How Holloway has restored Washington’s scoring touch

CONOR WASHINGTON held “contempt” for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s vision for him at

QPR and credits the Dutchman’s successor, Ian Holloway, for his renewed confidence.

The Northern Ireland striker joined Rangers in January last year, saying at the time that workingg with the former Chelseaea striker was a “massive pull for me”.

Yet, he scored only twice in 31 games under Hasselbaink, who often used Washington (right) on his own up front or on the wing.

Hasselbaink was replaced by Holloway in November and Washington has found his form, scoring four times in his last 10 games.

“Within the year I’ve gone from the highest point to the lowest point and back to where I am now,” said Washington, who helped Northern Ireland reach the last-16 of Euro 2016. “It’s so important to have that confidence and it’s mad how quickly things can change. The [former] manager and I did not have disagreements so much as miscommunication, probably from both of our parts.

“I didn’t really understand the jjob he wanted me to do and I’ve always found playing up top on mym own in the system we were playing doesn’t rereally suit me. There was a lot of contempt on my part in that.”

One of the first things Holloway told Washington was that he would have signed him had he been QPR boss 15 months ago. And he also put together a compilation of Washington’s goals for club and country to restore his confidence.

“It wasn’t that long... like 10 minutes of video, with the celebrations as well,” said Washington. “Little things like that have really helped me.”