Former Rangers skipper Lee Wallace is under the spotlight after the QPR defender gave away two penalties, costing his side a 2-0 defeat to Preston North End on Wednesday night.
Wallace made over 250 appearances for Rangers across an eight-year stint at Ibrox between 2011 and 2019 and served as captain under Mark Warburton.
After several seasons on the peripheries due to injuries and falling out of favour after the arrival of Steven Gerrard, Wallace was reunited with Warburton, signing a two-year deal with London club QPR in June 2019.
Since then, he’s established himself as a regular in the side, playing every minute of their 2020/21 Championship campaign to date.
However, he had a night to forget at Loftus Road on Wednesday.
Wallace fouled former Celtic star Scott Sinclair in the 22nd minute to concede the first penalty, which was converted by recent Rangers target Daniel Johnson.
That mistake didn’t end his side’s chances and the game was still in the balance up until the hour mark when another unnecessary challenge from Wallace sent Emil Riis Jakobsen tumbling in the box.
This time, Sinclair stepped up to slot home the penalty and QPR were unable to recover, slipping to a 2-0 defeat.
After the game, Warburton was clearly unhappy.
“There are no excuses – we gave away a really sloppy penalty,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Record. “It shouldn’t happen, simple as that.”
“Once you’ve let it bounce in your area – all sorts of problems. Lee’s adamant he pulled his foot away and the guy’s gone down. Well if he’s clever, he’s clever – he’s got his rewards.
“The fact is we allowed it to happen and we didn’t show enough quality…It’s very frustrating. If a team cuts you open with quality, you say fair enough, but we’ve given away two awful penalties that were easily avoidable.”
Former Rangers goalkeeper Liam Kelly watched the game from the bench as after featuring regularly under Warburton last season, he’s been demoted to second-choice stopper behind Seny Dieng.
