Warnock lashes out as Cardiff flop again

AS Blue smoke rose from the away end after Junior hoilett had found the net late on for cardiff, Neil warnock must have hoped it was not a metaphor for the way his side’s season is going.

The excitement came before deflation. up went the offside flag to rule out the goal and extend cardiff’s run of championship defeats to four in a row. warnock was left fuming. he felt wronged by the decision, claiming the ball through was played by Queens Park rangers’ Josh Scowen.

But warnock’s wider concern is that cardiff have let the pack catch up in the promotion race. They were in the automatic promotion spots but now trail Derby county and Bristol city.

They went ahead through a Joe ralls penalty but capitulated to goals from strike pair Matt Smith and Paul Smyth on debut to drop points again.

warnock then questioned the quality of officials in this country.

‘ No wonder they want VAr (video assistant referee). it’s got to help because they’re not good enough now,’ he said. ‘we’re talking about major decisions that they should get right at this level. it’s really disappointing.

‘i’ll have a look at what we’re doing. we must be running over black cats at the moment.

‘That’s three or four games we’ve had crucial decisions go against us. it’s scandalous at the moment, i’ve never known it as poor.’

The truth is cardiff lacked quality for the most part, stuttering after warnock had made five changes to the side defeated by Preston North end.

Jake Bidwell’s tussle with callum Paterson under ralls’ cross was spotted by referee Tim robinson nine minutes into the second half to gift the visitors a penalty which ralls rolled in.

That should have been a spark for cardiff but within eight minutes QPr were level, Smith rising highest to direct a header in from Jack robinson’s long throw. ‘A Sunday league goal to concede,’ said warnock.

Fast-forward another 10 minutes and Smyth was flying through to finish past Alex Smithies with the aid of a deflection.

The 20-year-old had been handed his QPr debut by ian holloway, who said: ‘it’s probably one of the biggest risks i’ve ever taken. he showed unbelievable character to go through like that and belt it in.’