April 12 2009

Neil Warnock

Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock has defended Claude Davis after he was accused of elbowing Cardiff's Roger Johnson.

Johnson felt the force of Davis' flailing arm as the pair challenged for the ball which led to the Cardiff player coming off injured.

The incident infuriated Cardiff boss Dave Jones who tried to confront Davis as the teams went off at half-time but Warnock believes it was an accident.

"Dave's been misinformed," said Warnock. "His sidekick Paul Wilkinson has told him that Claude has elbowed him but he hasn’t. Because what’s been said they’ve put two and two together and got five.

"There’s no arm movement towards the player. If there’s anything like that he’ll get done. I’m confident he won’t."

Warnock and Jones were sent to the stands for the second period and Warnock could not understand why.

He said: “It must have been the fourth official. I can’t think it was the referee because I wasn’t involved in anything."

Jones added: "I wasn’t happy with what had happened to one of my players. Go and get the video and watch it yourself – that’s all I’ve got to say.

“I’ve seen the video but I didn’t need it to tell me what happened. He (Roger) has gone to hospital and is now in the resuscitation part because his throat swelled up.

"Roger was very distressed at half-time and for him to have to go off to hospital there has to be something seriously wrong.

"If he had got hold of the person (Davis) that did it, I think he would have throttled the person. The only person who doesn’t think it’s not serious is Neil."