Mark Hughes admitted the dismissal of Samba Diakite cost his side dearly as they fell to a 2-1 defeat by West Ham

QPR manager Mark Hughes admitted the dismissal of Samba Diakite cost his side dearly as they slipped to a 2-1 home defeat by West Ham United.

After they went in two goals down at half-time, he thought an equaliser might be in the offing after Adel Taarabt's wonder goal - only for the dismissal of Diakite to derail those hopes.

"We were very poor, certainly first half where we were second to every ball, didn't really get anywhere near the level that we need to get near to get positive results in the Premier League," he said.

"First half we were just off the pace for whatever reason. Second half we made a better fist of it.

"In fact when Adel scored a great goal that got us a little bit of momentum and at that point I could see us getting a second goal.

"But obviously the sending off has completely killed that momentum and that point it was very, very difficult for us.

"We're desperately disappointing on the basis of the first half performance because we've been much better than that."