'I was delighted to get booked', admits Wigan Athletic boss

Cook had his name taken midway through the first half by referee David Webb, who had ignored strong Latics calls for a penalty after Joe Garner's shot clearly struck a City arm.

Webb had earlier angered Latics by brandishing only yellow to City midfielder Joe Ralls for an awful lunge that caught Lee Evans just below the knee.

The sight of Ralls putting Cardiff ahead shortly after did little to calm down Cook, who had no complaints about falling foul of the law himself.

“I thought he genuinely took a long time to give me it,” the Latics boss explained.

“I thought I deserved it a lot, long before that, and eventually he had no choice but to give me it.

“And I was delighted to get it, because he obviously knew why I was getting it.

“He gets the message. I told the fourth official: ‘Lads, I will continually shout and scream until he comes over and books me...and he did’.

"I am genuinely not bothered. As a manager, I wanted the referee to know how frustrated I am.

“If that leads to me getting booked, I will get booked every day of the week for my team.

“We want referees to get the big decisions right, and that goes both ways – for my team and the opposition – so I felt that decision he got wrong completely.

“He warned me if I opened my mouth again, I wouldn’t be standing there - and I agreed with that.”