Dave Jones revealed that Jay Bothroyd's disallowed injury time equaliser against Villa was in fact onside.
The Bluebirds manager said: "The linesman disallowed it, but we've seen the tape, and it's not offside. Maybe this is where technology should come into the game. Jay was not offside when the ball was headed on to him.
"I spoke to the referee and I was trying to help. I didn't say antyhing out of order. Maybe I'm getting old and soft in my ways, because I wanted to rip his head off! But it's no good having a go at the officials. We deserved the goal because we worked so hard.
"I mention using technology to settle disputes like this because if there had been 10 referees around the pitch, half would have said onside and half would have said off."
Cardiff's battling performance at the home of Premier League opposition swept away the memory of Saturday's horror show at home to QPR, and Dave said: "Tonight we go home with a lot of pride and our chins up. But we can do even better and that's what I'm driving the players on for.
"We were given a lesson in not giving the ball away. That's something we must learn. We had good passing movement and forward runs - we made more forward runs in the first 15 minutes tonight than we did in the whole of Saturday's game. We took the game to them as much as we could, and Martin O'Neill showed us respect by putting out a strong team.
"We looked like Cardiff City again and passed the ball well. We gave the ball away and got punished with a goal when maybe we could have got away with it in the Championship."
Dave singled out 17-year-old full back Adam Matthews for praise. "I said to him before the game: 'Let's see how far you've come.' He was dead on his feet after the match but we left him on for 90 minutes because it was time for us to find out how he would do. We know we've got a top player in Adam - our problem will be holding on to him.
"I brought in Gabor Gyepes and he didn't let us down. Anthony Gerrard performed well against top players like Gabriel Agbonlahor and John Carew.
"After Saturday's match, I wanted to send the same team out and tell them to show that it wasn't really us. But I had promised certain players a chance tonight. The tape we saw on Sunday morning was like i wasn't watching one of my teams. We hammered the payers for it.
"Nobody can complain about the way we played tonight, but we can learn, get better and get stronger."
Dave also hailed City's travelling army of nearly 4,000 fans. "To come to a ground like this and see all those fans cheering us on is just fantastic."
