PLYMOUTH Argyle have a dozen games left to play in their quest to stay in the Coca-Cola Championship. Last night's 2-0 defeat to Neil Warnock's Queen's Park Rangers side at Loftus Road provided little evidence that the Home Park men are likely to find the route to salvation.

Results elsewhere meant that the Pilgrims remain seven points adrift of the fourth-from-bottom team, but time is running out and Paul Mariner's men cannot afford many more bad days at the office. They had one of those last night.

On a day which started with Argyle announcing a loss of £2.8 million for last season – and plans to stage a share issue and to transfer the ownership of Home Park away from the football club – there was little injection of optimism on the pitch in the evening.

The Pilgrims did not produce an on-target goal attempt all game, and they were beaten by an Adel Taarabt penalty late in the first half and a free header by Damion Stewart early in the second half.

Mariner, Argyle's head coach, admitted: "It was a poor penalty to give away at the stage of the game. We conceded a goal at the wrong time. They had a lot of possession in front of us [before that], but there was nothing really hurting us.

"Then we conceded a goal from a ball going into the box to the far post, which you see in every game in this league. For somebody to have a free header at the far post is unacceptable. As a team in our position, we can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot."

Despite the setback in west London, Mariner is not in surrender mood. Far from it. He said: "People have been writing us off ever since I took over, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. There's a tremendous amount of fight in the team.

"I'm enjoying working with the players, and I believe the players are enjoying working with [assistant head coach] John Carver and I. You can debate until you're blue in the face about the quality of the squad but, if you come in and look at the day-to-day happenings at the club, everything is hunky-dory."

The former Argyle striker is not denying that times are hard, though. He added: "There is a great deal of pressure on the players to perform on match days and, when you're in the position we're in, where confidence is low, it's up to us as a management team to instil confidence in the players."

Mariner remained in London overnight, and will join the rest of his coaching staff at Wembley today to attend a hearing at which they will attempt to secure a work permit for Zimbabwe international left-back Onismor Bhasera, who has been training with the Pilgrims for much of the past month.

Argyle will also take a player back to Devon with them from the capital. Mariner revealed last night that the Pilgrims had agreed a deal to borrow a central defender from West Ham United. Bondz N'Gala, a 20-year-old Londoner, will be added to the Pilgrims' squad in time for Saturday's trip to Coventry City.

N'Gala has played Carling Cup football for the Hammers, and League football during loan spells with Milton Keynes Dons last season and Scunthorpe United this term.