Crystal Palace 1, Bristol City 2

Palace boss blasts 'arrogant' City

YOU'LL PAY, VOWS WARNOCK

By ROB SHEPHERD

NEIL WARNOCK has vowed to make Bristol City pay for what he saw as their premature celebrations.

A stunning stoppage-time strike by David Noble gave City the advantage going into Tuesday's second leg of this Championship play-off semi-final.

Click for all the best pictures from Crystal Palace v Bristol City

But Eagles boss Warnock was seething at City's display at the final whistle when all those on the sidelines dashed on to the pitch.

Warnock fumed: "Their celebrations were a bit over the top. It was as if they think they're already at Wembley for the final.

Nasty

"Well, we'll see about that. Football has a nasty habit of coming back to haunt you when you think you've achieved something."

And Warnock was not happy with what he felt were City's overly aggressive tactics.

He reckoned Gary Johnson's side targeted his young stars Victor Moses and Scott Sinclair.

Warnock said: "There were some bad challenges and I'm not happy with the way the referee dealt with it. It was as if there was a policy not to show any yellow cards.

"One tackle by Marvin Elliott should have been a straight red.

"It was horrendous but he only got booked. Some of my young lads will go into the return with plenty of bruises on them.

"We know it will be a testing atmosphere at Ashton Gate on Tuesday, but maybe they've given us some extra motivation."

Given the glorious manner and timing of Noble's winner, it is no wonder there was a burst of elation from the Robins bench.

But Johnson realised the celebrations may be premature and urged calm in the ranks.

He said: "We got to our players who were celebrating in front of our fans and pulled them away into a huddle.

"The idea was to calm everybody down, nip the celebrations in the bud and remind them they've got to do it all over again. It's still only half-time and Palace have a very good away record. We are certainly not celebrating yet."

It was a pretty open and at times thrilling encounter.

Johnson had to control his own aggression late on when a touchline incident threatened to spiral out of control.

Quality

Palace midfielder Shaun Derry, who had been substituted in the 78th minute, took a dislike to something Johnson said to his players and threw a cup of water over the Bristol boss.

Johnson played it down, joking: "He did me a favour, it was a hot day and it cooled me down."

Yet, despite the heat, there was plenty of end-to-end action to demonstrate there is quality outside the Premier League.

Palace started the brightest with Sinclair showing some clever touches and Clinton Morrison's pace was an obvious threat. But the hosts failed to convert that early pressure into goals.

City, who came up from League One only last season, started to piece together the better moves — no more so than in the 53rd minute when they produced a fantastically contrived free-kick which led to them taking the lead.

Noble rolled a short pass to Michael McIndoe who hit a sharp pass into the feet of Nick Carle.

He squared the ball into the path of skipper Louis Carey who curled a side-foot peach into the top corner to finish a set-piece codenamed ‘the weasel'.

Four minutes from time, Palace's centre-half turned makeshift striker Jose Fonte won a dubious penalty when he went down under a Carey challenge.

Ben Watson stayed calm to ram the spot-kick home.

But just as it looked like ending all square, Noble unleashed a 30-yard pile-driver which Cristiano Ronaldo would have been proud of.

On that front, Warnock had no complaints. He said: "It was a goal that would have graced any game in the Premier League."

Comments

[Citypete]

Isnt it about time this big mouth was shown the oap home he's in a fantasy world if he thought we went out to kick his young boys. they're the kickers of the division every team knows that. we deserved this and anyway did our player squirt water at him NO keep your own players under control he should have been sent off from bench and miss second leg.

[up the city]

i think warnock needs to learn to lose gracefully as we were the better team on the day.He wants to look at his own players for there challenges.Especially shaun derry he went over the ball against Nick carle and we got the decision against us.Cant wait til tuesday now.

[Craig King]

I feel it's very sad when a manager of the losing team (Warnock)does not admit his players were slightly below par on the day & give at least some credit to the winning away side. It was a proud moment as a Bristol City fan. A great battling performance away from home, which Palace also gave us last time they visited Aston Gate. He complains about the tackles, i'm sure if his players had shown the same committment in trying to win the ball yesterday he'd have had a different view. I did not feel it was a dirty game or performance by City. Psychology is all well and good but on the day Warnock can't seem to be able to be as gracious as our manager would have been (a true gent). Gary's tactics were spot on, giving them no time on the ball for large periods. I'd have thought more of Warnock if he'd have said he was unhappy with some of the tackles but after all there's a lot at stake and it's a mans game. Well done to City & his own players need to up their game now to stay in this tie. ie do what City did to them. Hope you didn't have too many nightmares last night Neil cu Tues!

[kat]

its only half time.......................cu tuesday bristol boys

[marie]

why cant he see that bristol city were a better team and played outstanding get over it

[bristolcity4eva]

we luv bristol city
cum on!!