Has the firebrand of football gone soft? Neil’s honest Bluebirds no longer ruffle feathers
Deulofeu Hoilett Holebas Reid
NEIL WARNOCK is still carping about referees – but his clean team is turning soft.
Cardiff, sixth in the fair play league, did not have a player booked at Vicarage Road, and for 80 minutes they did not lay a glove on Watford, either.
Only the top four and nice-but-doomed Fulham have exercised the lead in referee’s pencils less since August.
And at 70, who would have thought manager Warnock would be converted from king of the scufflers to eternal sunshine of the spotless grind?
Only keeper
Neil Etheridge’s heroics spared the Bluebirds – one point away from home all season – an absolute tonking, although Junior Hoilett and sub Bobby Reid’s late goals gave Watford a scare.
Warnock could be in hot water for complaining that Premier League rookie Andrew Madley – who was excellent – took charge instead of experienced fourth official Andre Marriner here. And he insists Cardiff do not need to put the boot in to improve their shocking away form. But winning a few tackles would be a start.
Warnock claimed: “I don’t think we need to get nastier. We don’t surround the referee – with other teams, three or four are on him straight away. We’re a little bit amateurish in that respect.
“We’re a referee’s dream, and you wouldn’t always have said that about one of my teams, would you? You would think my team would be physical and everything, but they are a genuine bunch.
“We probably need to be a bit more streetwise, that’s a nice way of putting it, but we do need to start picking up points away from home.”
Etheridge, who denied Roberto Pereyra a hat-trick but could do nothing to keep out high-class goals from Gerard Deulofeu (above, celebrating, Jose Holebas and Domingos Quina, 19, said: “We’ve shown our fighting spirit and I don’t believe we get the credit we deserve.
“So many people wrote us off before the season – we were supposed to finish bottom of the league with a record low points total. I don’t think being ‘nastier’ is going to help us put more points on the board.”
Portuguese midfielder Quina, snapped up by Watford for a boot-sale £1million with two minutes to spare on deadline day in August, is going to be a star.
Next Saturday, he could show West Ham what they flogged in haste and he said: “I have always wanted to play first-team football and Watford have given me the chance to do that.
“I can’t tell you how many minutes we had left before I signed, but it was very close. My main feeling is I didn’t want to leave England, so I wanted to go for it.
“Is there anything West Ham could have done to keep me? I’d rather not comment on that, but I want to play as many games as I can, not just because it’s West Ham next week.”
Watford manager Javi Gracia, finally celebrating his new four-and-a-half year contract with a first win in seven games, admitted: “I didn’t know much about Domingos before he came to the club.
“Now I see him every day in training and it’s enough for me to see his desire and ambition.
“I don’t care if he’s big or small – if they are good enough, they will show their level.”