WARNOCK RAGES AS REF TURNS A BLIND EYE
neIL WARnOCK blasted the officiating after Middlesbrough suffered a triple whammy that saw them denied a penalty, lose the wounded Dael Fry and victors Blackburn remain with 11 men on the field. Warnock, 72, claimed Fry almost lost an eye after being kicked in the face by Rovers’ on-loan everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite when contesting Paddy Mcnair’s cross just before the quarter-hour. Fry, who is 6ft 3in, hit the turf screaming as his header flew wide and had to be substituted. The gash was stitched up in the home dressing room as the match continued. Although Fry had stooped slightly, it was hard not to agree with Warnock and his assistants Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson — who all continued their expletive-filled arguments towards referee Dean Whitestone throughout the 90 minutes — that Branthwaite, 18, should have been penalised for a high boot. ‘It’s the game-changing incident, isn’t it? I don’t think the lad meant to do it but he’s endangering the safety of a player,’ said Warnock. ‘It can’t be any worse than that. He’s a millimetre from having his eyeball taken out. ‘We miss out all ends — we don’t get a penalty, there’s no sending-off, we have one of our best players carried off, it’s an absolute joke. I am absolutely distraught. ‘How can you not see it? I’ve looked at the pictures and the referee has nobody in his line — so what’s the reason why he’s not seen it? I don’t understand it. For me, that’s elementary. We deserve better. ‘I think we would have won the game if the officials had done their job.’ Regular observers suggested it was the most irate Warnock has been during his time in Boro’s dugout. After the final whistle, he entered the field and directed another tirade at Branthwaite. ‘I have managed a lot of times against neil and he’s a wonderful guy away from the pitch and the emotion and passion of football,’ said Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray, one of his predecessors at the Riverside Stadium. ‘But I am not sure he should be facing an 18-year-old who is just starting his career. I know the boy after working with him for 10 days. He’s just a shy boy on a journey who probably can’t believe he’s left Carlisle to go to everton and has played four times in the Premier League. He’s got no edges.’ To compound things, Championship top scorers Blackburn completed a heist in the second half a matter of seconds after nathan Wood — Fry’s replacement — had struck the woodwork. Reacting to Thomas Kaminski’s save from Jonny Howson’s flicked header, teenager Wood wrapped his foot around the ball but struck the outside of the upright. Kaminski also saved well from Marcus Tavernier’s low drive three minutes after the restart. And so it was Blackburn who opened the scoring in the 63rd minute when Harvey elliott worked a one-two with Adam Armstrong and invited Joe Rothwell to slot home from eight yards. It was hard on a promotion-chasing Boro and particularly tough for their manager to accept.