Daniel Farke was as upset as we`ve ever seen him after watching his side lose 3-1 at Cardiff City last night.
Norwich took a first half lead through a long range drive from Marco Stiepermann, only to be pegged back just two minutes into the second half by an incredible penalty decision.
Farke said that he had to bite his lip or face a fine from the FA when he spoke after the game to the EDP
“I am not willing to comment on the second half because if I gave you my honest thoughts I would be fined by the FA, 100pc,” he said. “I think it was quite obvious to anyone in the stadium what happened and the reason why we lost. I have to be careful a little bit.
“None of my lads has to be criticised because their performance was brilliant. The loss was for other reasons.
“I always speak to my players about small things determining games like a bad pass or a bad decision.
“We concede a goal after 47 minutes when we haven`t given one situation away.
“The cross came in and no-one can tell me right now where the foul is. It was a foul on my player, Ivo Pinto. You can watch it again. I wouldn`t expect a free kick but I also wouldn`t expect a penalty.
“It was a determining situation for the whole game. It was a present for them without a mistake by us.
“The second penalty, even the player came to me after the game and said he was sorry, he slipped.
“The third chance they had a shot against the bar that came from a free kick, which wasn`t a foul for me.
“Fourthly, we tried to put pressure on them and Vrancic was tugged on his shirt on a counter and didn`t give us a free kick and they go up the other end straight away and score the third goal. Frustrating. Totally frustrating.”
To be fair though, Cardiff`s disallowed header just after the first penalty was given, looked decent enough and I couldn`t see much wrong with it. I wasn`t there to see it at first hand but the replays didn`t show much wrong.
Farke also rued missedchances in the first half.
“I thought the first half was a brilliant performance from my lads,” he said. “We faced an opponent who is unbeaten in their home games and we didn`t give away one goal, we scored a beautiful goal and three or four chances to get a second.
“We had a couple of situations in the box. Josh Murphy got into the box and stayed on his feet. Nelson Oliveira was close to a penalty as well when he was in a brilliant shooting position and he had a two-on-one with Wes Hoolahan.
“We made one mistake in the second half when Josh lost the ball and stopped playing. The ball deflects back to their player and it is 2-1. He has to learn.”
It`s all very well blaming these sorts of issues though but every other team we seem to face is well drilled and knows what`s required at this level. I bet none of Warnock`s team would dare to “stop playing” when they lose the ball.
City had a great chance to win this game and had Oliveira squared the ball to Wes Hoolahan on the stoke of half time, then we go in 0-2 up and it`s a totally different game.
To concede a penalty so quickly after the break gave the home side the impetus they needed to go on and make a great comeback, albeit helped by the officials and Norwich players.
Make no mistake, our form at the moment is relegation form and there is a long way to go in this season. I still can`t believe we will get into a relegation battle once Pritchard, Tettey, Trybull etc are back but you never know.
It looks more likely than a promotion push, right now.
Another desperate result and being a Norwich fan continues to be a thoroughly miserable experience at the moment.
OTBC