Straight up, now it’s Warnock in second
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wasteful finishing and a superb save by Boro keeper Darren Randolph to deny Junior Hoilett kept the Teessiders in it.
Boro were punchless in attack and brittle at the back – although Pulis claimed Morrison had pushed, rather than outjumped, Ben Gibson to score from Hoilett’s free-kick in the 33rd minute. “Set plays were always going to be important, but looking back at it Morrison was all over Gibson. That was the decisive moment,” said Pulis. “Cardiff have five or six players over 6ft 3in, let alone 6ft, so it was always going to be difficult. But I have no complaints. “They are second in the table for a reason, they have an identity, and they play to it, whether you agree with it or not.”
Listening to Pulis sound sniffy about a team adopting a onedimensional, directly physical approach is like hearing a heavy metal star complain about noise from the neighbours.
But he managed it with a straight face, although Boro may have got nearer to snatching a point if the urgency shown in stoppage time had come sooner.
Pulis said: “We have good footballers in Stewart Downing, Grant Leadbitter and Jonny Howson.
“But Cardiff squeezed the life out of us today.”