Ian Holloway has insisted he stands by his decision to make 10 changes against Brentford and would do the same again.
The QPR boss saw his side thrashed 4-1 at Loftus Road in the EFL Cup.
But he defended giving his fringe players a chance to impress despite the awful result.
“I stand by that. I wanted the ones who haven’t played to show me what it’s about and were they ready to take on Brentford,” he told West London Sport.
“It didn’t look like it. But there were a lot of positives for me and I would still make the same decision because the league campaign is absolutely vital for us.
“It was always going to be the right thing to do from my point of view. I’ve got to look past the score, past the criticism and look past who it’s against.
“The score doesn’t feel very nice because they’re from over the road.”
Holloway also felt his team could have rescued the tie had they managed to find a goal in the second half.
Darnell Furlong pulled a goal back after Brentford had raced into a 3-0 lead.
“I felt the fifth goal was vital and it looked like we should get it,” said Holloway.
“We had some really great chances and didn’t take them and Brentford were very clinical. They’ve punished us.
“I was quite pleased with the second half. We had them pinned and the whole atmosphere would have changed if we’d had scored.”