As delighted as the visitors would have been to take all three points and climb into fourth place in the Championship, two of their key men, Roger Johnson and Michael Chopra, were the victims of malevolent off-the-ball challenges that forced them out of the game before half-time as Crystal Palace crossed the boundary from physical to plain spiteful.
Johnson was taken to hospital with a throat injury after being elbowed by Claude Davis while Chopra departed after being upended.
Davis faces an FA ban after TV replays showed him leading with his right arm into Johnson’s throat during a corner-kick. Dave Jones, the Cardiff manager, said afterwards: “Davis caught him in the throat. The boy was spitting blood when he came off. He tried to go back on but he didn’t know what was happening or where he was.”
Jones was so enraged by Palace’s behaviour that he had to be restrained by his own staff at half-time, prompting a scuffle involving both sets of players and staff and he was sent to the stands for the second half, as was his opposite number, Neil Warnock, who claimed that Johnson had walked into Davis’s outstretched arm. “I’m confident there is no arm movement towards the player.”
The visitors deserve credit for keeping their heads in such an inhospitable atmosphere. They held on defiantly after Ross McCormack had given them the lead with a 22nd minute penalty after Joe Ledley was pulled back by Nathaniel Clyne. The Scot added his 21st goal of the season in stoppage time with a superb finish on the counter-attack...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6078898.ece
