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Wolves boss Mick McCarthy points to Djibril Cisse red card as a crucial in 2-1 comeback against QPR
Mark Hughes also bemoaned the dismissal of his French striker but pointed to the positives he saw from their first half performance
4 Feb 2012 18:48:00
By Jay Jaffa at Loftus Road
Wolves produced a battling second-half comeback at Loftus Road on Saturday to claim all three points in a 2-1 victory over QPR, lifting Mick McCarthy's side out of the relegation zone.
The second-half onslaught owed as much to the introduction of the impressive Kevin Doyle as it did to the absence of the petulant Djibril Cisse, as the Frenchman was given a straight red card for grabbing Wolves captain Roger Johnson by the throat.
The visitors went on to win the tie thanks to strikes from Matt Jarvis and Doyle, cancelling out Bobby Zamora's debut opener, but it was the sending off that both managers believed was crucial.
“He [Cisse] was playing well and he's made a mistake and cost his team,” McCarthy told reporters after the game.
“The extra man paid dividends and I don't see myself as unlucky, but without having too much of the good luck, one man's mistake has given us the opportunity to win a game.”
McCarthy did lament the sending off, but admitted the current rules dictate that referee Mark Clattenburg had no choice but to dismiss Cisse.
“You know me and my sentiments towards football now,” McCarthy told reporters after the game.
“That for me, wasn't a sending off when I played.
“And Roger's [Johnson] tackle wouldn't have been a booking when I played strangely enough.
“But it is and the sending off is because you can't grab anybody by the face – it's not allowed any more.”
Mark Hughes had no complaints about the sending off, but did sympathise with Cisse, who has broken his leg twice before in his career, therefore knows the consequences of potentially mistimed tackles.
Hughes said: "I think obviously we were disappointed with the initial challenge and given Djibril's playing history and the injuries that he's had, he reacted to that.
"I think if he had just kept it at the initial reaction when he jumped up and confronted the guy, I think he would have been alright.
"But then he went back again and raised his hands to the boy's neck area.
"As we all know, you can't do that and the referee, unfortunately from our point of view, had to send him off."
Hughes did find positives in QPR's performance however, aiming his praise at his attacking players, despite failing to pick up the three points.
"I was really pleased with what we were producing. I thought the interplay between Bobby, Adel and Djibril was excellent,” Hughes said.
"That bodes well for the future and that is a real positive from my point of view.
"Obviously we are disappointed today because we have lost a key game but I think moving forward we now have real options up front.
"Djibril will be missing for a number of games but I thought Adel coming back really helped us.
"I thought the interaction between all the front guys was good. If we had 11 versus 11 I feel very confident in saying we would have won the game quite comfortably.
"But unfortunately we weren't able to keep 11 on the pitch and we conceded two poor goals, in terms of what we could have done prior to the goals going in."
Hughes had been pleased with his side's defending in the first-half, but admitted his backline should have done better with Wolves' goals.
He went on: "I felt we did really well defensively but then we let ourselves down somewhat, certainly for the first goal and maybe we needed to be a bit stronger in our challenges for the second one.
"At 2-1 down and one less guy on the pitch, it was always going to be a tough task for us.
"But I thought the last period we really took the game to them, had some great efforts and on a better day for us we might have converted one.
"It wasn't to be but, as I said, I was encouraged by the performances of a number of players today and we will be better for that."
The second-half onslaught owed as much to the introduction of the impressive Kevin Doyle as it did to the absence of the petulant Djibril Cisse, as the Frenchman was given a straight red card for grabbing Wolves captain Roger Johnson by the throat.
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The visitors went on to win the tie thanks to strikes from Matt Jarvis and Doyle, cancelling out Bobby Zamora's debut opener, but it was the sending off that both managers believed was crucial.
“He [Cisse] was playing well and he's made a mistake and cost his team,” McCarthy told reporters after the game.
“The extra man paid dividends and I don't see myself as unlucky, but without having too much of the good luck, one man's mistake has given us the opportunity to win a game.”
McCarthy did lament the sending off, but admitted the current rules dictate that referee Mark Clattenburg had no choice but to dismiss Cisse.
“You know me and my sentiments towards football now,” McCarthy told reporters after the game.
“That for me, wasn't a sending off when I played.
“And Roger's [Johnson] tackle wouldn't have been a booking when I played strangely enough.
“But it is and the sending off is because you can't grab anybody by the face – it's not allowed any more.”
Mark Hughes had no complaints about the sending off, but did sympathise with Cisse, who has broken his leg twice before in his career, therefore knows the consequences of potentially mistimed tackles.
Hughes said: "I think obviously we were disappointed with the initial challenge and given Djibril's playing history and the injuries that he's had, he reacted to that.
"I think if he had just kept it at the initial reaction when he jumped up and confronted the guy, I think he would have been alright.
"But then he went back again and raised his hands to the boy's neck area.
"As we all know, you can't do that and the referee, unfortunately from our point of view, had to send him off."
Hughes did find positives in QPR's performance however, aiming his praise at his attacking players, despite failing to pick up the three points.
"I was really pleased with what we were producing. I thought the interplay between Bobby, Adel and Djibril was excellent,” Hughes said.
"That bodes well for the future and that is a real positive from my point of view.
"Obviously we are disappointed today because we have lost a key game but I think moving forward we now have real options up front.
"Djibril will be missing for a number of games but I thought Adel coming back really helped us.
"I thought the interaction between all the front guys was good. If we had 11 versus 11 I feel very confident in saying we would have won the game quite comfortably.
"But unfortunately we weren't able to keep 11 on the pitch and we conceded two poor goals, in terms of what we could have done prior to the goals going in."
Hughes had been pleased with his side's defending in the first-half, but admitted his backline should have done better with Wolves' goals.
He went on: "I felt we did really well defensively but then we let ourselves down somewhat, certainly for the first goal and maybe we needed to be a bit stronger in our challenges for the second one.
"At 2-1 down and one less guy on the pitch, it was always going to be a tough task for us.
"But I thought the last period we really took the game to them, had some great efforts and on a better day for us we might have converted one.
"It wasn't to be but, as I said, I was encouraged by the performances of a number of players today and we will be better for that."
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| Open an account with Sportingbet today and get up to £50 in free bets! |
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
Hosted by Joe Doyle
20:06 BST
So, that game gave a few players a chance to impress for England. Who did/didn't? Will Welbeck start against France? Or Carroll? Or Defoe?!
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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