Matt Doherty said that the over-riding emotion in the Wolves dressing room was one of “bitter disappointment” after QPR snatched a late winner at Molineux on New Year's Eve.
And he says the team will be looking for much better from today’s tough test at promotion-chasing Sheffield Wednesday (3pm).
Wolves dominated for long spells of the match on Saturday, but were unable to hit back for a second time after Pawel Wszolek nipped in for the game's decisive goal on 87 minutes.
Doherty said afterwards: "We're bitterly disappointed; gutted that we haven't won that game. We didn't play badly. We think we deserved to win the game and we're pretty distraught that we haven't.
"We dominated the game - I wouldn't say we battered them, but we dominated the game for the most part. They had two half chances and scored twice. I know we didn't have a boat load of chances, but we definitely didn't deserve to lose."
After Rangers' Idrissa Sylla broke the deadlock early in the first half, Dave Edwards extended his recent excellent goalscoring run to fire Wolves level by converting Helder Costa's low cross. The home side then pressed for the winner, but were hit by the sucker punch of a second QPR goal late on.
Doherty continued: "We all felt that we were the most likely team to go on and win, but they just got a fortunate, out-of-the-blue goal, which is so disappointing.
“We were the dominant team in the first half and I was thinking that it was only a matter of time before we scored, and then maybe went on to get another one as well.
“We're devastated that it's not turned out that way."
Despite the defeat, manager Paul Lambert was upbeat in his post-match assessment of his side's performance, and Doherty agrees that the disappointment shouldn't be allowed to overshadow Wolves' recent resurgence.
"We're pretty confident at the moment," the Irishman added.
"You can probably see that in the way we're playing going forward. We're exciting to watch, with the two boys on the wings, Bright coming into the team and Eddo scoring goals as well.
“It feels exciting to be part of, going forward, but obviously we need to keep the goals out as well.
"We got a clean sheet at Forest, but the way we're playing at the moment, it's almost like we're betting on ourselves to score more than the opposition, and that's not always going to work. We need to tighten up."
Wolves have an immediate chance to bounce back against the Owls today, and Doherty believes that recent performances mean they should be looking up the table, rather than nervously over their shoulder.
"I know the league position isn't great at the moment and we're quite a lot of points off where we want to be, but since the manager has come in we've pulled ourselves together really well, got some results and changed the way we're playing," he said.
"We're not looking below us, we're thinking we need to win as many games as possible and see where it takes us.
“We don't want to settle for mid-table; that's not where any of us want to be."
