May 11 2008

Neil Warnock

Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock hit out at Bristol City's celebrations after their late 2-1 triumph.

David Noble's last-minute winning goal - a 30-yard rocket - gives City the edge ahead of Tuesday night's play-off semi-final second leg at Ashton Gate.

The Eagles thought they had done enough for a draw after Ben Watson's 87th minute penalty cancelled out Louis Carey's goal from a fine free-kick move on 54 minutes.

Boss Warnock could not believe the way City players celebrated the last-gasp strike and has warned the tie is not over yet.

"I think you could see from their celebrations that they were already at Wembley. I didn't think much of their celebrations to be honest," said Warnock.

"There was no need to go off like they did. They are 2-1 up but I think celebrations should be kept until you are through because football has a habit of getting you back."

Warnock was upset with Marvin Elliott's rash challenge on Danny Butterfield which resulted in just a yellow card for the former Millwall midfielder.

"That was a straight red," said Warnock. "We should have been playing 10 men after that. You could see by the look on Elliott's face he thought his season was over. You get booked for throwing the ball away!"

Bristol City manager Gary Johnson was delighted with the free-kick which led to the goal. "We've got names for our set-pieces and we call that one the weasel," he said.

"Michael McIndoe just shouted 'weasel' and everyone got into their positions. But I can't see it working again on Tuesday, I think Neil will have it worked out.

"Noble is a big-game player and he scored a fantastic goal. He has that ability and he's shown that during the second half of the season.

"There is no bigger game than today, he bought a ticket and won the lottery with that one.

"I told the lads not to get carried away, it's only half-time and there's only a goal in it.

"It was a good performance but I did not want it to look like we were over-celebrating so I nipped that in the bud."