Cardiff City boss Morison refuses to focus on Mahlon Romeo reception after 2-0 defeat to Millwall

Cardiff manager Steve Morison refused to talk in detail about the reception Mahlon Romeo received on his return to The Den.

The right-back headed back to SE16 today for the first time since quitting the Lions in the summer.

Romeo was booed throughout the match and reacted angrily at the full-time whistle – shouting towards the home support as he was ushered off the pitch by City officials.

The defender was booked for a late lunge on Millwall debutant Callum Styles and looked fortunate not to receive a yellow for a similar mistimed tackle on the same player in the opening minutes.

Substitutes Benik Afobe and Charlie Cresswell secured Millwall’s first win in four Championship matches.

Former Lions striker Morison – asked how Romeo was feeling – said: “It’s life, you have to deal with it, get on with it. It’s not nice and it’s a lot easier to do it when they are winning the game.He doesn’t have to worry about it now.

“Let’s not concentrate on Mahlon. I’m not going to answer it. The focus of the press conference is Millwall beat Cardiff 2-0. I haven’t seen it [Romeo’s reaction at full time].

“He handled it amazingly, from the first minute until the end. This shouldn’t be the focus of this conversation. We should be purely talking about the football.”

Millwall boss Gary Rowett – asked about the ferocity of Romeo’s reception – said: “You want to listen to it when I go back to Stoke, it’s pretty ferocious there. It happens when you go back to clubs. What I will say is Mahlon is a real good lad and really popular player for us. He played a lot of games for Millwall and was a really good servant.

“That’s all I can say. When you come back you know it’s probably not going to be a nice reception. I’m not condoning that. It is football, it is what it is. He handled it really well.

“It probably felt like an afternoon where he needed to show that character and he did. Really the focus, for me, is on our performance.”

Morison has brought his Cardiff side to The Den twice since being appointed boss and lost both of them.

“The second goal is the most disappointing out of all of them,” he said. “It’s a disappointing second goal but we just gave them the icing on the cake when we could’ve gone down the other end and still got one right at the death.

“We’re not best pleased but we can’t do anything about it now.

“If one of those goes in [shots that hit the post], then it’s a different game so it was a set-piece that changed the course of the game.

“They’re the best in the league at set-plays, it’s always going to be a tough ask but we dealt with it on the whole pretty well.

“They score the goal and it changes the course of the game, it was tough to come back and we haven’t managed to do that yet – going one behind and we need to better at it.

“Let’s not focus on the set-plays, let’s not because we have to defend them – we have to do better and we always knew it was going to be tough today with those situations.

“There was chances for both sides, they had a couple of moments first-half, we had a couple second-half. We hit the post and then they go down the other end and score, it’s a game of fine margins.

“Every game at 0-0, you’re in it and have an opportunity, at 1-0, you’re still in it and have an opportunity.”