the times | Monday January 3 2022 1GG 13
thegame
West Brom
Robinson 48^1RATINGS
West Brom (3-4-3): S Johnstone 7 — C Kipré 7,
K Bartley 7, M Clarke 7 (A Reach 72min) —
T Gardner-Hickman 6, J Livermore 6, A Mowatt 5,
C Townsend 6 — T Fellows 6 (G Diangana 65, 8),
C Robinson 7 (J Molumby 78), K Grant 7.
Booked Bartley, Molumby. Sent off Mowatt,
Johnstone.
Cardiff City (3-1-4-2): A Smithies 7 —
M McGuinness 7, A Flint 7, C Nelson 7 — M Pack 7
— P Ng 6, J Ralls 8, W Vaulks 7 (R Colwill 79),
R Giles 7 — M Harris 6 (I Davies 86), J Collins 7.
Booked Giles, McGuinness. Sent off Flint.
Referee T Bramall.Cardiff City
Collins 34^1TIM GOODE/PAtesting positive for Covid-19.
In a match played on a saturated
pitch, and which kicked off 15 minutes
late because of crowd congestion,
Blackburn might have scored early
when Reda Khadra slammed a rising
shot against the crossbar after being
played in by John Buckley. They
might have won it late too, when
Sam Gallagher had a header from a
corner cleared off the line.
Huddersfield also had chances,
with Holmes heading a Harry Toffolo
cross goalwards from six yards
midway through the first half, and
Thomas Kaminski, the Blackburn
goalkeeper, scrambling the ball clear.“Keith’s a pretty experienced
referee, and yet I thought he got a lot
wrong today. I watched the Brereton
penalty, it’s two penalties, not one.
If Ben goes down under the first
challenge, it’s a penalty, and yet he
stays on his feet. He’s punished for
being an honest kid.”
It was a rare off-day for Brereton
Díaz, Blackburn’s 20-goal leading
scorer, who was smothered effectively
by Huddersfield’s back three.
The away side had more than
enough reason to be satisfied with a
point, gained in the absence of Carlos
Corberán, their head coach, who was
watching the match from home afterMowbray’s chief frustration,
instead, was with the performance of
Keith Stroud, the referee. He denied
Ben Brereton Díaz a penalty in the
first half after a collision with Matty
Pearson that began outside the
penalty area and ended inside it,
and later gave Duane Holmes, the
Huddersfield forward, a yellow card
for a scything challenge on Tyrhys
Dolan as most of the home support
argued for a red.
“I don’t know what game the
officials watched,” Mowbray said.
“You’ve got to know when a foul’s a
foul. You’ve got to know when
somebody’s trying to con someone.Even as their six-match winning run
came to an end in an underwhelming
manner Blackburn Rovers still had
reason for satisfaction, climbing
into the Sky Bet Championship’s
automatic promotion places.
This was the sort of day for getting
the job done by whatever means
possible, and Tony Mowbray, the
Blackburn manager, was not too
disappointed with a scrappy goalless
draw against a dogged Huddersfield
Town side with growing promotion
ambitions of their own.
Blackburn Rovers 0
RATINGS
Blackburn Rovers (3-4-3): T Kaminski 7 — D Lenihan 7,
J van Hecke 7, S Wharton 7 — R Nyambe 6, L Travis 6,
J Rothwell 6, H Pickering 6 (T Edun 67min, 6) —
R Khadra 6 (S Gallagher 63, 6), J Buckley 5 (T Dolan
73), B Brereton Díaz 5. Booked Travis, Buckley,
Van Hecke.
Huddersfield Town (3-4-2-1): L Nicholls 7 — M Pearson
7, T Lees 8, L Colwill 7 — S Thomas 6, S High 6
(O Turton 71), L O’Brien 6, H Toffolo 6 — D Holmes 6 —
D Sinani 5, J Koroma 5 (J Rhodes 67, 6).
Booked High, Holmes.
Referee K Stroud. Attendance 16,313.Huddersfield Town 0
MIKE WHALLEY
Mowbray hits out at referee as Blackburn’s winning run is halted
Johnstone, in green, is sent off in the 94th minute by the referee, Bramall, whose decisions were criticised by both managersto stop the other doing what they
were going to do. Nothing happened
— that happens all the time in a
game. I will appeal it [the red card],
as I’m sure they will, but I’m sure the
powers that be will [not] overturn it,
as they tend to back the referee.
Hopefully we don’t lose Aden Flint [to
a ban] and common sense prevails.”
James Collins glanced home Joe
Ralls’s corner in the 34th minute to
give struggling Cardiff the lead.The equaliser by Callum Robinson
in the 48th minute was also
controversial, as Cardiff claimed that
he was offside. “We were let down
by decisions, not by our players,”
Morison said.
West Brom were reduced to ten
men after Mowatt lunged in on Will
Vaulks, a decision also criticised by
Ismaël. “I was really frustrated
because the referee sent him off
because the Cardiff player wasinjured, and straight away he stood up
and looked like a newborn,” he said.
West Brom dominated for long
spells but could not find the decisive
breakthrough, to Ismaël’s annoyance.
“The first half was difficult because
Cardiff didn’t want to play any
football, they just wanted to waste
time,” he said.
Morison, though, was satisfied: “I
asked the players to do a job and they
carried out the game plan to a tee.”TIM NASH
Valérien Ismaël and Steve Morison, in
charge of West Bromwich Albion and
Cardiff City respectively, were united
in their criticism of the referee,
Thomas Bramall, after a stormy end
to this match at The Hawthorns.
Sam Johnstone, the West Brom
Ismaël furious
after ‘clear’
penalty denied
goalkeeper, and Aden Flint, the
Cardiff defender, were sent off after a
mêlée involving most of the players
which was sparked by the referee’s
refusal to give a penalty to West Brom
for what looked like a clear shove by
Marlon Pack on Conor Townsend.
Ismaël marched on to the pitch to
make his feelings known to Bramall,
who had also shown a straight red
card to Alex Mowatt, the West Brom
midfielder, in the 76th minute.
“It’s a clear penalty, I can’t say
anything else,” Ismaël said. “It’s
frustrating — at some point you need
the luck that the referee does his job.
“It was not only the penalty
decision — some decisions were for
us, some against us — in my opinion
it was a poor refereeing performance.”
Morison agreed with his West
Brom counterpart over the incident
that sparked the angry scenes.
He said: “It was all caused by them
having a stonewall penalty and the
referee not giving it.
“We were thankful he didn’t give it,
but as for the two sendings off at the
end, I think they grabbed each other