By Terry Phillips
Neil Warnock and his Cardiff City team look certain to be without Sol Bamba until after Christmas after the defender’s astonishing meltdown at Ipswich.
Bamba will miss Tuesday’s Championship home match against Wolves and Saturday’s fixture against Brentford, also at Cardiff City Stadium, plus their trip to Brentford on Boxing Day.
That opens the way for Bruno Manga or Matt Connolly to step in alongside captain Sean Morrison at centre-half.
Manga looks likely to leave the Bluebirds when the January transfer window opens, which may give Connolly the edge when Warnock makes his decision.
Bamba lost his cool during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town and ended up shoving Warnock in the chest as tempers flared on the touchline.
The centre-back was the victim of a bad tackle but was then involved in confrontations with referee James Adcock, the fourth official, Cardiff’s physio, as well as City manager Warnock, who expects his defender to be charged with violent conduct and banned for three games.
The Bluebirds may also consider internal disciplinary action against Bamba, who pushed his managers arm away when he tried to restrain the player.
Big centre-half Bamba was dismissed for an angry reaction to a tackle by Jonathan Douglas.
“You can’t condone that,” said Warnock. “I’ve not seen that part of him before, but he was absolutely furious. He’ll get violent conduct and banned for three games and quite rightly so.
“He was a bit big for me. I could not get him around the neck. I’ll have to grow a bit. But he is distraught in there, and quite rightly so.”
Referee Adcock saw the foul by Douglas, but wanted to play advantage for Cardiff.
“The ref should have just blown for a foul,” said Warnock. “It would have saved a man getting sent off, it would have saved 20 minutes of bedlam, it would have saved me a lot of hassle.
“The referee said he wanted to give us the advantage, which it did, but we don’t want it there. When Sol goes down like that, he does not go down for nothing, you’ve got to stop the game and learn from it. I hope the referee has learned from that.”
Aron Gunnarsson gave Cardiff a first half lead after Ipswich goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski let the ball slip from his grasp. He had two hands on Peter Whittingham’s corner, but dropped it and Gunnarsson stabbed home from close range.
That was a welcome gift for the Bluebirds, but Luke Varney made it 1-1 after 52 minutes.
More than 250 Cardiff fans made the trip to Portman Road and the visitors will be pleased with a hard earned point. Home fans booed their players off the pitch after the final whistle.
Ipswich named an unchanged team, while Warnock recalled Rickie Lambert and Lee Peltier with Frederic Gounongbe and Joe Ralls left out.
The dismissal of Bamba left Cardiff facing a tough final 20 minutes, but they finished the stronger team and might have even snatched a victory.
Ipswich Town 4-4-2: Bialkowski; Chambers (capt), Webster, Berra, Knudsen; Ward (Sears 72), Skuse, Douglas (Bishop 79), Lawrence; McGoldrick, Varney (Pitman 72).
Cardiff City 4-4-2: Amos; Peltier, Morrison (capt), Bamba, Connolly, Bennett (Pilkington 57); Hoilett, Gunnarsson, Whittingham, Harris (Noone 57); Lambert (Manga 73). Unused subs: Wilson, Richardson, Ralls, Zohore.
Attendance: 15,042 (246 away)
Referee: James Adcock