Ainsworth was proud of his players'
QPR caretaker-boss Gareth Ainsworth was proud of his players' performance despite their 2-1 defeat against Preston.
Jon Parkin gave the hosts a first-half lead after seizing on a weak back-pass from Kaspars Gorkss before former Preston forward Patrick Agyemang looked to have earned the Hoops a point, but Sean St Ledger's 74th-minute winner sealed three points for Alan Irvine's men.
Matt Connolly saw a header cleared off the line by Darren Carter in the dying seconds, and Ainsworth was delighted with his side's overall application.
He said: "I think attacking-wise it was probably one of our best displays. We played some really good stuff, and but for our final ball we could have scored a few more. We had one cleared off the line in the last minute, and that's testament to how we went right to the end.
"For once, it's been a defensive mistake (for Parkin's opener) that has let us down after we have been solid all season. It was a mix-up, and a bad goal to concede, but credit to Preston, they knew what they had to do and they did it.
"Fair play to my lads, I thought they gave it a real go, and if we can take that forward into next season, we'll definitely win a lot more points than we have this year."
