Warnock raging at dopey ref
Manager distraught as official gives Cardiff a penalty then reverses it
NEIL WARNOCK wearily trudged up the tunnel after another match dominated by a controversial decision against his team and spotted the doping officials.
‘I hope you’re testing the referee,’ he asked them. At least he retained his humour. Yet again Warnock — who was charged by the FA on Friday for branding Premier League officials the ‘worst in the world’ — was left furious. He may now extend that description to include the universe and black hole. This time it was the case of the penalty that was given and then taken away.
Seconds after the break, with Burnley leading 1-0 thanks to Chris Wood’s powerful header, home defender Ben Mee appeared to handle not once but twice in his own area.
Having had his attention alerted by assistant referee Darren Cann to the second offence, in which Mee appeared to head the ball on to his own hand, Mike Dean gave a penalty. The Welsh side had a ray of hope. It did not last long.
Dean was not convinced and, after a lengthy consultation, decided to overturn the decision.
Warnock went wild. The aggrieved Bluebirds manager remonstrated with fourth official Anthony Taylor to no avail. That FA hearing should be lively.
Such decisions have not been strangers to Cardiff this season. This avoidable defeat, sealed by Wood’s late second, leaves Cardiff five points adrift and a step closer to the trap door.
Warnock was in no mood to risk further retribution. ‘Mike Dean is one of the best there is,’ he said. ‘You have to accept what he says and I don’t want any more charges. I’ve got three this week — I don’t want a hotel down there.’
Nobody in the press room was buying it and they were right not to. ‘I’m just trying not to get fined,’ Warnock admitted. ‘I may look like I’m smiling but I’m distraught.’
Warnock had been to see Dean but kept what was said under his hat. ‘It’s between us,’ he said. He could not, however, resist adding: ‘It’s annoying that another linesman 75 yards away can tell him that it came off his head. You only have to look at the player’s reaction — he looked so guilty and the second one we felt there was a movement of the hand towards the ball.
‘Mike must have seen something to go over and we’re gutted. Darren made the right decision and Mike has talked him out of it. We keep getting kicked in the teeth.’ Kicked in the teeth and hit in the pocket, should relegation follow.
There are no such worries now for Burnley. Beforehand, Clarets officials put thousands of flags on the seats for their supporters. After Wood’s close-range second they could pretty much wave the threat of relegation goodbye.
‘People talk about you being safe,’ said Burnley boss Sean Dyche. ‘We want to make sure factually. It’s a big gap. We’ve got 27 points from 15 games — there’s no luck involved on that. The lads have been terrific and we’re going to have to carry on. History suggests we’re in a very strong position.’ Dyche felt the penalty U-turn was right. ‘I’ve known Neil a long time,’ he added. ‘I know he won’t agree.’ Burnley had taken the lead on 31 minutes with the impressive Dwight McNeil again the architect — the lively teenager swinging in a corner which Wood nodded home. After the penalty drama Cardiff’s Harry Arter clipped the bar from distance before Junior Hoilett, jeered for his Blackburn connections, skied a relatively easy chance from Kenneth Zohore’s pullback. Then came another penalty shout when Charlie Taylor clashed with Aron Gunnarsson, before a final appeal as normal time expired when Bruno Ecuele Manga’s shot appeared to hit James Tarkowski’s hand.
To rub salt in the wound, Wood’s second — after a deflected McNeil cross — arrived in injury-time.
‘I told Dwight to go to the corner flag,’ Dyche said with a smile.
No such emotions for Warnock who, as he stood to leave the press conference, said in his dulcet Yorkshire tones: ‘I didn’t say ‘owt to get me into trouble, did I?’
That he did not was a credit to him.