The maverick Moroccan was warned by senior players like Shaun Derry and Joey Barton that he was wasting his talent with a lack of application and a poor attitude. Taarabt, a star of last season's promotion campaign, has been involved in a number of incidents, including walking out of Craven Cottage and catching the bus home as QPR crashed to a 6-0 defeat. But the 22-year-old is now back in the QPR squad and he made an immediate impact off the bench against Sunderland as Warnock's men staged a second-half comeback. Taarabt brought a dynamism to Rangers' attacking game and they hit back from 2-0 down to draw level - only to be denied at the death by a late header from Wes Brown as the Black Cats won 3-2. "Adel has trained really well. The lads have got him back in the fold. They have told him why they wanted to kick him in the teeth and he has responded the right way," Warnock said. "All the lads respected what he did (against Sunderland). Adel did well against Manchester United when he came on." Sunderland took the lead at Loftus Road through Nicklas Bendtner, who has been causing Black Cats boss Martin O'Neill a few headaches of his own. Bendtner apologised after he was arrested along with Lee Cattermole on suspicion of causing criminal damage to parked cars in Newcastle city centre earlier this month, and vowed to focus on football. O'Neill remains to be convinced and he has challenged the Denmark international, who is on loan from Arsenal, to prove himself. "He's a fine player in the making," O'Neill said. "I do accept you could probably still talk about him having potential at 23 but there's a cause there at Sunderland and really it's up to Nicklas to want to be in that cause. "He's committed himself and I thought his performance was excellent (against QPR). He can be a real proper player." Bendtner's header was followed early in the second half by a breakaway goal from Stephane Sessegnon, who was a constant threat throughout the game. "We scored three goals and, for a side that doesn't score that many goals, that has to be encouraging," O'Neill said. "I thought the centre-forwards were absolutely terrific. Sessegnon was out of this world and Bendtner really showed what he's capable of doing."
