Premier League: Alan Irvine stunned by West Brom's defending in 3-2 defeat away to QPR

Alan Irvine struggled to explain West Brom's defending at set pieces as they lost 3-2 away to QPR on Saturday.

West Brom were 2-0 up after 20 minutes in the Premier League clash at Loftus Road when Joleon Lescott and Silvestre Varela struck but a Charlie Austin hat-trick sent QPR to victory.

All three goals conceded by West Brom came from corners, but Irvine refuted the claim that his side have problems defending set-pieces.

“We are good at the defending of them," said the Albion manager. 

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

"We don’t concede easily from set plays. We do our work on them. We are well prepared. We know what’s coming but today we didn’t do the jobs well enough.

"It’s very hard to take, given the way we played for most of the game. We were the better team for most of the game but we didn’t do well enough defending three corners. Ultimately that has cost us."

Irvine revealed before that game that he tried to sign three-goal Austin for Sheffield Wednesday but couldn't afford him and he was full of praise for the striker. 

"He’s a very good player and he’s in great form,” said Irvine. 

“We handled him very well in general play but on those occasions he was good enough to get the goals.

“We controlled the game and got off to a fantastic start. We could have scored more. We had good chances and Rob Green made a couple of very good saves. On another day you win the game quite confidently, but I’m bitterly disappointed as we deserved more.”