Alan Sheehan insisted it was “not a given” he would become Swansea boss on a permanent basis despite leading them to five consecutive Sky Bet Championship victories.
The Swans edged a 2-1 win at QPR and have now won seven and lost just two of their 11 matches since Sheehan took caretaker charge following the sacking of Luke Williams in February.
It would also have been five clean sheets in a row had Karamoko Dembele not pulled a goal back for the visitors, with the west London side’s first effort on target.
Morgan Fox’s 29th-minute own goal put Swansea in front and Harry Darling doubled the lead early in the second half for the Welsh side, who were only six points clear of the drop zone just over a month ago.
They will end the season much closer to the play-off than relegation places as they are currently just six points away from the top six.
Swansea fans at Loftus Road made it clear they wanted Sheehan to take the job full-time, but the Irishman said: “Let’s see what happens. It’s not a given. We’ll see.
“If they want me to be the guy, we’ll have a conversation. It’s not a definite yes, it’s not a definite no. We need to be aligned as a football club.
“Looking forward, what are the expectations? Obviously we’re on an incredible run – five wins in a row in the Championship is very good – but ultimately I can’t really answer that.
“I’ll have a conversation with the ownership at the end of the season and see where we’re at. It’s got to be aligned; what I want, what they want, to move this club forward.”
QPR barely threatened before substitute Dembele netted after being set up by Nicolas Madsen.
“Very happy. For 70 minutes of the game we totally controlled it,” said Sheehan.
“The game was taking place in their half and if I’m being over-critical, I’d probably say we should have killed the game.
“But the momentum is very strong and credit to the players. I’m really happy with a lot of elements of the game today.”
QPR boss Marti Cifuentes took some consolation from his team’s late flurry, youngster Emmerson Sutton coming on for his senior debut and the impact of Rangers’ other substitutes, but admitted it was otherwise a day to forget.
“Until minute 65, I didn’t like what I saw,” the Spaniard said. “Credit to the guys showing resilience and a mentality to try to push and get something from the game.
“That push, even if I felt it was more about emotion than creating clear chances, we had the capacity to make them suffer a bit.
“The way we competed until the last second of the game is the positive today for me, together with Emmerson Sutton’s debut and the bench’s impact.
“I would say those are the three positives. The first 65 minutes, no one can be happy about it. That was below what we expect.
“Sometimes the opposition are just better than you – and they were better.
“They were aggressive in the way they pressed. We struggled with how to find solutions to this.”
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