Rampant Rangers thrill Warnock

Rampant Rangers thrill Warnock

Published Sep. 17, 2011 9:15 p.m. ET

Warnock fielded a side featuring the five permanent signings he has made since Tony Fernandes' takeover of the London outfit last month. One of them, new captain Joey Barton, opened the scoring by converting a cross from another, Shaun Wright-Phillips, in the eighth minute. It was 2-0 two minutes later thanks to Alejandro Faurlin's strike and the visitors added a deserved third goal towards the end, with substitute DJ Campbell - an arrival from earlier in the summer - sliding the ball in having been teed up by Armand Traore, another recent recruit. Both Campbell and Barton were opening their goalscoring accounts for QPR and Warnock was hugely encouraged to see the way the team built on Monday night's goalless draw with Newcastle, in which the new quintet had made their debuts. "It was probably as complete a performance as you are going to get away from home," said Warnock. "But we have been like that - we were like that on Monday night against Newcastle really, just without the finishing product. "To get a goal here early doors was really good and then it was followed up quickly by a great second goal. "I thought we were unlucky not to score a few more. We really move the ball quickly and since all these new lads have come in, training has gone up 30-40% in terms of quality. "You could see that today - even my old lads were spot on." Barton was involved in controversy in the closing stages after being on the receiving end of a hefty tackle from Karl Henry. Henry was not booked, but QPR defender Anton Ferdinand was shown a yellow card for protesting, while Barton became embroiled in a further skirmish before the final whistle and also appeared to gesture to the crowd. The midfielder has frequently been in trouble over the course of his career and joined QPR having been made available on a free transfer by Newcastle after criticising the club on his Twitter account. Warnock, however, is just grateful to have the 29-year-old. "I'm glad Joey has got his past or I wouldn't have been able to sign him," Warnock said. "He was my number one target. I knew the situation at Newcastle and just kept hoping that none of the top clubs would want him. "I'm sure he could get into one of those teams in the top four or five, but thankfully nobody came in for him." On the incident at the end of the match, Warnock said: "I've just fined Anton Ferdinand a lot of money for running 40 yards to get booked. "I know if the official had got the decision right, there wouldn't have been any problems like that, because how the kid (Henry) didn't get booked for the tackle on Joey Barton in the corner I'll never know. "I'll be looking at that with great interest, because it is a tackle from behind and even if he got the ball - which he didn't - it is a yellow card, and the linesman is two yards away. If he flags, all that stops." Wolves manager Mick McCarthy was at a loss to explain his side's poor showing. "We didn't get going from the first whistle," McCarthy said. "When we put the ball forward we should have been up behind it, but we weren't and we never got near anybody. "It is not like us and why that is, goodness knows. I can't put my finger on it because it is just not us. "I'm not taking anything away from QPR, they played well, but they were aided and abetted by a poor performance from all of us, myself included. That was as bad as we have been."

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