Farke takes a spot prize as Warnock fumes at referee
IT was a tale of two penalties as Norwich hit the top of the Championship.
But a furious Neil Warnock – not for the first time – focused on the officiating, which he branded “a disgrace’’.
The Middlesbrough boss launched a stinging attack on referee Tony Harrington after he failed to send off Norwich left-back Jacob Sorensen for a late body-check on substitute Sam Folarin – after the Dane had been booked in the first half.
Warnock, who could find himself in hot water for his comments, said: “When Sam goes past that kid with 10 minutes to go and he doesn’t send him off for a second booking… that was worse than his booking!
“Then to say to me he didn’t think Sam was going to catch the ball!
“He knows he’s completely wrong.
“Is he lying or did he see that?
“I’ll have to write and ask the referees’ chief and it’ll come back that he should have sent him off. What good is that to me?
“Why haven’t we got officials who know what they’re doing?
“I think it’s a disgrace what’s happened today. And I felt he had a decent game, so how do I mark him?
“Honestly, the laws of the game, the people running it now – Mike Riley. That was like Mike Riley Part II today. He’ll probably end up running the referees’ association this guy.”
Marcus Tavernier converted a 51stminute spot-kick but it was disallowed by Harrington for a double touch by the Boro midfielder as he slipped while taking the kick.
It was a let-off for former Boro defender Ben Gibson, who had brought down the taker.
And the home side then paid the penalty in every sense on 72 minutes when substitute Teemu Pukki sent Marcus Bettinelli the wrong way from the spot after Boro sub Hayden Coulson had fouled Max Aarons.
It was Pukki’s fifth goal for his club this season, on the back of two for Finland on international duty.
Norwich extended their unbeaten run to eight games, ending Boro’s undefeated
10-match sequence. Amazingly, it was the Canaries’ fifth successive
1-0 win over Boro.
Boss Daniel Farke said: “It feels like a massive win.
“It was impossible to start Teemu after he had been away on international duty, but he kept his cool with the penalty.’’
And Farke felt the Sorensen incident had no bearing on the result.
He said: “I don’t think it was key in the game. I think when he was booked in the first half, it was doubtful.
“Middlesbrough is a tough place to go, they were on an eight-game unbeaten run – that shows the task we had today.”
Bettinelli 7; Dijksteel 6, Fry 8, McNair 7, Bola 6; Howson 6; Spence 6 (Folarin (66th) 5), Tavernier 5 (Roberts 81st), Saville 5, Johnson 7 (Coulson (66th) 5); Akpom 5 (Assombalonga (73rd) 5)
Krul 6; Aarons 6, Hanley 6, Gibson 6, Sorensen 5 (Vrancic 90th); Skipp 5, Rupp 6; Buendia 6 (McLean
81st, 5), Stiepermann 5 (Tettey 90th), Placheta 6 (Zimmermann 90th); Hugill
5 (Pukki 46th, 7)
Dael Fry
T Harrington