Warburton hails players after QPR victory

​QPR manager Mark Warburton praised his players for their fighting spirit after a dramatic 2-1 victory at home to Blackpool.

Luke Amos scored a last-minute winner for 10-man Rangers, taking them up to third in the Championship table.

Jimmy Dunne headed in the open​er​ before Dion Sanderson was sent off​ shortly before half-time​ for aiming a headbutt at Reece James​​.

Josh Bowler equalised against his former club with eight minutes remaining, but Warburton’s side hit back to claim their first win in five league matches.

Warburton said: “The sending-off changes everything in terms of the dynamic of the game. The boys dug in in the second half.

“The boys responded – and it’s those moments that can galvanise a team and a club in an important season.

“Everyone would have expected us after the equaliser to be hanging on for the last five minutes, but they showed their quality.

“We’re not a team that can just sit back and try to defend. We’re at our best on the front foot.

“And that was the message at half-time: to stay on the front foot.”

Warburton admitted that Sanderson’s outburst could have been costly, but believes the on-loan Wolves defender will learn from his mistake.

“It could have cost us and he knows that,” Warburton said.

“He was having a great game, made one or two great interceptions​,​ and I was really pleased with him.

“He’s 22 and he’ll learn. Is it right? No. But he’s made a mistake. He was devastated in the changing room – he realised the implication and what could have happened.

“He apologised to the players and that showed his character.”

Blackpool boss Neil Critchley bemoaned his team’s failure to take advantage of Sanderson’s dismissal.

“It was a painful ending and it’s happened too many times this season,” he said.

“Games in which we should have taken a draw in, we’ve lost, and games we should have won we’ve drawn.

“This feeling keeps occurring and I don’t want it to be the story of our season. We’re nearly there, but we want to improve.

“We have to take at least a point from this game and we haven’t. That needs to change.

“The sending-off changed the game and we had a lot of the ball. We maybe didn’t make the best of it, but we still had chances and I don’t think anyone could argue that we didn’t deserve something from the game.

“We had them pinned back in their own half and we felt we could go and win the game. We can’t lose that game.

“We should not concede the second goal like we did. We should get at least a point.”