Neil Warnock was furious after referee Keith Stroud denied Cardiff City the win at Millwall they deserved.
The official disallowed a Sol Bamba effort when it clearly should have been given and said Warnock after the 1-1 draw: “It is appalling at this level. Sol is going to shoot and then he blows.
“I don’t accept that. He is a really experienced referee and I feel let down. He cost us the game.
“We are fighting to get in the Premier League. But for the referee it would have been three points.”
Millwall manager Neil Harris, a former Bluebirds striker, agreed with Warnock, saying: “We probably got away with one with the goal that was disallowed. I feel for Cardiff in some sense because they are probably on the wrong end of a decision.”
Warnock’s team now turn to successive home matches, against centre-forward Gary Madine’s former club Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday and then Middlesbrough next Saturday.
Those fixtures give Warnock and his players the chance to put a bitterly disappointing result in London behind them, but for the moment it stings.
Bamba acrobatically volleyed into the net after 83 minutes only for Stroud to rule out the effort – and award Cardiff a free-kick for a Steve Morison foul on Joe Bennett just outside the penalty area after initially playing advantage.
Junior Hoilett went for goal from the set piece, but his shot hit the defensive wall.
“What can you say about the decision?” said a bemused Warnock. “What can you say. He’s had a bad day at the office hasn’t he?
“I like Keith, he’s a good ref, but tonight his concentration levels must have been minus. Not just the goal he’s disallowed, which I can accept if he blows straight away when Bennett went down, but he looks where the ball has gone, carries on, looks and looks as Bamba is kicking it he blows.
“He’ll be distraught, but that’s no good to us. You work hard all week and then two decisions go against us. It’s an obvious penalty when the Bolton player moves his arm towards the ball. Two decisions in a matter of seconds.
“When he says ‘no penalty’, he’s either guessed or . . . . I said to him if he didn’t see it, I can understand not giving it, but if you’ve seen it you’ve got to give it. It was deliberate arm to the ball and that has cost us two points.
“But I’m still pleased with the way we played, because I thought played some good stuff tonight.
“I thought we were super second-half; they had a spell when Gary (Madine) had his nose smashed where we just wanted to fight, but we can’t do that at Millwall in their own back yard.
“We had to start playing again and calm them down and we were super in the second-half. How we didn’t score other goals, I don’t know, but I’m really pleased with the performance.
“I spoke to the referee and I think he’ll say he was disappointed he’s made a mistake. He didn’t see Sol in the box. He didn’t see he was going to shoot. It’s quite understandable, Sol is only 6ft 6. It’s easy to understand why he can’t see him.
“How do I mark him? Half of his marks are on major decisions. It’s not his general control because that’s as good as anything, it’s the major decisions.
“I’ll get a call saying sorry, but what good is that to me? I feel absolutely abject tonight for losing two points in such a way, when it is nothing to do with us. I feel absolutely gutted – and it didn’t get any easier on the way home.”
It was a full-blooded clash between two physically strong teams and the two managers chatted about a bruising first half during the break.
“I said to Neil it was a great game to be involved in, it was like old times, going back to Sunday League days with two teams wanting to challenge for everything,” said Warnock.
“There wasn’t any nastiness. The crowd got behind them which you’d expect. Millwall have done a fantastic job and they’re not going to change. They will frighten a lot of people here, that’s why I’m really proud of the lads because I don’t think they’ll have a second-half like that against one of the other sides.”
Warnock confirmed there were no new injury problems from the New Den match, but added: “There were a few broken hearts in our changing room.”
Cardiff would have gone third in the Championship, on goal difference behind Derby County, with a win and they started in style.
Hoilett cut inside and smashed a low shot into the corner to put Warnock’s Bluebirds the lead, while Millwall equalised when Lee Gregory turned in a Jed Wallace cross.
Cardiff made two changes to their starting line-up with Bennett and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing surprisingly called in for Amand Traore and Yanic Wildschut, who were not even among the substitutes.
Warnock was completely fed up after the match, but he will quickly focus on the next test – against Bolton at Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday.
Millwall: Archer, Meredith, Hutchinson, Gregory (Cahill 90), Romeo, Tunnicliffe, Morison, Saville, Cooper, Marshall (Onyedinma 78), Wallace. Subs not used: Martin, McLaughlin, Williams, Elliott, Shackell.
Cardiff City: Etheridge, Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett, Paterson, Grujić (Halford 76), Ralls, Mendez-Laing (Damour 77), Hoilett, Madine (Zohore 82). Subs not used: Murphy, Peltier, Pilkington, J Ward.
Referee: Keith Stroud
Attendance: 13,204.