QPR 1 Norwich 2:JOEY BARTON received a first red card since May 2009 and after Queens Park Rangers subsequently lost the lead, then the match, Neil Warnock accused Bradley Johnson of being a cheat.

Regarding the 35th-minute incident in which Barton was adjudged to have butted Johnson, Warnock said: “The linesman saw him head-butt Bradley Johnson. So they give what they saw.

“He has guessed, if I’m honest. I’m not surprised Bradley has gone down . . . Who says cheats don’t prosper? Bradley has conned him. It’s not easy to speak about it and not get carried away. It seems to happen every time we play. We get players sent off wrongly.

“Bradley Johnson has not been head-butted at all. Not in a million years. The movement of him going backwards has conned the referee. To go back like he did was a disgrace. It’s getting a fellow pro sent off. I think he should be done.”

In a series of post-match tweets, all since deleted, Barton described it as a “ridiculous decision”, claimed the “linesman definitely never saw it” and the officials had “been conned” and “admitted to me at [half-time] they never saw it”.

Replays showed Johnson shoved Barton first, before the clash of heads, and while Warnock did admit his captain might have handled the situation better, he added:

“There were two vicious tackles on Joey and neither player was booked. I find it amazing. He’s just been assassinated by one tackle. We feel we have run over a few black cats. It changed the game completely.”

Warnock said he has yet to decide if the club will appeal: “I don’t have much confidence in the FA, not if you’ve seen the Wolves one last week,” he said, of Mick McCarthy’s unsuccessful attempt to have Nenad Milijas’s red card in the game against Arsenal rescinded.

Barton was sent off only after David Richardson, the assistant referee, informed Neil Swarbrick of the off-the-ball incident.

Before this the 27-year-old had got Loftus Road rocking inside 11 minutes. Clint Hill delivered a cross that swept across the area and his captain made no mistake with a firm right-footed shot.

But after Barton’s departure QPR wilted and they walked off at the break level due to Anthony Pilkington’s 25-yard finish.

Norwich posed little more threat after the break until Steve Morison finished Pilkington’s cross to lift the Canaries up to ninth.