Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

Two 1-1 draws in a row for QPR, but they will take more satisfaction from the first in that series than last night's result against Derby County. Against Swansea on Saturday, it was Rangers marshalling their resources and their will to get back into a game which was slipping away from them. The momentum they gained in finding a late equaliser against the Swans was carried in to last night's game in which they battered Derby in the opening minutes but it was a momentum the team was unable to sustain.

Once again, they came very close at the end of the game to taking all three points after Shaun Barker cancelled out the opener from Lee Cook (pictured above), but from a potential six points from two home games, QPR managed just two. It's still unlikely that they will be sucked into the relegation area with a seven-point cushion following last night's game, but they still need to make up the necessary points to ensure survival with three away games out of four to come.

Why do Rangers so often throw away winning positions? If you'd cut out the second half display against Swansea and the first 20 minutes against Derby, you would have a contender for the team's best performance of the season. Sadly, they are rarely able to maintain a performance across one single game. At my reckoning, they've dropped points from a winning position in over a quarter of their games.

As far back as the second game of the season, the R's were unable to see out a 1-0 lead at Plymouth Argyle and conceded an equaliser in the 93rd minute. Since then, they've drawn away at Newcastle and West Brom despite leading (the latter in which they threw away a two-goal cushion), but more damagingly they've failed to see out a win against Notts Forest, Palace, Coventry, Sheffield United and now Derby at home.

That's not counting the games when they took the lead and went on to lose, such as Leicester at home when Adel Taarabt's opener failed to prevent a 2-1 defeat or one of the low points of the season when Patrick Agyemang's goal against the run of play at Watford only precipitated a three-goal collapse. I'd be surprised if any other Championship side has been quite as incapable of holding out for victory.

QPR's game doesn't really suit sitting back and trying to kill a game off but if that is the case, they need to show a more natural inclination to keep up a pressing game and a search for further goals when they take the lead. The Championship is a very tight league, particularly at this stage of the season, so teams will rarely sail into unassailable leads regardless of who is playing who (unless it's Blackpool playing Swansea as surprisingly occurred last night). But Neil Warnock will still look to toughen this side up and increase their smarts the next time they find themselves in the ascendancy.

Rangers lead came through Lee Cook, his first goal of the season and first strike since Boxing Day 2008. There are few more popular scorers than Cook, particularly considering the long road back to first-team football which he has endured. Previously plagued by injury during a spell at Fulham, Cook underwent keyhole surgery on his knee at the end of last season which kept him from a football pitch until the end of January.

Even then, coming into a QPR team shorn of any confidence, it took time to stake a claim to start every game with a recent bout of flu doing little to help. But he is making that claim now and as a supporter of QPR since childhood, few in the current squad can rival Cook's commitment to the club. His return to the side could also be a marker for two players, Gavin Mahon and Martin Rowlands, who are also suffering from long-term injuries.

Assuming QPR pick up a couple more wins, as I am sure they will, thoughts will turn to next season pretty soon. Neil Warnock has already hinted at his desire to bring in his own players and also to reduce the number of loan players at Rangers.

I was ready to say that the QPR squad has a much more healthy size and competitiveness to it at the moment but much will depend on who the manager deems surplus to requirements. With players like Cook and Hogan Ephraim back in contention, talented players like Akos Buzsaky left on the bench and having to prove themselves when they do come on and Mahon and Rowlands still to return, competition to get into the R's midfield could be tough next season.

Even up front, where few would argue against further investment, the emergence of Antonio German also gives the manager an extra option if searching for a win, not forgetting Angelo Balanta who seems to have slipped under the radar since Warnock's arrival.

But there will be investments across the squad, from the goalkeeper on, and it will be interesting to see which of the loan players Warnock tries to hang on to.

I doubt if Adel Taarabt has the stomach for another season of Championship football and Carl Ikeme will soon be heading back to Wolves. Marcus Bent is missing in action and Tamas Priskin has done little to impress. That leaves Matt Hill and Jay Simpson. The latter has been a godsend for QPR this season, but as with Taarabt, it could well be a case of the player receiving better offers than QPR can muster. Hill, on the other hand, is growing in confidence but again, Warnock could well favour his own candidate. Which is basically a very long-winded way of saying expect a lot of new faces for the first day back next season.

QPR - Ikeme, Ramage, Stewart, Gorkss, Connolly (Hill 33), Leigertwood, Cook (German 59), Faurlin, Taarabt, Vine, Simpson (Ephraim 78)

Subs not used - Cerny, Buzsaky, Balanta, Priskin

Goal - Cook (45+2)

 Bookings - Faurlin

Derby County - Bywater, McEveley, Barker, Hunt (Davies 61), Anderson, Green, Savage, Pearson, Tonge, Porter (Hulse 82), Sunu (Leacock 46)

 Subs not used - Martin, Moxey, Teale, Martin

 Goal - Barker (67)

 Bookings - Leacock

 Referee - Mr K Wright

 Attendance - 12,569