Queens Park Rangers 1-0 Wigan Athletic: Steve McClaren says R's 'will get better' after first win
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Tomer Hemed scored the winner against Wigan 48 hours after joining QPR on loan from Brighton
Queens Park Rangers manager Steve McClaren says his side will "get better and better" after his miserable start as boss came to an end with victory over Wigan Athletic.
Tomer Hemed, on loan from Brighton, acrobatically fired past Latics goalkeeper Christian Walton to register the game's decisive goal before half-time.
QPR had lost each of their four opening league games for the first time in the club's history - including a 7-1 hammering by West Bromwich Albion and Tuesday's 3-0 home defeat by Bristol City.
"Patience is a difficult word in football," McClaren told BBC Radio London. "I've had to be and I don't like it. The fans have voiced their opinion and the owners have also been patient.
"Hopefully we'll go on from this."
Rangers produced a much more resolute display against Wigan, who came closest to equalising when Nick Powell forced Joe Lumley into a smart save.
Lumley was making his first league start of the season - and only his fourth since coming through the academy - after McClaren opted to drop regular number one Matt Ingram.
Despite Wigan having the better of the general play, Lumley was largely untroubled, although the 23-year-old keeper had to do well to keep Josh Windass' effort out when the game was still goalless.
Up front, QPR also benefited from the presence of new loan strikers Hemed and Nahki Wells, whose arrival McClaren believes has given the whole squad a lift.
Hemed and Wells (right) have joined on season-long loans from Premier League sides Brighton and Burnley respectively
"The team looked to have more belief, character and resilience to fight because we know we've got chances to score," he said.
"We're going to have to change and adapt and build a team around them, but you see the experience that they've got.
"I think they'll get better because they weren't fit, we just threw them in and on adrenaline they've come through.
"We're just delighted at the quality of Nakhi and Tomer - they deserve a lot of credit and the supporters should acknowledge that."
McClaren had won just one of his 13 previous matches in the Championship - but victory over Wigan will ease some of the early growing pressure on the former England boss.
The clean sheet was also QPR's first since March, with Rangers having conceded 13 league goals already this season.
Wigan manager Paul Cook, who felt QPR's goal should have been disallowed for a foul by Joel Lynch on Chey Dunkley, said:
"Referees [are] getting key moments wrong - if you get them right then the game just flows to a 0-0 draw and we get on the bus happy.
"Other people can decide if he gets that decision right. We were getting informed on the sidelines that the other officials told him it was a foul.
"Goals change the whole dynamics of a game and that game was changed by that decision. We're very disappointed with it."