Millwall manager Gary Rowett brushed off Cardiff’s calls for a second-half penalty after his side edged the Welsh club 2-1.
The Lions took a while to get going at The Den – they were booed off at the end of a poor first half – and hearts would have been in mouths when Tommy Doyle’s shot appeared to hit Jake Cooper’s arm soon after the restart.
They also made it a disappointing return for Cardiff boss Steve Morison, a favourite of the Millwall fans in his two spells with the club as a player, who saw his side’s three-match winning run in the Sky Bet Championship brought to an end.
Rowett said: “I haven’t seen it back, but at the time I couldn’t tell because there was one early on, a Cardiff player, where it’s hit his arm, but it was down by his side.
“I think Coops’ was potentially a bit further away from his body, but I don’t know.
“I’m sure they might feel a little bit aggrieved, but I haven’t seen it back.”
On how his team managed to come out on top thereafter, Rowett said: “Cardiff probably had a five-minute spell where they started to get a little bit of joy and that probably made them come out and open up.
“They maybe felt like they could attack a little bit more and it helped us because it opened the spaces up and it meant the game swung a bit more.
“I thought we then really started to come into it and we scored two good goals.”
The only chance of a first half desperately lacking in incident came when Scott Malone slid through Oliver Burke, with Alex Smithies making a good block in the Cardiff goal.
The Bluebirds were fired up from not having a penalty awarded and Isaak Davies had a shot pushed away by Bartosz Bialkowski before Jordan Hugill headed over from close range.
Millwall then broke the deadlock when Malone’s corner – which was cheaply conceded – was allowed to run through for Wallace to head in.
The goal that proved decisive for the Lions came with eight minutes left, as George Saville hung up a cross for fellow sub Bennett to head from a few yards.
Cardiff could only produce a belated reply, with Joel Bagan turning in Cody Drameh’s deflected cross in the second minute of stoppage time.
Morison said: “It’s a stonewall penalty, end of conversation, but the ref won’t come up here and talk about it.
“Apparently, his hands were in a natural position, so if diving and stopping the ball with your hands is natural then that’s a new one on me, but let’s not dwell on it.
“It was a game too far for us – physically, I think we struggled with the game.
“We lacked that intensity in our press, but I said to the players after that sometimes you have to take something on the chin because it’s just a physical stretch.
“We’ve gone Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday.
“It’s just tough, it’s a lot to ask and when you’re scrapping like we have been, it brings emotional and mental tiredness as well.”
