A nightmare for Roberto as City triumph at Hawthorns
By Michael Morris
Updated Wednesday, 9th December 2009
Roberto DiMatteo called his sides defeat to Cardiff City a 'nightmare'.
Here are the managers comments after a game that saw Chris Burke give City a first half lead. Albion then put the Bluebirds under immense pressure for most of the 2nd half before late drama. Scott Carson was given a straight red card for an apparant headbutt against Michael Chopra. The referee saw it and issued a red card.
Dave Jones
"We tore West Brom apart in the first half. In the second we knew we would have tired players who have been out a long time.
"At half-time we had Kelvin Etuhu, Kevin McNaughton and Riccy Scimeca struggling.
"I said to Terry Burton what should we do and we did what we always do - give youth an opportunity. The kid (Aaron Wildig) was absolutely superb.
"Mark Kennedy has played midfield before, but we had Aaron who is a midfield player and he has been doing slightly better than Solomon Taiwo, who is still trying to find his feet in the Championship.
"I plumped for the kid and it worked for me.
"Riccy was doubtful before the start, but he had nothing left.
"His groins are sore, but he is not injured and he can rest now.
"Overall, we frustrated West Brom and restricted them to high balls into the box.
"Both sides tried to play football. This Cardiff squad will fight, they will scrap.
"They will dig deep."
Roberto DiMatteo
"It was one of those nightmare scenarios for a boss.
"We lost an important game and lost a couple of players to injury and suspension.
"In a game like this the first goal is very important.
"We dropped off on the first goal, which we shouldn't have.
"We should have tackled the player before he got to the edge of the box.
"Once he got into range of shooting we gave him a chance.
"That was poor defending on our part.
"In the second half we put pressure on them and played in their half.
"I think we had a few chances to get into the game but the final ball in front of goal was not there tonight.
"On our first touch and crosses I don't think we had the quality there tonight.
"After the final whistle Di Matteo refused to point the finger of blame at his skipper for his moment of madness preferring to discuss the incident with his captain before passing judgement.
"We are very disappointed about losing our keeper and captain for three games," the Italian continued.
"Personally I have not seen what happened with Scott because the game was developing in the middle of the pitch.
"I don't know if anyone has seen it to be honest.
"It's disappointing that happened tonight to our goalkeeper.
"I need to see what happened before I have a conversation with him.
"It's too early to decide about discipline.
"We need to find out exactly what happened.
"Hypothetically, we would take action if someone has deliberately head-butted someone.
"I don't know if Chopra said something to him for him to react."
