Late refereeing blunder costs City all three points

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Cardiff City shouldn't let one dreadful refereeing error divert attention away from a mostly poor performance in south east London but at the same time the disallowed goal late in the game by Sol Bamba cost City two extra points that could be crucial as we enter the final third of the season.


City led through a cracking Junior Hoilett strike after three minutes, the Canadian taking advantage of Mahlon Romeo who had just previously been booked and who resisted a second challenge on Hoilett that would have seen him sent off.


Junior took aim and rifled the ball home from 20 yards.


City looked like they could take command of the game but impetus was lost and Millwall, led by Steve Morrison, took control of the game as the first half progressed and looked the better side until the final stages when City came strong again.


Morrison hit the bar before City's left hand side was exposed and Lee Gregory levelled on 40 mins.


Neil Etheridge was the busier keeper with a number of smart saves before City wrestled control of the game back and thought they had won it before controversy struck on 82 mins.


A ball towards the edge of the box was won by Joe Bennett, as he headed the ball into the box he was clattered but the referee allowed play to continue and less than four seconds later Sol Bamba volleyed the ball into the goal. But the referee decided to blow his whistle to give the foul and stop the advantage as Bamba's boot was about to strike the ball into the Millwall net.


The official failed to wait for one extra second to see if City could capitalise on their advantage instead he saw Bennett on ther ground and reacted with his whistle and dis-allowed a perfectly good goal.


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Millwall hadn't stopped playing, they thought they'd conceded and the consensus in the studio after the game was that the referee had made a mess of it.


Aside from that decision Neil Warnock must check Nathaniel Mendez-Laing's inhaler, he may have picked thr wrong one up by mistake. Really poor from him last night. And the gaffer must also look at how we allowed ourself to become distictly second best and battered around after such a good start.


That's five points from City's last three matches, all away from home and eight points from four unbeaten games since the four match losing streak over Christmas.


Now the Bluebirds face a run thats sees five of the next seven games at CCS, starting with the visits of Bolton on Tuesday and Middlesbrough next Saturday.