Cardiff boss Warnock: Millwall frighten teams at The Den – you can see why Championship sides go under
By Richard Cawley
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Neil Warnock was back in South London, and back lambasting a referee. It was like the former Crystal Palace manager had never been away.
On this occasion he had strength to his claims that Cardiff City were cruelly denied a valid second goal when Sol Bamba hooked home, only for referee Keith Stroud to have called a halt a split-second earlier due to Joe Bennett being felled by the arm of the Steve Morison.
Warnock felt Stroud would be “distraught” at the decision.
“What can you say? He’s had a bad day at the office,” said the Cardiff manager after Friday night’s 1-1 draw. “I like Keith, I think he’s a good ref. He’ll be distraught – but that’s no good to us.
“He didn’t see Sol in the box, he didn’t see Sol going to shoot. That’s quite understandable – he’s only 6ft 6ins tall!
“He’ll get another game next weekend. He also missed an obvious penalty.
“We were superior in the second half, how we didn’t score another goal I don’t know.”
Warnock touched on Millwall tactics and felt his side largely competed, claiming they did lose their heads for a while after recent signing Gary Madine was off the pitch needing attention to his nose following a collision.
“They had a spell after Gary had his nose smashed. We had a period where we wanted to fight and you can’t do that against Millwall in their own backyard, they know what they are doing.
“If you’re not ready for it down here you’ll get turned over – that’s why they have got so many good results. They play one-touch in their own half and then it is the other side of your centre-halves. I told them ‘forget the Championship lads – just play the game’. We knew we were going to be turned every time they got the ball in their half and you’ve got to try and play your football when you get the chance. We created a lot more.
“It was like going back to Sunday league days – two teams who want to challenge for everything. There wasn’t a lot of nastiness. They were hard and the crowd got behind them.
“They are not going to change, they frighten a lot of people here. That’s why I’m proud of the lads, I don’t think they’ll have had a second half like that before.
“You can see why teams have gone under here – the pressure they put you under.”
