Jake Cooper has revealed that Millwall head coach Neil Harris warned him that he would have been subbed off if he had conceded one more foul in the 2-0 defeat at Leeds United.
Centre-back Cooper was booked early on for tangling with Wily Gnonto.
There were also big home claims for a penalty for the former Reading defender’s challenge on Joe Rodon inside the box inside the opening 45 minutes as well as Georginio Rutter going down after being caught by his trailing arm.
Sky Sports were televising the Championship match with their punditry team expecting Cooper not to make way at the interval.
But Cooper lasted the distance.
“I felt a bit harshly done by – I said to the ref as we were walking in at half-time: “You know I have given one little tiny foul away and you are telling me I’m on my last warning here’,” Cooper told the South London Press earlier this week.
“Obviously they slow-motioned the challenge in the penalty area with Rodon. If they think that is a penalty, fair enough. But that’s never been a penalty.
“The little bit of a scuffle in the corner (with Gnonto), trying to get our fans going. Having that kind of battle mentality we went into the game with – tried to spark that off. It worked to an extent but I still managed to get booked even though I barely did anything.”
Cooper appeared to roll back and put his full bodyweight on Gnonto.
Asked if that was accidental, he said: “I was just trying to bide my time and wind him up a little bit – like we were the whole team, just to see if they’d react. He did a little bit. It’s one of those gameplaying things – we did it with Norwich at The Den. We were just trying to spark something off – you know what Elland Road is like, you need to have something go in your favour or you’re in big trouble.
“I don’t think the ref was completely fair with us. Chopper said to me at half-time: ‘If you give one more free-kick away then you’re coming off son”. I thought ‘I’ve got to stay away from any trouble here’.
“I’m 29 now and quite good at managing myself on a yellow card – I’ve had nine already so I know what to do.”
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