‘We can still stay up’, urges boss Coleman
Sunderland boss Chris Coleman insisted they can still avoid relegation following their defeat against QPR.
Black Cats goalkeeper Jason Steele was sent off five minutes into the second half t Loftus Road, where teenage forward Ebere Eze scored the winner just after the hour mark.
It left Coleman’s side rooted to the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship, four points from safety.
But Coleman said: “We’ve got to keep going. The teams around us keep dangling carrots in front of us and as long as they’re not pulling them away then we have to keep going.
“If we can just get that win we can close the gap to a point. The players have got to show heart.”
Steele was red-carded after he dashed outside of his penalty area to meet Darnell Furlong’s punt forward, misjudged the bounce of the ball and then used his hand to direct it away from QPR forward Paul Smyth.
Coleman said: “To have the keeper sent off five minutes into the second half, you can easily think: ‘Here we go again. It’s never going to change’.
“We get a man sent off and then concede. But the boys didn’t buckle today in terms of their grit. We kept going until the end. It was always going to be hard for us after the sending-off.
“We lost, but we showed a bit of personality. We didn’t whimper out of this one.”
The match swung away from Sunderland after Steele was sent off following his horrendous error.
Referee Rob Jones duly produced the red card, prompting Coleman to send former QPR man Camp on in place of forward Joel Asoro.
Josh Scowen clipped the resulting freekick over the bar – and the 10 men of Sunderland then almost went in front.
Joel Lynch, on as a half-time sub, cleared Ashley Fletcher’s goal-bound header – although he almost nodded into his own net in the process.
Rangers responded strongly to that scare, with Camp saving a shot from Smyth and Jake Bidwell crossing for Smith to head wide before Eze eventually broke the deadlock. Target man Matt Smith missed a great chance to double Rangers’ lead, shooting straight at Camp.
And Smith had a late goal disallowed for offside when he nodded in from a yard out after Camp had failed to gather Freeman’s corner.
While Sunderland appear destined for League One, QPR’s win – their first in four matches – moved them 13 points clear of the relegation zone.
Eze, making his first league start for the R’s, was lively throughout and fellow youngster Smyth also caught the eye.
QPR manager Ian Holloway praised his players and the home crowd.
Holloway said: “We didn’t get booed off at half-time, when lots of time you would, and in the end we saw a young kid’s talent get us something out of nothing. We’ve managed to grind out something. We managed to dig in there. It wasn’t the prettiest, but we’ll take that and I’m delighted the young lad is showing why I’ve put faith in him.”