Albion manager Mark McGhee has defended Leon Knight over a controversial booking which means his star striker will be suspended for a vital League game.

Queens Park Rangers manager Ian Holloway claimed Knight needs "handles on his shorts" because he goes down too easily.

But McGhee is adamant Rangers keeper Nick Culkin caught the Seagulls' 16-goal marksman with his forearm during the second half of Sunday's 2-1 LDV Vans Trophy defeat at Loftus Road.

Knight went down inside the area after Culkin held a free-kick by Mark Yeates. The incident provoked an angry exchange between players and ended with Knight yellow carded after receiving treatment.

He now misses the home League match against Wycombe Wanderers on Boxing Day.

McGhee said: "I thought it was pretty unfair. Leon's a wee lad. We know he goes down and sometimes I wonder about it as well, but on this occasion I'm convinced I saw what happened. There was some sort of forearm from the keeper on the back of Leon's neck as he passed Leon.

"Only Leon can tell you how severe it was, but the keeper definitely struck Leon and I think it is ridiculous that he was booked for it. He wasn't the culprit."

Holloway, who tried to re-sign Knight before he made his loan move to Albion from Chelsea permanent, said: "If anybody touched him it was Clarke Carlisle behind our goalie who actually hit him with his chest.

"It certainly wasn't an elbow and our goalie swore on his life he didn't touch him. What was Leon lying on the floor for two minutes before that? They should put some handles on his shorts.

"He is a very good player. He made some silly comments in your paper that he was never going to go to QPR and that Brighton will beat us to the title. That was stuck on our wall.

"He scored two against us last time and my boys didn't want him to score again, but they don't do it unfairly.

"We had two people sent-off against Brighton reserves last week through some over-zealous challenging, so it's quite ironic to me that someone is complaining about my players."

Albion were without captain Danny Cullip (groin) and Paul Watson was also missing from a below-strength squad.

McGhee said: "It was a disappointing result, but we still came out of the game with many positives. We introduced a couple of lads (David Lee and Dan Harding) that I wanted to see."