NEIL Warnock had nothing but praise for his players after their gutsy second half performance at Spurs – even though they fell short of a miraculous recovery.

Jay Bothroyd's first goal for the club gave the Hoops hope of taking an unlikely point, until Gareth Barry's second gooal of the afternoon killed the contest after 72 minutes.

“I thought they were fabulous really,” said the QPR boss of his troops after he gambled on a double substitution at the start of the half.

“It would have been easy to look at the game at half time and think it was a question of how many [Spurs would score].

“But I decided to make changes, even if it meant we didn't have any more subs if we got an injury. We just said: 'Let's try and get that next goal and have something to shout about.

“We got amongst them and played some good football at times.

“I thought we respected them a little bit too much in the first half, but they've got so much quality. I even found myself clapping their third goal because it was such a great goal.

“I think we can take a lot of credit. We've come a long way since Fulham. I think we've got a bit more personality about the team now, a bit more belief."

Warnock added: "We did well second half and we could have made it interesting. There were one or two itchy fingers on the bench at 2-1, but you've got to take your hat off to their finishes.

“I thought we also brought the first half on ourselves, giving the ball away in silly areas and we weren't compact enough, but second half, we showed what could happen to the best of teams.

“They knew they were in for a game then and our fans enjoyed that, you could tell that with the ovation they gave them at the end.”

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