Mark Warburton was appointed as manager of Queens Park Rangers in the summer.

Despite being an ex-Brentford manager, Warburton was welcomed by most QPR fans with open arms. He's a manager with good credibility and experience with the likes of Nottingham Forest and Rangers, and is famed for his good work with young players.

QPR being the stringent team they are, have been looking towards a more youth-focused approach in recent seasons, and Warburton fit the bill.

But his side have had mixed reviews this season. Inconsistency has kept QPR in the bottom-half of the table, but here we take a look at three times that Warburton has proved his worth to QPR:

New Year form

QPR started the season well. They looked like dark horses for a top-six spot but results quickly tumbled in the run-in to Christmas, and Warburton was coming under some pressure going into the New Year.

The team weren't firing, and were slipping further down the Championship table. But Cardiff visited West London on New Year's Day, and nobody could foretell the 6-1 win that was heading QPR's way.

That was then followed by a 5-1 win over Swansea in the FA Cup, bringing back belief into Warburton's QPR. They were heading all the stats charts after their first two games of the year, and it proved that on their day, QPR are a real force to be reckoned with.

Win v Leeds in January

Following those wins against the league's Welsh sides, QPR were beaten 3-1 on their final visit to Griffin Park. Then came the visit of an out-of-favour Leeds side, who were gunning to take advantage of a lowly QPR, and reinstate their position in the automatic promotion spots.

But QPR put on their best defensive display of the season to keep out Leeds - Liam Kelly kept his first clean sheet and claimed the Man of the Match award after keeping out Patrick Bamford's penalty to eventually win the game 1-0.

Warburton's side showed that day that, not only can they put goals past the best in the league, but they can also keep them out. QPR remain one of the worst defensive sides in the league, but they can compete defensively in the league.

Win v Stoke City this month

QPR went into their last outing looking for their first league win in four, and in five in all competitions. They'd come off the back of a good showing in the goalless draw at Swansea and hosted a lowly Stoke side, in what became a hugely important fixture for QPR as the bottom-three were drawing closer.

After half-an-hour, QPR were 2-0 down and fans were automatically fearing the worst for their season. But QPR held their nerve and were level by half-time.

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A rallying cry from Warburton must've come at half-time, because QPR went on to win 4-2 - a game which epitomised everything, both brilliant and abject about Warburton's QPR this season.

Fans only need a glance at last season's league table to see how well Warburton is doing, and on such a tight budget too. This season was always going to be a bottom-half struggle, and fans can be glad that Championship football is likely to come around again next season.