‘He’s been a victim of that’ – QPR boss reacts to Colback red card in Sunderland defeat

QPR boss Gareth Ainsworth says that Jack Colback has been a victim of his competitive nature as the midfielder was sent off in their 3-1 defeat at Loftus Road to Sunderland on Saturday afternoon.

The west Londoners took the lead early on through Kenneth Paal, with the left-back collecting the ball on the edge of the box in the 12th minute and steering a low drive beyond Sunderland keeper Anthony Patterson.

Colback, who played 135 times for the Black Cats before moving to Newcastle in 2014, was issued with a straight red by referee Dean Whitestone nine minutes later for a foul on Jobe Bellingham.

Goals from Jack Clarke, Dan Ballard and Abdoullah Ba gave Tony Mowbray’s side all three points.

Ainsworth said post-match: “Jack’s a competitor and if you tackle hard in this day and age and miss your timing then the refs can come down with a red card – he’s been a victim of that.

“We had a plan put in place and looked very secure, but with 10 men it was always going to be difficult against a team that were one game away from the Premier League last year and have spent good money in the transfer window.

“It was hard with 10 men. I’m not saying we definitely would have won with 11, but we had a plan.

“To get to half-time 1-0 would have been great. It’s a different team talk at 1-0 up. After that, I just wanted us to stay in the game.”