Warnock brands referee choice a disgrace after loss to Watford

Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock claims his side were part of an experiment which cost them a result after their 3-2 defeat at Watford. 

The hosts looked to be well on their way to victory, with Gerard Deulofeu, Jose Holebas and Domingos Quina putting the Hornets 3-0 up.

Cardiff almost pulled off the most unlikely of comebacks, however, as goals from Junior Hoilett and Bobby Reid in the space of two minutes put the result in doubt.

The match was officiated by Andy Madley, in what was his first Premier League game, and Warnock believes he was put in charge because Cardiff were seen as the inferior top-flight side.

Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: “”I am disappointed with the individual errors for the goals, but I am pleased with the way we kept going.

“We set ourselves up to be difficult to break down and I can not legislate for individual errors. We can not keep playing like this every week and losing, we need to get results away from home.

“Troy [Deeney] should have been booked. I can not understand why we had Andre Marriner as the fourth official and a referee (Andy Madley) who has not refereed a game all season.

“Unless it’s because we are Cardiff and they can say we can have a trainee or something?”

When later speaking to Sky Sports, he added: “Troy Deeney should have been booked for the challenge on our keeper.

“It is an inexperienced referee in his first game in the Premier League and you have Andre Marriner sat next to me. It is a disgrace.

“Why should we be an experiment? It was poor today. An experienced referee would have done something about that challenge.”