' NEIL WARNOCK NOT HAPPY AS HE BLASTS '

Cardiff City boss Neil Warnock blasts 'fussy' referee and claims Anthony Pilkington was 'molested' in Wigan defeat

By Dominic Booth

Saturday 29th October 2016

Neil Warnock berated 'fussy' referring and 'elementary mistakes' which cost Cardiff City dearly in their defeat to Wigan Athletic.

The Bluebirds were stung by a late Jordi Gomez strike as the managerless Latics stole the spoils despite waves of late Cardiff pressure.

Warnock also claimed Anthony Pilkington was 'molested' by Wigan centre-backs Dan Burn and Jake Buxton after a blunt display by Cardiff's forwards.

It leaves the Bluebirds hovering just above the relegation zone in 21st, with 15 points from as many games.

Asked where it all went wrong, Warnock said: "We could have got a few more decisions against Pilkington, I think he was molested at times and didn't get the decisions, which went the other way quite easily.

"There were one or two errors in midfield which let them in and he (Gomez) took it well. It was a typical away performance from Wigan, they slowed the tempo and they'll be delighted with that.

"I thought the referee didn't help us either, he was quite fussy at times."



After claiming earlier in the week the Latics would pose Warnock his toughest task since taking over at Cardiff City Stadium, the former QPR and Crystal Palace boss was vindicated in that belief.

"I knew it would be a 1-0," he added. "If you don't take your chances you've got no chance and we were always going to got caught on the sucker punch.

"There were elementary mistakes for the winning goal and we had numerous chances to take the lead. If we'd taken our changes, they'd have come out it and would have made it easier for us.

"But it wasn't to be and all credit to them."

Warnock also defended the decision to keep Marouane Chamakh in reserve, despite a frustrating afternoon for the luckless Pilkington up front.

"I wanted some pace and I wanted to put Harris on and I thought Whitts was struggling in the second half," he said. "So we only had one up our sleeve. It would have been sods law if I'd made another change and we ended up with 10 men."

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Poor use of his subs today for me

Poor use of his subs today for me

Would you have said the same if we had won after making the same subs?

I thought Harris for Hoilett was sensible at that point and O'Keefe did alright, too!

It was screaming out for Richardson and ten mins of chamakh to hold the ball up

No excuse Cardiff should have won that game,the players need a kick up there arse...
Get players on the flanks and get some some balls in the box..
Lets see where we are in the next 4 games...

Poor use of his subs today for me

Poor all round from the manager yesterday. His use of tactics and subs were poor. One to forget and move on.

Twice Chamakh was called over and read the act when he was going on and it never happened for me ralls should have come off and stuck pilks behind Chamakh or at least immers behind Chamakh

Fact is we don't have enough finish in the side we create enough chances

Stats don't lie we need a striker quick and sharp

I don't blame Warnock's use of subs. They were running the midfield and if it wasn't for the exceptional Gunnarsson, they would have cut through us. O'Keefe for Whittingham was the correct change to give us more energy in the middle. Our wingers looked knackered and I don't remember Hoilett or Noone beating their full backs once. I agreed with the decision to sub both wingers. Chamakh has been unwell and isn't match fit, so I understood why Warnock put Immers on instead.

My only criticism was Harris should have come on sooner and Noone should have been subbed sooner. But if Warnock took Noone off earlier using his final sub, we could have picked up an injury and been down to 10 men. The people to blame for yesterday should be our transfer committee, who have left us so short of quality up front.

Pilkington needed help, he was getting continuously pushed/pulled/clattered in the back, but it didn't help that the majority of balls forwards to him was in the air. The quality of ball forwards to Pilkington must be better, into his feet or passes slid down the sides of their centre backs to stretch their defence. Ralls should have been the player pushing on to support Pilkington, but he was largely anonymous. Pilkington had no help at all.

I don't blame Warnock's use of subs. They were running the midfield and if it wasn't for the exceptional Gunnarsson, they would have cut through us. O'Keefe for Whittingham was the correct change to give us more energy in the middle. Our wingers looked knackered and I don't remember Hoilett or Noone beating their full backs once. I agreed with the decision to sub both wingers. Chamakh has been unwell and isn't match fit, so I understood why Warnock put Immers on instead.

My only criticism was Harris should have come on sooner and Noone should have been subbed sooner. But if Warnock took Noone off earlier using his final sub, we could have picked up an injury and been down to 10 men. The people to blame for yesterday should be our transfer committee, who have left us so short of quality up front.

Pilkington needed help, he was getting continuously pushed/pulled/clattered in the back, but it didn't help that the majority of balls forwards to him was in the air. The quality of ball forwards to Pilkington must be better, into his feet or passes slid down the sides of their centre backs to stretch their defence. Ralls should have been the player pushing on to support Pilkington, but he was largely anonymous. Pilkington had no help at all.

Gunnar apart, our midfield is a big problem. I agree with your analysis. I'm sure Warnock realises it cannot continue the way it is. No pace, little creativity and gets over run too often. I still have hopes of Ralls getting back to his best but we need new blood in January to help us dominate the midfield. We obviously need to sort out the striker problem at the same time. I have faith in Warnock. Unlike previously wimpy managers we've had, I don't think he'd be afraid to make the necessary changes, when required.

I don't blame Warnock's use of subs. They were running the midfield and if it wasn't for the exceptional Gunnarsson, they would have cut through us. O'Keefe for Whittingham was the correct change to give us more energy in the middle. Our wingers looked knackered and I don't remember Hoilett or Noone beating their full backs once. I agreed with the decision to sub both wingers. Chamakh has been unwell and isn't match fit, so I understood why Warnock put Immers on instead.

My only criticism was Harris should have come on sooner and Noone should have been subbed sooner. But if Warnock took Noone off earlier using his final sub, we could have picked up an injury and been down to 10 men. The people to blame for yesterday should be our transfer committee, who have left us so short of quality up front.

Pilkington needed help, he was getting continuously pushed/pulled/clattered in the back, but it didn't help that the majority of balls forwards to him was in the air. The quality of ball forwards to Pilkington must be better, into his feet or passes slid down the sides of their centre backs to stretch their defence. Ralls should have been the player pushing on to support Pilkington, but he was largely anonymous. Pilkington had no help at all.

Gunnar apart, our midfield is a big problem. I agree with your analysis. I'm sure Warnock realises it cannot continue the way it is. No pace, little creativity and gets over run too often. I still have hopes of Ralls getting back to his best but we need new blood in January to help us dominate the midfield. We obviously need to sort out the striker problem at the same time. I have faith in Warnock. Unlike previously wimpy managers we've had, I don't think he'd be afraid to make the necessary changes, when required.

I totally agree Warnock will make the necessary changes January. Ralls played well at Forest but I think the game passed him by yesterday. Wigan came to us with a game plan, closed us down quick, didn't give us any space and their number 4 followed Whittingham around everywhere to nullify our attacking creativity. It was an excellent game plan from Wigan and we have to find a way to break teams down like this in the future. We've only scored once from open play under Warnock, but Warnock will know what's required to turn things around.

I don't blame Warnock's use of subs. They were running the midfield and if it wasn't for the exceptional Gunnarsson, they would have cut through us. O'Keefe for Whittingham was the correct change to give us more energy in the middle. Our wingers looked knackered and I don't remember Hoilett or Noone beating their full backs once. I agreed with the decision to sub both wingers. Chamakh has been unwell and isn't match fit, so I understood why Warnock put Immers on instead.

My only criticism was Harris should have come on sooner and Noone should have been subbed sooner. But if Warnock took Noone off earlier using his final sub, we could have picked up an injury and been down to 10 men. The people to blame for yesterday should be our transfer committee, who have left us so short of quality up front.

Pilkington needed help, he was getting continuously pushed/pulled/clattered in the back, but it didn't help that the majority of balls forwards to him was in the air. The quality of ball forwards to Pilkington must be better, into his feet or passes slid down the sides of their centre backs to stretch their defence. Ralls should have been the player pushing on to support Pilkington, but he was largely anonymous. Pilkington had no help at all.

Gunnar apart, our midfield is a big problem. I agree with your analysis. I'm sure Warnock realises it cannot continue the way it is. No pace, little creativity and gets over run too often. I still have hopes of Ralls getting back to his best but we need new blood in January to help us dominate the midfield. We obviously need to sort out the striker problem at the same time. I have faith in Warnock. Unlike previously wimpy managers we've had, I don't think he'd be afraid to make the necessary changes, when required.

I totally agree Warnock will make the necessary changes January. Ralls played well at Forest but I think the game passed him by yesterday. Wigan came to us with a game plan, closed us down quick, didn't give us any space and their number 4 followed Whittingham around everywhere to nullify our attacking creativity. It was an excellent game plan from Wigan and we have to find a way to break teams down like this in the future. We've only scored once from open play under Warnock, but Warnock will know what's required to turn things around.

And, the issue is, if lowly Wigan can gain success with that game plan what can better teams achieve utilising the same plan?

That game was screaming for a striker to hold the ball up and a goal scorer, not much Warnock can do at the moment he has to use the players at his disposable, I'm sure he will fix the problem come January. I'm more than pleased with Warnock so far. Poor mistakes by the players lost us this game good substitutions by Warnock IMO.

If we had a striker like Lambert who could have held the ball not get bossed about by defenders as Pilks was it would have been a different game.

Besides Gunnerson our midfield is quite weak and the Wigan team were a big bunch and used that against us but have to agree regarding the ref he was very poor on another day their centre halves would have been booked as they were all over pilks which I feel affected Pilks game.

Only thing I was annoyed about was we kept hitting the ball high and their big defence loved it why we didn't change it