too much.

“We conceded a top, top goal, outstanding goal at the beginning of the second half. I enjoyed a lot the reaction of the players after. Not only because we scored quickly but the way we played this second half.

“Top management, top quality. I think we were very dominant on the pitch. We scored two times but we should have scored three or four times.”

The former Rennes and Strasbourg boss added: “This is the next step we have to reach to become a very good team. We have to kill the game because when you are 2-1, you never know what can happen in the last five minutes.

“I enjoyed the second half, the quality, the movement and even the mentality of the players to stay dominant even after the second goal, I enjoyed that. It’s something we want to develop this season. It’s a good win.”

In contrast to QPR’s experienced substitutes, Blackburn were threadbare and their bench contained five players without a minute of Championship experience before the game.

Tony Mowbray was proud of his team but conceded that QPR’s substitutes ‘made the difference’.

He said: “I think there’s lots of positives. We played against a good team. I thought we managed them pretty well to be honest. It was a really tight game.

“We had spells where we were pretty dominant and they had spells where they had moments in the game.

“What it feels like standing here now is that they made changes that affected them positively. (Glen) Kamara, Poku, really attacking, clever, good footballers.

“It was difficult for us. We always knew (Adam) Forshaw would only play an hour today.

“I’ve said to them in the dressing room (there are) lots and lots of positives. If we can maintain for 90 minutes the performance level in the first 60, we’ll be OK.

“It was tough, that last 20 minutes of the game. The scoring, and euphoria of that.

“We talked at half-time about getting a goal and winning the game at least 1-0. But as I say, their subs did make a difference. That’s not a slight on the ones we brought on.

“I felt pretty proud of the way we performed in the vast majority of the game.”