Mark Hughes, the new Queens Park Rangers manager, took encouragement from his side's display despite seeing them slip to a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United in his first game in charge.
A fine goal from the striker Leon Best just before half time settled the game in Newcastle's favour at the Sport Direct Arena as the Magpies moved into sixth place in the Premier League.
For Hughes it marked a losing start to his reign, having replaced Neil Warnock last week, but the former Fulham and Manchester City manager took some positives from his side's performance and felt they deserved to get something out of the game.
He said of his players on Sky Sports News: "I was pleased with their application, they gave me everything they had, obviously we've been done with a little bit of individual skill in our own box.
"In terms of our play I think we created a number of reasonable chances and on another day those will go in for us.
"It would have been ideal obviously if we could have got something out of the game because overall I felt we deserved something.
"It's a hard place to come, we understand that, it was never going to be easy so that's why I'm encouraged by what I saw today."
Regarding the possibility of new signings during the transfer window, Hughes said: "If there's quality available and attainable then we'll pursue that but they have to be the right players and they have to be the players who can come in and make a major impact because otherwise there's no point bringing them."
Alan Pardew, the Newcastle manager, praised his side's performance. "We were disciplined with the goal that we had and tried to look for another. And then in the last period of the game we were just seeing it out really, it was a nice disciplined performance from us," he said.
