Soccer
Julien Stephan urges QPR to ‘stay humble’ after moving second with Cardiff win
QPR boss Julien Stephan told his players to “stay humble” after they beat Cardiff 2-1 to continue their impressive start to the Championship season.
Rumarn Burrell scored both Rangers goals, putting them ahead in the first half and doubling the lead with a fine finish early in the second, before Perry Ng replied late on.
Stephan’s side are second in the table, with 10 points, after their first four matches of the campaign.
He said: “If you compare where we are now after four games and where we were last at the same moment (last season); big difference.
“It’s just the beginning of the Championship. If you forget that the Championship is a battle each game, you can drop very quickly.
“The objective is to stay humble – very humble – because if you forget to be humble then this league will kill you immediately.
“So we have to stay humble – but stay ambitious as well.”
Rangers missed chances to make it 3-0 and had to endure a somewhat anxious finish after Ng pulled a goal back with a thumping strike on 74 minutes.
“We created a lot of chances and probably we should score more. We should kill the game,” Stephan admitted.
“After the second goal we had strong momentum, a lot of opportunities to score the third one, and I think if we score at this moment we kill the game.
“So there are margins we have to improve, but it was nice to see that we could create a lot of danger. I enjoyed the resilience of the players in the last 15 minutes.”
Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy insisted his team’s confidence has not been dented by their wait for a first Championship win.
The Bluebirds, promoted from League One last season, drew all three of their games prior to the defeat in west London.
“We obviously wanted a win, but it hasn’t happened yet,” said Barry-Murphy.
“The players retain belief. I think we’re improving a lot. There are going to be setbacks along the way and we have to take that on the chin.
“Disappointed with the result, obviously. We weren’t at our best in the first half. Technically, we’re normally much better than that. We didn’t have the intensity we usually have.
“We had chances despite that, but we knew QPR were dangerous on the break – and they were. I think we showed signs of our quality in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.
“We knew how dangerous they would be, but we gave the ball away in certain areas, particularly centrally.
“Our players always keep going right until the end. We created chances late in the game, we just couldn’t take them.
“Even in the first half, when we weren’t at our best, we had good chances, but I can’t deny the fact that QPR also had good chances on the break and we obviously have to improve on that in this division.”
