Even though the Sunderland manager has not yet watched a replay of the incident, Tony Mowbray claims that his players’ reactions convinced him that QPR midfielder Jack Colback’s red card was well-deserved. At Loftus Road, Sunderland overcame a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1, but the game was decided by the red card given to former Black Cats player Colback midway through the first half, when QPR led 1-0.
Referee Dean Whitestone concluded that Colback’s lunging challenge on Jobe Bellingham, which left the Sunderland player writhing in agony, deserved a straight red. “I haven’t seen it back yet,” remarked Mowbray.
“What I would say is that, to be honest, I felt the referee had a challenging day, especially in the first half. In the first half, I’m not sure I concurred with many of his choices.
“The players’ response, which was pretty immediate and involved everyone running over as if it had been a particularly horrible tackle, was how I judged it. Everyone went over because they were protecting their friend, which tells me it was a horrible challenge, but I haven’t seen it back. It wasn’t one of those where they weren’t sure.
Kenneth Paal gave QPR the early advantage, but Jack Clarke’s deflected goal in the final seconds of the first half equalized the score. Dan Ballard then gave Sunderland the lead shortly before the hour mark, and Abdoullah Ba added a third with 10 minutes left to play.
“I thought we started the game really well, dominated, and then they scored,” remarked Mowbray. They weren’t pelting our goal with shots and causing us problems, but it was still a beautiful goal that found the bottom corner with a good hit.
It was fantastic that we scored before halftime since, in my opinion, it was only a matter of time until we did. However, I sat and observed for 20 to 25 minutes before realizing that we needed more ingenuity on the field. At halftime, Niall Huggins was substituted for Patrick Roberts, and there was a slight alteration in formation. As a result, we took control of the game, but QPR tried to hold onto what they had.
“We got the job done and have some good footballers, but I believe we deserved it. We anticipated having a lot of the ball because they spend a lot of time out of possession — I believe their average possession rate is around 33%. The key was to figure out how to get over their defensive block, which we did today.
Pierre Ekwah’s limping off in the first half dealt Sunderland a blow in terms of injuries, but Mowbray indicated it was not a significant one and the midfielder might be able to play in the midweek match against Blackburn Rovers. Pierre hasn’t worked out much this week because of a dead leg, according to Mowbray.
He worked out on Friday.
We’ll apply heat to it, massage it, and maybe it’ll be well by Wednesday.
Bradley Dack and Dennis Cirkin were forced to sit out of Mowbray’s starting lineup against QPR, forcing him to make two changes. Dack, a midfielder, suffered a minor strain and might be ready to play against his previous team on Wednesday night at Ewood Park, while Cirkin, a left back, has a hamstring injury and won’t be available for at least a few weeks.
Bradley only has a minor strain, according to Mowbray, and is optimistic about playing on Wednesday. He has a great opportunity for the game against Blackburn even though we had the option of bringing him in. However, we didn’t think it was worthwhile to take that risk today.
Dennis is a different kettle of fish; he has a hamstring strain and will be out for at least two weeks, if not a little longer. Naturally, that’s a setback for us, but Niall [Huggins] stepped in today and performed admirably for us.
“We just felt that with the way the game was going, the heat, and the fact that they had ten men, we could get Roberts on for that bit of creativity.”
