Saturday 21 February 2015 20:11, UK
QPR boss Chris Ramsey declared his side's late 2-1 defeat to Hull "cruel" but refused to point the finger at Joey Barton.
Charlie Austin cancelled out Nikica Jelavic's opener after Barton was dismissed for lashing out at Tom Huddlestone.
But though the 10 men seemed set for an unlikely fightback point, Dame N'Doye struck a minute from time.
Ramsey, who refused to point the finger at Barton, said: “It was very cruel and we’re disappointed to say the least but there were a lot of positives that came out of that.
“We need points, wherever they come from. At the moment when you are in the bottom half of the table the momentum always seems to go against you. If the team performs like that for the rest of the season I’m sure we’ll be fine.
“There’s a lot of optimism, the players are desperate to stay in the league and it showed today right to the end.”
Barton apologised for his act of petulance over a series of tweets but, speaking later at his news conference, Ramsey declined to hang his skipper out to dry.
"It's an incident we probably wouldn't want to happen," he said.
"It's always difficult when you have players who have that bit of edge, and trying to get their emotional control is the thing we need to get under wraps.
"I'm sure if the incident isn't a good one when we review it, Joey will be the first one to put his hand up and admit that he probably should have acted in a different manner.
"I would rather look at it in the cold light of day when tempers and emotions have calmed down, then discuss it with the player at that point."
Asked if Barton's suitability to wear the armband was now in doubt, Ramsey was unequivocal.
"No. There's no question over it," he said.
