Charlie Austin has revealed how his good mate Joey Barton ignored him on his first day at Queens Park Rangers before realising his mistake - with the duo then becoming good friends . The striker has had a Premier League debut season to remember and is being touted as a possible England debutant in the future after scoring 15 goals in the competition . His close friendship with club captain Barton is well publicised but they 're first encounter is one Austin is unlikely to forget . Charlie Austin ( left ) and Joey Barton have become good friends despite their very early setback . Speaking to The Guardian he said : 'My first day , I came to the training ground within 45 minutes of signing and I was waiting for the security barrier to lift when he came out . I thought : 'That 's Joey Barton . ' 'He looked at me , just got in his car and drove off . ' I thought : 'Brilliant , here we go ! ' To be fair to him , he came in the next day , shook my hand and said it was n't until he got home that he knew I had signed . The following day he invited me and Bianca , my wife-to-be , out to dinner and from then until now we 've been close mates . ' QPR take on West Brom , on Saturday before travelling to fellow strugglers Aston Villa on Tuesday , and Austin knows his side ca n't afford to lose . The 25-year-old says QPR ca n't afford to lose their next two games and must pick up at least four points . Club captain Barton ( centre ) has been relegated with the club before and will want to avoid the drop . He said : 'You look at those two games and you think we need to get four to six points . ' Austin 's first season has been somewhat spectacular and he 's currently fourth in the highest goalscoring charts behind Harry Kane , Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero and the striker his humbled to be in the same mix as them . 'It 's quite surreal because I could n't have dreamed to be in the mix with people like that. , ' he says . Austin ( centre ) scores against Aston Villa and he 'll look to do the same when they play on Tuesday .
Charlie Austin revealed that Joey Barton ignored him on QPR . The pair are good friends now following the hilarious incident . The 25-year-old says QPR ca n't afford to lose in their double header . Austin is delighted and humbled to be fourth in the goalscoring charts . CLICK HERE for all the latest Queens Park Rangers news .