GERKEN GAFFE LEAVES HURST IN FIRING LINE

PAUL Hurst bemoaned his Ipswich side’s mistakes in what he described as their worst display of the season in going down against QPR.

A first-half own-goal from Blues’ goalkeeper Dean Gerken and a Tomer Hemed penalty – both resulting from QPR corners – secured the points for the visitors and saw Town drop to the foot of the table.

Town, who remain winless at home, were booed off by the home support after the final whistle.

Hurst, who replaced Mick McCarthy as Town manager in the summer, said: “We weren’t good enough, that’s the bottom line.

“At the end of the day I’m the manager and we all know whoever’s the manager of the team gets criticised and I understand that, and can accept that.

“But those things, the mistakes, I’ve just said downstairs I’ve never been involved in a season – and we’re not even a third of the way through yet – when there’s been so many mistakes in that period of time.”

Speaking of the crowd’s reaction, Hurst said: “The lads who have been around a little bit know that the crowd is far from the worst they are going to play in front of.

“If you can’t play here then you’ll struggle pretty much anywhere because they [the fans] are willing the players to do well.

“You can look at the table and look at results, but I don’t think we’ve been that bad that often.

“[It was] certainly the worst [performance] at home, and I think probably overall. All we had was a spell where we were better and could have quite easily got back into the game, but I understand why there was frustration, 100 per cent.”

QPR boss Steve McClaren said he believes there is more to come from his team following a win that moves them to 16th in the table. “It was very professional,” he said. “We controlled the game, got the goals and saw the game through, clean sheet, two goals and it should have been more.

“The first four games were difficult but we made three very good loan signings, which made a big difference to us and the rest of the team responded.

“We’re gaining in confidence, a little bit more belief but there’s still a long way to go and still a lot more to come from this team.” The opening goal came after 13 minutes when Luke Freeman’s inswinging corner from the right was palmed into his own net by Gerken.

The Blues missed a golden opportunity to equalise in the 36th minute when Grant Ward screwed his shot inside the box following Trevor Chalobah’s driving run and cross.

In added time in the first half, another Freeman inswinger from the right caused problems and Eberechi Eze was brought down by Tota Nsiala in the box. Hemed sent Gerken the wrong way from the resulting penalty to make it 2-0.

The visitors immediately had a chance to increase their lead seconds after the break when Town skipper Luke Chambers gifted the ball to Eze, but Gerken made a smart save.

Impressive England U20 international Eze also curled a left-footed effort against the crossbar as Rangers looked to kill the game off.