Queens Park Rangers turned in a horror show of a performance as they slipped to a 4-1 home defeat against Preston North End this afternoon.

Recent signing Jayden Stockley opened the scoring for the visitors early. Second half goals from Alan Browne, Jordan Storey and another new Preston signing, Brad Potts, killed off Steve McClaren's Hoops.

A late Matt Smith goal was scant consolation and the performance was reminiscent of the early part of the season, when they looked like relegation fodder.

Having surprised critics this season, Rangers have now begun to settle back into mediocrity and currently sit 13th, seven points outside the top six.

Owner Amit Bhatia was no happy in the aftermath of the game, classing it as their 'worst performance of the season' on Twitter. He posted on social media immediately after the game, also commenting that they've got to 'learn from it quick and move on'.

The result means Rangers are without a win in four Championship fixtures, although they have registered a victory in that period, beating Leeds in the FA Cup third round. They're back in FA Cup action next week away at Portsmouth, before a trip to Wigan to open their February account.

The Verdict

Worst performance of the season? Was Bhatia not at the 7-1 humbling against West Brom? It wasn't a good result or perfromance, but when you consider the restrictions under which McClaren has worked, they've done really well to be anywhere near the play-off race.

This was certainly an afternoon to forget and Bhatia is right, they do need to move on quick, but it wasn't the end of the world. They're not going to be top six, nor bottom three.