Steve McClaren felt a bad refereeing decision cost his side in defeat to Rovers at Ewood Park.

Rovers claimed the three points as Bradley Dack scored from the spot three minutes from time after Josh Scowen tripped Ben Brereton.

McClaren felt neither side deserved to win a tight game and felt his back four deserved to claim a fifth clean sheet in six games.

“I don’t think we did enough to win it, we didn’t create enough, but they were never going to score,” the Rs boss told his club’s website.

“The only way they were going to score was from a bad refereeing decision. It was never a penalty. The linesman was 15 yards away and never gave it, he walked away and the referee, from a bad position, gave the penalty.

“The decision has cost us a point and the continuation of our run.”

QPR went in to the game in 10th after an excellent run of form, helped by four wins in five games in which they conceded just one goal.

And McClaren felt his side deserved another shut-out, despite feeling they started slowly as Danny Graham went close inside 60 seconds, only to be denied by Joe Lumley.

But he admitted they didn't do enough themselves to take the three points.

He added: “In terms of defending we were magnificent again.

“We’re all judged on our performance and I thought that was a poor performance from both teams from start to finish.

“I thought we were poor in the first ten minutes. We created our own problems and got away with it.

“After that the back four and goalkeeper controlled the game. But we didn’t do enough with the ball to win it.

“I really thought the longer the game went on that we were going to win it. We didn’t produce enough to win it but never deserved to lose.

“We’re disappointed because we wanted to continue our run, even if it was just a point.”