Monk angered by Cardiff ’s late leveller

Garry Monk believes the match officials robbed his Sheffield Wednesday side of three points after Lee Tomlin’s stunning freekick halted their march to the automatic promotion places in the Sky Bet Championship.

Tomlin curled his shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards three minutes from time to cancel out a first-half goal by Wednesday’s Julian Borner. This late intervention was enough to preserve Cardiff ’s unbeaten home record this season and rescue a point that had seemed beyond them. But Monk was left bemused by the officials after Aden Flint impeded the view of goalkeeper Cameron Dawson from an offside position as Tomlin struck.

“If it had been a legitimate goal, fair enough, but I am told it wasn’t even a foul for the free-kick,” Monk said. “Then, they had one of their players doing star jumps, trying to distract our keeper.

“How they missed that, I don’t know, because it’s not hard to spot a 6ft 5in player doing star jumps.”

Kadeem Harris – released by Cardiff manager Neil Warnock’s in the summer – was the provider for Wednesday’s goal. His 19th-minute shot was turned in by Borner with a sharp volley after the Cardiff defence had been guilty of giving Harris too much space from a corner-kick.

Cardiff improved their energy and urgency in the second half and got their reward with time running out. “I thought we could have won it in the end,” said Warnock. “I said at half-time they were vulnerable.” Cardiff City (4-3-3) Etheridge; Peltier, Morrison, Flint, Bennett; Bacuna (Ward 34), Ralls, Pack; Mendez-laing (Whyte 76), Glatzel (Tomlin 76), Murphy.

Subs Smithies (g), Paterson, Nelson, Hoilett. Sheffield Wednesday (4-2-3-1) Dawson; Palmer, Borner, Iorfa, Fox; Hutchinson, Bannan (Nuhiu 73); Reach, Luongo, Harris (Murphy 79); Fletcher.

Subs Lee, Pelupessy, Thorniley, Odubajo, Forestieri. Booked Palmer, Hutchinson, Fox. Referee Keith Stroud (Hampshire).