Cardiff Boss Neil Warnock Refuses to Criticise Joe Ralls After Penalty Miss in 3-1 West Ham Defeat

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock refused to criticise Joe Ralls after the midfielder missed a penalty during the Bluebirds' 3-1 defeat to West Ham on Tuesday evening.

With the scores level at 0-0, Ralls had his spot kick saved by Lukasz Fabianski before West Ham substitute Lucas Perez scored twice in the second half, with Michail Antonio adding a third before Josh Murphy netted a consolation in injury time.

Speaking after the game, ​Warnock said, as quoted by ​Sky Sports"Tonight showed we can win away games from home. I pulled Manuel Pellegrini in the technical area and said: 'how can we be losing 3-0' - it was a mad 12 minutes, then the penalty miss.

West Ham United v Cardiff City - Premier League

"If that goes in then you could sense the crowd were beginning to think it wasn't going their way. I refuse to criticise Ralls - he'll get some stick from the fans but it takes guts to take a penalty. I can't even watch one. I wouldn't criticise him."

Warnock was also left bemused by some of his side's defending, despite being proud of the ​Bluebirds' performance against the ​Hammers in London.

He added: "How can you legislate for two lads going for the same ball, there's not a lot we can do. We work on these things in training. 


"It's frustrating to concede goals that we've done all season not just tonight - you think we don't work on it, we probably shouldn't bother. It might work better than that.

"We've shown we can compete. Tonight we looked a decent side. After we weathered the storm in the first 10 minutes, we played some good stuff. It would have been interesting to see the penalty go in. It's another disappointment for me, but I'm going to get those at my age."


Source : 90min