Barton earns Warnock praise

Queens Park Rangers boss Neil Warnock hailed Joey Barton’s influence against former side Newcastle United in their scoreless draw on Monday.

Barton was on debut for the west London side and donned the captain’s armband against his former club of four years.

“In the circumstances people might have thought he would get carried away, but I said to him before the game just to play the game and not the occasion, and I thought he did tonight,” Warnock told Sky Sports.

“I thought he epitomised why he was captain, and I think (former skipper) Adel (Taarabt) understood that.”

Barton was one of five QPR debutants in action at Loftus Road, alongside Luke Young, Anton Ferdinand, Armand Traore and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Warnock was particularly pleased with former Manchester City winger Wright-Phillips, who was causing the Newcastle defence several problems with his incisive runs down the right side.

“I have watched him over the last few years and I am hoping to bring the best out of him,” Warnock said.

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew was satisfied to share the spoils as his side continue to defy the critics and remain unbeaten this campaign.

The impressive start to the English Premier League campaign comes amid the departures of Barton, Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll and Jose Enrique from last season.

“The result was good because it is a difficult place to come and all the new players gave them a bit of a buzz,” Pardew told Sky Sports.

“They (QPR) were the better team and we didn’t play as well as we would have liked, or as well as we have for the last few games.”

“So for us in the dressing room it was one of those where you are like ‘OK, we haven’t played well but we’ve got another point and another clean sheet’, so we’ve got to be happy with that.”