Julien Stephan hails improved QPR performance after late win over Lincoln

QPR boss Julien Stephan felt his side’s 2-1 win at home to Lincoln showed they have grown in stature this season.

Glen Kamara’s late goal secured victory for Rangers and lifted them back into the Championship play-off places.

They have endured frustrating matches at Loftus Road this term, drawing 0-0 with Bolton and 2-2 against Preston after having left-back Dennis Cirkin sent off.

However, this time they were able to secure maximum points, with Kamara firing home after being cleverly set up by the fit-again Ilias Chair.

“The big improvement is if I compare it with Bolton or Preston, when we didn’t win,” said Stephan.

“They continued to believe and continued to stick to the plan, and they scored a beautiful second goal.

“They deserve big credit to have been able to stay calm and I think it’s a good sign of maturity. I think we’ve grown in the last weeks.

“We are better now. It doesn’t mean it was perfect – we can develop some things, especially in the last third to be more clinical and have some better decisions sometimes – but I enjoyed it a lot.

“The players want to progress, they want to learn, and this was a good win for us.”

Lincoln’s joint boss Chris Cohen warned his players that going into “survival mode” is not an option in the Championship.

The Imps, promoted from League One last season, made a solid start to life in the second tier, but have now lost three matches in a row.

Dom Jefferies equalised for them after Richard Kone’s early opener, but they then came under sustained pressure before succumbing to Kamara’s late winner.

“The game got away from us and we went into survival mode, which worked brilliantly for us last year,” said Cohen.

“There have been too many times now where survival is just not enough. Our message over the next couple of weeks will be that you just can’t survive at this level by being near your goal and defending too low.

“We have to keep the aggression and try to punch back. We’ve got to find a way to punch back and implement what we want to be as an attacking force more often and more consistently throughout the course of games.

“The (winning) goal felt like it was coming. The two penalty areas are absolutely everything in football matches, and we’re conceding goals and chances that are unlike us over the last couple of seasons.

“We’re not being optimistic enough or creating enough volume around their goal. We can suffer defeats, but it has to be a performance the supporters can be proud of, and over these three games maybe that hasn’t been the case.”