The Bluebirds Are Finally Angry Birds Again, Says Erol Bulut


Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut is hopeful his team have added some bite to their bark in time to face Birmingham City on Tuesday night.

The Bluebirds manager saw a defiant streak in his players as they beat Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend with a 2-1 victory earned in the 97th minute.

It was Cardiff’s first Championship victory under their Turkish boss.

Now, he wants to see that spirit grow when they go to St. Andrew’s for their second round tie in the Carabao Cup.

“Sometimes, it’s not enough to play well,” said Bulut.

“At Leeds, we played well for 45 minutes, 45 minutes at Leicester. We could have more points by now but 45 minutes is not enough.

“Today, for 90 minutes we were really fighting and we had our moments to make it easier for ourselves, but I’m really happy we got three points for the morale of the team. It’s really important.”

Newport County are also learning to dig in, battle hard, and come away with the points.

They beat Sutton United, 3-1, at Rodney Parade to move up to sixth in League Two – ideal preparation for their own Carabao Cup tie at home to Premier League Brentford on Tuesday.

Newport manager Graham Coughlan said: “We worked our socks off, I don’t think we were great, I don’t think it was a spectacle.

“But that was exactly the type of game that we prepared for, exactly the type of tactics we knew were coming, so testament to the lads, they stood tall.”

It’s that kind of mental toughness that Swansea City head coach Michael Duff reckons his team lack at the moment.

They lost 2-1 at Preston, leaving them still searching for their first Championship win of the season. In four games so far, the Swans have managed two draws and two defeats.

“There needs to be a mentality shift, that’s a disappointing thing – we should know that teams in this division are not just going to roll over,” said Duff.

“We definitely need to be putting teams to the sword when we’re 1-0 up. Some of the passes and the movement in that second half just wasn’t good enough.

“We gave away two quite soft goals in the end, but we shouldn’t really have been in that situation in the first place.”

Wrexham have managed one win, three draws and one defeat so far after their return to League Two, the latest being a 1-1 draw at Barrow.

Phil Parkinson’s side are also in Carabao Cup action on Tuesday when they host League Two rivals Bradford City.

It’s a chance to take on his former club for Parkinson who says: “Five years at Bradford, the memories are there for everybody and there were some incredible times.

“There are the people I am looking forward to seeing as much as taking the team on.”

In the Premier League, Nottingham Forest striker Brennan Johnson limped off during a 3-2 defeat at Manchester United with a hamstring injury, which Wales manager Rob Page will hope is not too serious.

Page is due to name his squad on Wednesday for the forthcoming matches against South Korea and Latvia.