Joey Barton felt compelled to apologise to his QPR colleagues and the club’s travelling support after the ninth red card of his career contributed to a return to their losing ways on the road.
The QPR captain was dismissed just after the half-hour after a moment that rekindled images of Vinnie Jones and Paul Gascoigne in a Wimbledon-Newcastle encounter in 1988. The only difference being that Barton’s contact with Tom Huddlestone’s private parts (via a swinging low blow rather than a grab) took place in full view of the referee, Anthony Taylor.
It took place after the QPR debutant Darnell Furlong crunched into Nikica Jelavic in front of the dugouts. Players from both sides gathered around the official and Barton first pushed away Hull’s Alex Bruce before aiming a below-the-belt swipe at Huddlestone.
“I’ve apologised to the lads and would like to apologise to all QPR fans who travelled today,” tweeted Barton, who claimed the home players were trying to get Furlong sent off. “I’m gutted I got sent off. I’ve let my team-mates down today and being someone who puts the team above everything else I’m gutted about that.
“My actions towards Huddlestone were certainly not malicious, it was a stupid reaction to being barged but I can appreciate it wasn’t right.”
Chris Ramsey, in his first match since being appointed as manager for the rest of the season, said he would make a judgment on Barton’s behaviour when emotions had died down. “I haven’t been around Joey all his career. All I can do is judge him on how he’s been since I’ve been in the post. He’s been a fantastic professional. It’s an incident that we wouldn’t have wanted to happen but the players reacted well to keep going for that long with 10 men.”
Indeed, the loss of Barton, who had created a Premier League record of being booked in his previous seven appearances, galvanised the visitors, who trailed to Jelavic’s opening goal on the quarter-hour. The Croatian striker back-pedalled in anticipation of a poor clearance by Steven Caulker and thrashed a volley from a dozen yards out that left Rob Green helpless.
Having broken a sequence of 11 top-flight defeats at Sunderland in their last outing QPR dealt admirably with the handicap of playing with one short for an hour. They equalised six minutes before the interval when a flowing move, the most attractive of the match, involving Furlong and Bobby Zamora, resulted in Matt Phillips bisecting Bruce and Michael Dawson with an arrow of a cross that the returning Charlie Austin headed in.
The hobbling celebration that followed offered a reminder of what Hull could have had – Austin agreed to a £4.5m move from Burnley in July 2013 only for the club to pull out of the deal due to concerns over his knee post-medical.
“I congratulated Charlie for the way he’s handled himself after what happened here because it wasn’t easy,” said Steve Bruce, the Hull manager. “He showed the manner and dignity of a proper man. He didn’t even know he had a bad knee. But he’s certainly a proper centre-forward and our loss is certainly QPR’s gain.”
It was Austin’s second goal in eight matches but gave QPR something to cling to, and they were accomplished in protecting Green. Until, that is, the 89th minute when, with four Hull forwards on the pitch, one substitute, Sone Aluko, crossed and another, Abel Hernández, flicked on. N’Doye’s effort was foiled at point-blank range by the England goalkeeper. Cruelly, the danger had not been averted and when Brady slung the ball back into the area, N’Doye celebrated his 30th birthday by heading in his second goal in two starts since a January deadline-day switch from Lokomotiv Moscow.
Back-to-back victories for Hull has allowed them to open up a four-point buffer on those in the relegation places and deliver a blow to QPR’s hopes of staying up. Yet it will be the below-the-belt one that will be remembered in years to come. “You can’t go punching people in the knackers, can you?” said Bruce.
