QPR boss Steve McClaren questioned “mind-boggling” refereeing from Peter Bankes after his side were beaten 1-0 at Blackburn thanks to a late penalty.
In a poor game, low on quality and chances, the hosts snatched an 87th-minute winner from the penalty spot after Ben Brereton went down in the box.
Bradley Dack duly dispatched the penalty for his ninth goal of the season – the perfect way to mark his 50th league start for the club.
A draw would have been a fair result, but the Hoops lost against a team they have not beaten in more than 19 years.
And after seeing his side’s three-match winning run ended by what he felt was a poor decision to award the penalty, McClaren could not hide his anger.
He said: “It had 0-0 written all over it. I didn’t think either side looked like scoring.
“I thought, after the first 10 minutes, the team defended magnificently. We were never going to concede. I couldn’t see it, and we just needed to produce a bit of quality going forward to win the game.
“We didn’t; our final ball and cross wasn’t good enough but we didn’t deserve to lose. I’ve seen the penalty again. It’s not a penalty, and the one that’s got to give it is the linesman who is 15 yards away. I thought it was a poor decision.
“The referee, I thought, even for both teams, had a poor game.
“I didn’t think that performance was very good. A lot of decisions for both teams were sometimes a little bit mind-boggling, but we nearly got the point.
“We didn’t deserve more, but we’ll go back to the drawing board and continue what we’re doing. We never looked in trouble, but as I say, a little bit more quality going forward and we’d have won that game, but we didn’t deserve to lose it.”