Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock said that he has “no sympathy” for Neal Maupay after the Frenchman’s miss in Cardiff’s 2-0 win over Brentford.
At 1-0, Maupay had a wonderful chance to level the score but he took too much time on the ball and eventually shanked his effort wide of an open goal.
Cardiff then went on to score just minutes later through Danny Ward, to make Maupay rue the miss even more.
No sympathy
Speaking to the gathered press, Warnock said: “I can’t blame anybody but the lad himself, I have no sympathy for him because I think he tried to be a little bit too clever and give somebody the eye rather than put it in and that’s what happens.
“It gave us a respite because an equaliser at that stage and the way they were playing you’d think they would start dominating like they have done in their last three games away from home.”
While Cardiff were 1-0 up, the game was very even and both sides had a fair amount of quality chances in the fixture.
Happy with the win
“It was a game we anticipated,” the 68-year-old said, “Brentford are the best team in the league at the minute on form and you could see why in phases in the game.
“So we had to be really well organised, resolute, it didn’t help us at the same time we’re playing Brentford, we have five injuries, five changes from the last game. Two suspended so seven lads different, it was a difficult week for us really to prepare for a game like this but I take my hat off to the lads.”
Ward and Liam Feeney aren’t generally regulars in Warnock’s side, but stepped in today and performed extremely well.
Warnock was impressed with “the character they showed, we made three subs because we had to, the three lads who came off couldn’t move anymore.”
He also thought that Feeney “contributed well. I’m really proud of the lads today. We’ve had a difficult week with the injuries and suspensions but right from the first training session this week we said ‘look, we’ll be under the kosh because they’re a good side in possession, we’ve got to limit them to as few chances and we’ve got to take ours.’”
The seasoned coach said: “I did think we looked very dangerous, every time we got the ball and I think their passing was a bit more erratic. When it’s 2-0 you are always going to get a period in the second half but when you get that period, when you’ve got a back four like we have today.
“Bennett’s not played for weeks,” Warnock went on to say, “and he’s up against two of the cleverest lads there is and he has come out having a good 90 minutes under his belt.
“You’ve got Bruno playing out of position a bit at right-back, you’ve got Samba intercepting everything and you’ve got Neil Etheridge making saves. Apart from his kicking, I think my missus could kick better than him at times. But then he makes a great couple of saves.
“I can’t thank them all enough today, it was a super Cardiff City performance.”