Karl Henry has admitted that QPR were “unprofessional” in their astonishing 3-2 defeat at home to Liverpool.

Widely criticised prior to Sunday’s game, Rangers were much more competitive and were desperately unlucky to lose.

Manager Harry Redknapp praised them after the match but was less impressed by basic errors that led to a couple of Liverpool’s goals.

“That was the best I’ve seen us play since I’ve been at the club.”

Harry Redknapp after Sunday’s loss

His team switched off in the build-up to the first, protesting against the award of a free-kick as it was taken quickly, while a stray free-kick taken by Leroy Fer at the other end led to the visitors’ winner in the final seconds.

“Harry was not happy. We’ve thrown it away and he’s not happy,” said R’s midfielder Henry.

“It’s naïve from us – unprofessional. It can’t happen. It wouldn’t happen in an Under-11s game.

“The goals we conceded were shocking goals to concede when we put so much in.

“I think they were shaky – they didn’t like us pressing them high. We were getting results from that and to throw it away the way we did, everyone’s disappointed.

“For the first goal, it’s a free-kick and we’re asleep – ridiculous. Then there’s them breaking on us, them running out of their box quicker than we do.

“They have four or five bodies from their box in our box and we’re not with them. That should not be possible.

“So, that’s unprofessional from our point of view. You get to 2-2 late on in a game and you don’t concede.

“We dropped the free-kick short rather than putting it in the stand or making sure it’s long in the corner or somewhere else, and it’s unprofessional.”

With Rangers bottom of the table, Redknapp’s position had been under scrutiny before the game.

But the vastly improved performance suggested a corner may have been turned despite the result.

Henry added: “We’re fighting for the manager, we’re fighting for ourselves and we’re fighting for the club.

“It’s a good job we have here and it’s well documented that footballers get paid well. We know the situation we’re in and we’re giving it everything, and any suggestion that we’re not, we’re not happy about.

“We know we were almost there. The performance was good and we can’t fault anyone’s effort I don’t think – we left everything our there. I don’t think I could run another yard.

“We all put in everything we had and if perform like that and make sure it’s over 90 minutes, not 82 or whatever it was, we’ll get results.”

See also: Redknapp defiant after gut-wrenching loss

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