Cardiff City vs Millwall. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City StadiumAttendance18,496.
Saturday 28 October 2017 19:02, UK
Cardiff lost ground in their pursuit of automatic promotion to the Premier League after being held to a 0-0 draw at home by Millwall.
Despite creating the chances needed to secure all three points, a fine performance from Millwall goalkeeper Jordan Archer means they sit third in the Sky Bet Championship having scored only once in four games.
But for Archer's resilience, Cardiff could have built a convincing lead by half-time. The hosts first truly threatened when Junior Hoilett's ball-juggling created space in the area for Lee Peltier to cross to Danny Ward, whose shot from in front of goal forced Archer into a reaction save.
From space in midfield, Sol Bamba then found Ward in the area with a fine through-ball, but the striker again saw his low shot well saved after controlling possession.
By then Millwall's Lee Gregory had wasted a promising chance when shooting harmlessly over the crossbar despite time and space in front of goal, and Cardiff's Neil Etheridge had saved well from Steve Morison after Bamba's misplaced back-pass had sent him one-on-one.
Early in the second half Gregory appealed for a penalty when being tripped by Sean Morrison inside the area but referee Steven Martin opted not to award a spot-kick, and Steve Morison again tested Etheridge with a low drive, but thereafter a goal rarely looked likely for either team.
Neil Warnock: "I thought they were playing opposites at one stage: there was a corner and he gave a goal-kick, there was a goal-kick and he gave a corner, a free-kick for them when it should have been ours. He was consistently poor: he started off bad and fell away. The applause he got from the fans at the end, I've never heard so much vitriol.
"Apparently Morrison's admitted this, that and the other; well Morrison said to me the kid's dived, and if you watch the video, he never touches him, he goes down like a sack of... It's a wonder it wasn't given really, because theatricals actually got free-kicks throughout the game, so we might have got away with one with the linesman."
Neil Harris: "It's a definite penalty. When you've got 20,000 people in a stadium and the only person who doesn't think it is is the referee: someone's got to be wrong. He got it completely wrong. Sean Morrison's honest enough to say 'I pulled you back and clipped your heels'; you can't do any more than that. It's a foul and changes the game, maybe gives us three points [and leaves Cardiff] down to 10 men so I'm really disappointed.
"Clearly today the four of them [referee and officials] weren't up to it. Steven's a good guy and a good referee; I don't think it was one of his better games. He's honest as well, so if he's got it wrong he'll admit to it."
