Reds make most of penalty blunder

Barnsley 1Cardiff 1Attendance: 10,709

CARDIFF City boss David Jones came across like that bloke who'd cycled in cyclones, pedalled through deserts and last week got his bike nicked in Barnsley.

Robbed, he reckoned.

Not quite the case.

Cardiff, with Stephen McPhail the stand-out player by freewheeling miles, had pretty-to-watch quality and possession in quantity.

Did they look like burying Barnsley? Never really.

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There just weren't bundles of chances and it could have gone either way.

Fair play to Jones, though, and that's the one thing Cardiff will claim they didn't get from Premier League ref Phil Dowd.

Jones went on to bad-mouth him enough to guarantee a summons from the Welsh FA bigwigs.

Barnsley manager Simon Davey kept a lid on what he really thought about that.

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Jones was exiled to the stands at the end of an entertaining but goalless first half.

He'd seen Joe Ledley dropped in the box. Even Davey agreed it was a nailed-on penalty.

Dowd, on a rare weekend when Match of the Day cameras couldn't come back to haunt him, gave Barnsley the benefit.

Jones went ape, Dowd had him kicked out of the dugout and sat in the directors' box for the rest of the game.

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Sin-binned to cool off except that hadn't a hope in hell of working.

"We have big referees come down to this division, and he hasn't put in a big performance," Jones fumed afterwards.

"It was a decision which changed the game even though it was only 0-0 at the time.

"I thought we totally dominated and should have won the game and that decision has cost us today.

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"I realise he was selected for today's game but I don't know why they are dropping down if they are not performing in the Premier League.

"They should send them into the Sunday morning football leagues if they need to drop down some divisions."

Cardiff with mega-earners Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Robbie Fowler, Trevor Sinclair and McPhail on board, are a club set up to climb.

They looked slick from the start although Barnsley hit the post and had one cleared off the line before Cardiff should have had that penalty which wasn't but really was...

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Istvan Ferenczi rattled the woodwork before limping off injured to be replaced by Miguel Mostto, who again struggled to impact on the action at all from 15 minutes in to the end of the game.

Anderson de Silva's corner should have broken the deadlock as Stephen Foster got in a far-post header only for Kevin McNaughton to hack it off the line.

After the break Fowler fluffed a volley from 10 yards out but Hasselbaink found success from closer in, heading in a Paul Parry centre from the right flank.

Davey was unimpressed with his team then.

"If you give players of that quality space in the box they finish," he said.

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"I watched Cardiff against West Brom, they had four chances and scored four. I made sure all the players were well aware of the situation; allow people space in the penalty area and it will go in the back of your net.

"We're disappointed that we lost the ball in possession, didn't stop the ball coming in and let them have a free header in the box. That's three problems leading to one goal.

What do you think? Post your comments below. The players know that and hopefully they'll learn."

McPhail got carded for his celebration afterwards and might have walked following a challenge on Barnsley sub Martin Devaney.

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Howard then put Barnsley back in it with seven minutes left.

"All I can remember is Cardiff having quite a high line, Fozzy (Stephen Foster) had the ball and I thought I'd get myself in the box and I've thrown my self at it," Howard explained.

"He's put in a great ball and all 5ft 7.5in of me went at it and I got the right touch. It went in probably one of the only places it could. I did even see it, I was diving the other way. I heard the roar and was absolutely buzzing."

Davey agreed it was quality.

"Brian arrived in the box, great header and that puts him on five goals nowFor a midfielder that's a fantastic achievement and if he continues to do that there could be a couple of million offers for him," he said with a smile,

"Millions of Turkish lire, that is ..."

Manager's View

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I thought the game could have gone either way, Cardiff are a good side, they've got some good players. At times they created chances but our defence stayed strong.

You've only got to give Cardiff half a chance and it's in the back of your net and that's what happened.

Credit to our players, our lads have come back and got another goal. We could have nicked it at the end.

Iit was a good spectacle of Champion-ship football.

I felt that both teams went to win the game and we've shared the spoils.

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I felt that Cardiff should have had a penalty in the first half but that's the way things go. We're happy at the moment, we're on a run of games, we're undefeated in four now.

I don't want to talk about bookings because it all stems back to the referee. We'll leave that one.