Gary Rowett: Leicester gifted QPR victory after going ahead

Leicester boss Gary Rowett believes his side gifted QPR a 3-1 Championship comeback victory at the King Power Stadium.

After Rowett secured a first win of his tenure against Bristol City in midweek, Leicester had been fancied to secure back-to-back wins for just the third time this season against a QPR side which had failed to score and conceded 12 goals in four-straight defeats.

But after Jordan James’ fine finish had put the Foxes in front, shaky defending then saw them subside as Rangers replied through Harvey Vale, a Ben Nelson own goal and Ronnie Edwards.

A second league defeat under Rowett left Leicester second-bottom – two points from safety – and still in danger of dropping into League One for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

“It was like Christmas Day. You give three gifts away and you can just open whichever one you want because we’ve given them three, very, very soft goals,” said Rowett.

“I thought we started the game quite brightly, some good movements and some good moments to try and get into good positions.

“We scored a good goal from JJ. It’s a lovely finish from the edge of the box, but I just felt as though we needed to do that little bit more.

“We were a little slow and, at times, a little bit sloppy on the ball, but I think it was off the ball that was the most disappointing, to concede three goals in the way that we did.”

He added: “There’s three goals where I don’t necessarily think QPR have had to cut us open and score with great quality.

“That’s probably why we’re in the position we are, because you’ve conceded three goals at home without having to make an opponent work incredibly hard to get those three goals.”

A run of three wins in 15 matches since beating Leicester 4-1 in the reverse fixture in December had left QPR in danger of being dragged from within a single point of the play-offs into an unlikely relegation fight.

But they now have an 11-point buffer over the bottom three.

Hoops head coach Julien Stephan believes it was important mentally to break the recent bad run and do this by playing in a positive style.

“It was a strong reaction from the players today after recent results,” he said.

“They showed great character, strong personality and good quality as well, especially with the ball in the first half.

“We continued to do that at the beginning of the second half and scored the second and third goals.

“After that, the management of the game was perfect defensively, good organisation, clever, a good ability to protect the box and we didn’t concede.

“So it’s a great win for us and I think the players deserve this win.

“It’s a good reward because we have had a lot of disappointment, but we stayed very, very positive with the players and we wanted to continue to push the players to take some risks and to play good football.”