Morrison praises referee Mason for having ‘character’ to overturn penalty call

Cardiff captain Sean Morrison praised “brave” referee Lee Mason over the Huddersfield penalty that never was.

Huddersfield boss David Wagner was left fuming when Mason reversed his decision to award the Terriers a 76th-minute penalty in their 0-0 Premier League draw at Cardiff.

Bolton official Mason pointed to the spot when full-back Florent Hadergjonaj fell following a tussle with Cardiff defender Joe Bennett.

But, having spoken to his assistant Stuart Burt, Mason instead awarded Cardiff a free-kick for the Switzerland international’s earlier push on Bennett as the two players chased a ball into the penalty area.

“I was angry with the ref to start with because I didn’t think it was a penalty,” Morrison said.

“There might have been a tangle of legs outside the box to start with and then the lad went over the top of Bennett and tried to sell it to the referee.

“I just think the ref was brave to change his mind because, once you give it, it’s harder to change your mind and take the penalty away from Huddersfield.

“They’re a team of four (officials) and the linesman didn’t think it was a penalty, so fair play to him for showing the character to overturn it.”

Cardiff dropped a place to 17th, but stayed out of the relegation zone after Newcastle were beaten at Chelsea on Saturday evening.

Newcastle are Cardiff’s next opponents at St James’ Park and Morrison has called for a big improvement on Tyneside.

“This wasn’t good enough, it’s as simple as that,” said Morrison, reflecting on a dreary contest between two sides being tipped for relegation.

“We weren’t good enough on the offensive front, but we’ll take a point as a positive.

“We know we need to be better at Newcastle and hopefully they come on to us a bit more.

“We have to show what we can do going forward, because that’s a huge game.

“We have to create more if we want to stay in the league.”

Bottom-placed Huddersfield are eight points from safety after ending a run of nine successive defeats.

Huddersfield’s next test is against champions Manchester City, the start of a daunting run of fixtures which also includes games against Everton, Chelsea and Arsenal.

“We did get results against them (the bigger clubs) last season, so why not show we can do that again?” goalkeeper Jonas Lossl said.

“We’ve got 16 games left and a big belief that we can turn this around.

“There’s still enough character and spirit in the team to do that.

“That (penalty) decision is a hard blow. We needed that penalty, we needed the three points and that would have helped us.

“But I’m happy that we keep showing a good attitude and we have that belief that our luck will turn.

“We will keep working hard and show the same next week.”