Neil Warnock has claimed referees need better education in the game after claiming his Cardiff City team deserved a point at Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Bluebirds lost 2-1 at the Championship leaders, but Warnock felt the visitors were denied a late penalty after defender Sean Morrison was fouled by Aleksandar Mitrovic.

“I am so gutted at the penalty,” said Warnock.

“Mitrovic mauls him down. At this level the officials should be educated better and know about the pull. They will go home and see it with their coaches next week and say ‘oh yeah, I made a mistake’.

“We have not got enough goals in the squad at the moment. We have to work on that. There were some pluses though. The lads at the back especially. At half time they might have got five or six. The second goal killed us.”

Christian Atsu opened the scoring for Newcastle in the third minute and Yoan Gouffran added a second moments before half-time.

Cardiff’s Peter Whittingham pulled one back from outside the area in the 77th minute to give the visitors a chance but Newcastle had done enough.

It was Newcastle’s seventh straight win – equalling the club’s run during the 2009-10 promotion season. It lifted Rafael Benitez’s side six points clear at the top of the table, even though Cardiff pushed them all the way.

Newcastle boss Benitez said: “The ref allows too much contact. They were complaining and we were not happy with decisions. We have to work hard even if we concede a goal that is not correct. I was not happy that we had to defend so much. But if a ref allows this situation you have to defend.

“I would rather play passing football, getting goals. In football if you play well you will have chances to win games. Sometimes you can’t because the opposition is aggressive and the ref allows this contact. Sometimes you play passing football, sometimes you have to be strong and defend and stand up.”