Cifuentes says 'reality check' is no bad thing for defeated QPR

They ended last season as if they were about to tear the Championship apart in Marti Cifuentes' first full season in charge.

But Saturday's sobering 3-1 home defeat for the R's to a clinical West Brom was a far cry from the thrilling ride Rangers fans enjoyed towards the end of the last campaign.

That run-in included a heady 4-0 demolition of Leeds on a memorable night at Loftus Road, of course.

But the Hoops' Spanish boss is wise enough and grounded enough to know that there is no point in feeling too down after the opening day reverse - just as he wasn't about to get carried away by what happened a few months ago as Rangers started showing real signs of promise.

"I think it's a good reality check. It's something I've been speaking a lot about in the last weeks - about understanding that the reality of this league being very challenging," Cifuentes said. "Even though we finished in a good way last season, it's fine but it's not going to help us win any game this season.

"I think in the long term, I think that it will help us - for everyone to understand where we are We need to be very humble and work very hard to achieve what we want to achieve.

"I think usually the first game is always difficult, because there's a lot of emotion - a lot of expectations and everybody wants to win the first game. We have a lot of work to do, I'm well aware of that. "

Cifuentes added: "I don't think West Brom were much, much better. They deserved to win, but we were not good at defending our box and attacking in their box.

"I'm not very satisfied with our performance. Even though we took the lead, slowly we started to drop, drop, drop and basically the equaliser was a consequence of us dropping too much - becoming too passive. Sometimes you need to be more aggressive to protect a lead. We needed to defend much higher."

The Spaniard defended a lacklustre debut from new striker Zan Celar, who hardly got a kick all afternoon - saying a period of 'adaptation' was inevitable.

"It can take a few weeks or sometimes more than that, but it's not easy for a player new to the Championship playing against a very aggressive team with good players and good quality," Cifuentes said.