The success of QPR's promotion challenge will be determined by the experience in the ranks and an ability to sustain a growing confidence in away games, according to Gavin Mahon.

Mahon has been there before. He captained Watford to their play-off win in 2006, and is confident he can repeat the achievement with Rangers.

The Rs did not quite pull off a first ever win at Nottingham Forest on Saturday but another good away performance has kept the momentum going.

They are now unbeaten in nine Championship fixtures - five of which have been on the road. "It's the belief that we can get results away from home that's created the improvement," Mahon told the Gazette.

"Before, we were at times playing okay in away games but not really having that belief in front of goal." [25a0] Cont inside back page

"At the moment we're causing teams problems with the way we're playing. We're hitting teams on the break.

"We've got players who are exciting and can get at players and cause problems. We've also got men who can pop up and score goals.

"The system we've got is causing teams problems. Teams are having to attack us, which helps the way we play. We win the ball back and we can hurt teams.

"We've shown the last few weeks away from home that we can pick up points. I think we've got seven from the last three games, but it should really have been nine.

"It's always been coming. I've always said that we're not far away from being a successful team and a team that's going to cause other teams problems and over the last three or four weeks we've shown that."

On the subject of experience, the former Watford and Brentford midfielder has equally firm views.

"I think it's massive [to have experienced players in the team] especially with the young players that we've got around," he said.

"You need experienced players to keep them under control, to keep them driving in the right direction.

"When we are put under pressure, and when we are struggling in games, the experienced players can keep everyone's heads up and if we can keep believing in what we're doing, and what the manager wants us to do, it's going to get us results."

Mahon continued: "We've got a few players in this squad that have been in this situation before - who know what it takes to get out of this division - and they're going to be important players for us.

"We know if we can keep this run going and keep playing well, we'll get in to the play-offs."

Despite their recent good run, Mahon believes Rangers can improve further if they create more chances for their forwards and are more ruthless in finishing teams off.

"Even though we've been playing well in certain games, we haven't really killed teams off," he said.

"If we can keep this solid base and create chances for the strikers, then we will get goals like we have done over the last few games and we'll start picking up more points.

"Defensively the team are outstanding. I think you would do well finding a team better defensively than us, but it's all about scoring goals and if you don't score goals you don't get results."

Mahon added: "We've got to keep picking up results and if you look at some of the results around us a lot of teams up there have either lost or drawn.

"Now it's a big chance for us to start climbing and start getting in touch with them because you want to be close to three or four teams come five or six games to go, not only being able to catch one. You need three or four in your sight and that's what we'll be aiming for."

Rangers have a weekend off because of their early exit from the FA Cup before returning to action against fellow promotion hopefuls Ipswich Town next weekend.

"That's going to be a big game," Mahon said. "We're quite strong at home so we are looking to get a result.

"We've got a few big games coming up, but we've played all the top teams and have done well against them so there's no reason why we can't keep this run going and push on for the last third of the season."