Cardiff boss Neil Warnock defiant after West Ham defeat

Cardiff boss Neil Warnock defiant after West Ham defeat. Neil Warnock remains confident Cardiff can pick up points in the Premier League despite getting outclassed at West Ham.

Lucas Perez scored twice to help West Ham blow away Warnock's side 3-1 as Joe Ralls' penalty miss proved costly with the game at 0-0.

Warnock, who refused to criticise Ralls for the spot-kick fail, saw enough from his team to remain upbeat about the challenge of surviving in the Premier League.

He said: "Tonight showed we can win away games from home. I pulled Manuel Pellegrini in the technical area and said: 'how can we be losing 3-0' - it was a mad 12 minutes, then the penalty miss.

"If that goes in then you could sense the crowd were beginning to think it wasn't going their way. I refuse to criticise Ralls - he'll get some stick from the fans but it takes guts to take a penalty. I can't even watch one. I wouldn't criticise him."

Cardiff capitulated in a clumsy 12-minute period after the break where Perez netted twice and Michail Antonio headed home unchallenged for a corner.

Despite being proud of the performance, Warnock was bemused by some of his team's defending.

He added: "How can you legislate for two lads going for the same ball, there's not a lot we can do. We work on these things in training. It's frustrating to concede goals that we've done all season not just tonight - you think we don't work on it, we probably shouldn't bother. It might work better than that.

"We've shown we can compete. Tonight we looked a decent side. After we weathered the storm in the first 10 minutes, we played some good stuff. It would have been interesting to see the penalty go in. It's another disappointment for me, but I'm going to get those at my age."