Cardiff's Jay Bothroyd has claimed fellow striker Michael Chopra was racially abused by a Crystal Palace player at the end of the teams' clash at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Players from both sides had to be separated after a melee ensued following the final whistle of the 1-1 draw and the trouble reportedly continued in the tunnel after the game.

Bothroyd claimed the problems started after Chopra - who is of Indian descent - was racially abused and told Wales Online: "I wasn't there but I spoke to Chops and he said one of their boys made a racist comment to him.

"That is obviously not acceptable in this game and it's something I think the referee might have to deal with.

"We were wearing T-shirts today that said 'Kick Racism Out Of Football' and then something like that happens.

"It's not a good example to set for football in general.

"If you call someone a racist name people are going to react and that's happened at the end."

A Cardiff spokesman told Press Association Sport: "As a club we utterly condemn any racist comments from anyone but in this particular case the referee tells us he didn't see or hear anything."

The club were unwilling to comment further at this time.

Chopra, whose father is Indian, was invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace for sports and entertainment stars with Indian connections earlier this week.

Around 350 people, including the likes of England cricketer Monty Panesar, attended the event ahead of the President of India's state visit to the UK next month.

There has been bad blood between the clubs before today with managers Dave Jones and Neil Warnock sent off at half-time during the teams' encounter at Selhurst Park.

After the game Jones told the club's official website: "The game's done and finished but there are certain things that can't be said and we are trying to stamp them out."

Referring to his opponents' approach, Jones added: "I've never known any difference in any game I finish with Neil and I've never known any difference in how his teams play.

"I'm not saying it's right or wrong because that's right for Neil but it's not right for me.

"I haven't got a problem but you are always going to have handbags thrown at the end because it was a physical game and we have history with them. That history will continue.

"The incidents at the end had nothing to do with our players being frustrated, as Neil is supposed to have said, but he is a master of mind games."

No-one was available from Palace to comment.