Cardiff City: Mick McCarthy upset by 'naughty' tackle by Bournemouth's Jefferson Lerma

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Image caption, Will Vaulks and Gary Cahill clashed in the first half but neither were booked

Jefferson Lerma was lucky to escape a second-half challenge on Ciaron Brown without a red card, says Cardiff City manager Mick McCarthy.

The Bournemouth midfielder was cautioned for his heavy tackle with the game still goalless, the Cherries scoring minutes later to win 1-0.

"I'm not suggesting for one minute he meant it, he was trying to win the ball and he was excellent," said McCarthy.

"But I've seen it back, and it's a red card in my mind."

The Cardiff boss accepted difficult decisions are "a lot easier when you can slow it down", but said his initial reaction was that it was a red card offence.

"If you go in like that out of control and catch a player on his shins it's a red card," McCarthy added.

"The referee made his decision on what he saw, we all get things righ,t we all get things wrong. I thought it was a bad tackle at the time.

"But it's a naughty old tackle."

Philip Billing scored Bournemouth's winning goal minutes after Lerma's tackle, a strike which moved the Cherries top of the Championship.

Despite the incident, McCarthy was full of praise for last season's play-off semi-finalists, and said he expects them to finish in the top two come the end of the season.

"We won't play against teams of that standard every week, they're almost the perfect Championship team," said McCarthy.

"They can deal with the rough and tumble of the league, they're athletic and have pace in the team.

"They're one of the teams that will finish in the top two, it was always going to be a tough ask for us, but for 55 minutes I was delighted."

After three games in six days, Cardiff have a week to prepare for their trip to Blackburn on 25 September, a break McCarthy is pleased to get.

"It's been a tough old week, hopefully we can recover and go to Blackburn and get something from that," McCarthy said.

"We've got really good senior players who are really close and will stick together - one head that shouldn't drop is the managers and it won't.

"We will be consistent in how we work, that's what keeps the ship going."