Bersant makes his mark but Mick rues handball call that is nothing to laugh at

Mick  McCarthy was left frustrated by the officials’ failure to spot a handball in the lead up to QPR’s opener but conceded Bersant Celina’s wonder goal late on was too little, too late for Blues.

Jamie Mackie put Rangers ahead before the break after former Town loanee Massimo Luongo appeared to handle the ball, then Luke Freeman  added a second soon after half-time.

Celina gave Town a lifeline with a brilliant individual goal on 89 minutes but Mick told iFollow: “It was a fabulous strike. It was right in front of our fans and that goal showed what he is about. He has done himself a whole load of good today in terms of getting  in the team.

“The goal put a gloss on the performance that wasn’t really there for me though.

“We didn’t scrap it out every single minute as much as we should have done - and it was a scrap.

“We didn’t defend well enough for the second goal and what few chances we had, we didn’t do enough with them. That was frustrating but there were mitigating circumstances.

“It was handball for the first goal, clearly. The referee said he couldn’t see it. The fourth official has the same view as me. The linesman the same.

“The QPR bench were laughing at them. It ended up in our net - it certainly wasn’t funny.”

Subscribers to iFollow can watch the full interview with Mick now.