QPR defender Joel Lynch heaped praise on Alex Smithies after the goalkeeper produced a man of the match performance in Rangers' 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Thursday night.
The former Huddersfield man made a string of fine saves to keep the score down and Lynch, also a former Terrier, nearly rescued a point with a goal before missing a gilt edged chance in stoppage time.
And the QPR centre back knows how critical the former England youth international is to the side.
Lynch said: “Smithies keeps us in it all the time. I think he's a fantastic keeper at this level and making brilliant saves and keeping us in games.
“He shouldn't be keeping us in games and is fantastic to have behind us.
“We had 10 men and were going with it. To have him there is good for the team and it's disappointing not to get anything out of the game.”
Lynch may have scored his first goal for the club but it was the miss in stoppage time that he was thinking about after the game.
He added: “It's good to score and get a bit of momentum going. As any human being, I'll look at it as I could have equalised.
“We've got to pick ourselves up and go again. We've got to keep improving to try and get some results.”
Lynch explained further: “It's disappointing. We could have got something at the end. I had a very good chance at the end but that's football.
“I think we did ourselves proud with 10 men and it was really unfortunate and the way Perchy (James Perch) was sent off.”
