Jason Puncheon tweets: Crystal Palace midfielder charged over remarks about Neil Warnock

The midfielder responded to criticism of a penalty miss

Crystal Palace midfielder Jason Puncheon has been charged by the Football Association following a series of tweets in reaction to criticism of his penalty miss at Tottenham by Neil Warnock.

Puncheon - whom Warnock signed on loan when manager at QPR in September 2011 - spurned the chance to give relegation battlers Palace an early lead at White Hart Lane in the Barclays Premier League in January when he blasted his spot-kick horribly wide, and the hosts went onto win the match 2-0.

The 27-year-old came in for criticism from many commentators over the weekend, but took exception to comments from Warnock in his role as a pundit on talkSPORT, and posted several comments on the social media site, which have landed him in disciplinary trouble with the authorities.

A statement from the FA read: "Crystal Palace's Jason Puncheon has been charged by The FA for Twitter comments he made in relation to Neil Warnock.

"It is alleged that in posting these comments, Puncheon failed to act in the best interests of the game, and/or acted in a manner which was improper, and/or used abusive and/or insulting words in contravention of FA Rule E3[1]. Puncheon has until 6pm on Thursday 27 February 2014 to respond to the charge."

Puncheon, who is on loan at Palace from Southampton, quickly deleted the offensive posts. However, copies of them were seen by Press Association Sport.

Warnock, sacked by Rangers in November 2012, revealed he had been alerted to the matter and said he was considering his next course of action.

He said in a statement last month: "The first tweet 'everyone is entitled to their opinion' I haven't got a problem with, but moving on from this is his later tweets. He's made comments I know nothing about. If it has been suggested I have done anything untoward I confirm I most certainly have not.

"I notice Jason has removed his tweets. The matter is being addressed directly with him on my behalf. In the circumstances there is nothing more for me to say."

Puncheon left only the following post on his official Twitter account.

"In the wake of a bad penalty and people's opinions and banter which I accept mattletiss7 on talkSPORTLive this morning gets it right."

One earlier Tweet had read: "Everything else is banter and opinions and as a man I will live with that which is fine but I will not live with his opinion."

Warnock had not held back in his criticism of Puncheon during his comments on live radio.

"There's no way I would've trusted him with a penalty. You've got to have somebody a little bit more cool, and he's not like that, Jason," he said.

"He can whack a 35-yard free-kick in here and there but a penalty, with all the pressure on him at a place like White Hart Lane - not in a million years for me."

Warnock added: "I think a centre-half might have done a bit better! Obviously, he never meant to put it up there."

PA