Barry-Murphy criticises League One referee standard

Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy said refereeing in League One is "getting gradually worse" following his side's 10-man victory over Rotherham on Saturday.

Bluebirds captain Ryan Wintle was shown a red card on 21 minutes but his team-mates rallied to secure a 3-0 away victory to remain top of the table.

Barry-Murphy not only criticised match referee Seb Stockbridge but the general standard across the division, even hinting it could be linked to Cardiff City being the only Welsh team in League One.

"The refereeing performances this season are getting gradually worse. It's been really poor," the head coach told BBC Sport Wales."

He added: "We're the only Welsh team in this league and at some stage our players need to be protected [but] they're not being protected."

Barry-Murphy was unhappy yesterday with Wintle's dismissal as well as a challenge on Cardiff forward Isaak Davies that went unpunished.

"Ryan makes contact and there wasn't much cover but he [Stockbridge] couldn't wait to send him off," said Barry-Murphy.

"Isaak Davies received a sickening blow to the head off the ball and it wasn't seen."

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Cardiff's head coach also bemoaned a lack of response from Professional Game Match Official Limited (PGMOL), the body responsible for refereeing games in English professional association football, to previous complaints.

Barry-Muprhy described the replies as "vanilla" and added: "Our staff put a lot of effort into sending those reports but from now on there's no point.

"There's no acknowledgement of what we're saying, it's just ignored. We get a reply but the reply is always in agreement with what's happened. It's not good enough.

"We're not going to waste our time on it, we're going to focus on what we're doing for Cardiff city and try to give our supporters and players the protection they need."

Mentality pleases Bluebirds boss

Victory at Rotherham extended the Bluebirds' 10-game unbeaten run to remain two points clear of Lincoln City.

"From the first minute we were intent on playing our game and continued to do that after Ryan was sent off.

"I was confident we would win but the big thing for me was the mentality the players had to show and they didn't let anyone down.

"We didn't want to take a step back. We want to be as aggressive as we can in every moment of every game in this league. It was a really special day for us."