Steve Morison hails match-winning debutant Uche Ikpeazu as Cardiff beat Barnsley

Posted Thursday, February 03, 2022 by PA

Cardiff manager Steve Morison hailed the power of match-winning debutant Uche Ikpeazu after the on-loan Middlesbrough striker secured a 1-0 Championship triumph at bottom side Barnsley.

Ikpeazu struck eight minutes after being introduced from the bench just past the hour mark with the Bluebirds’ only on-target effort of the evening after he had muscled his way past home defenders Michal Helik and Mads Andersen.

A delighted Morison said: “We’ve brought him in to help the team and he did that.

“The game wasn’t a great spectacle – it was a horrible game and wasn’t our finest performance, but he had that one moment and he got to show how strong and powerful he is.

“He’s hard to stop when he gets going and is a great kid who has come into the club with a smile on his face.

“He’s brought a nice energy to the squad and the lads have told him he’s got to go to the gym because he’s not strong enough.”

Morison was less pleased with Andersen’s cynical challenge on Alfie Doughty which saw the Cardiff midfielder go off injured and could mean he misses Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Liverpool and possibly a big chunk of the remainder of the season.

“The tackle on Alfie was an absolute disgrace and it’s beyond me how it was only a yellow card,” Morison added.

Morison was also involved with an altercation with Tykes assistant coach Joe Laumann as both teams left the pitch, which also antagonised the nearby visiting fans.

Explaining those ugly scenes, he added: “They didn’t like the fact that we beat them and I don’t think they covered themselves in glory all night by hiding the towels on the side of the pitch and putting them up ballboys’ jumpers when we were taking throw-ins.

“But karma came back and bit them on the backside.

“One member of their staff followed me down the tunnel, but he picked the wrong person and then the security got involved, but it was handbags really.”

Home manager Poya Asbaghi accused Morison of a lack of style at the final whistle over the incident, saying: “I like all the screaming and shouting on the touchline in English games.

“It’s great to see that level of intensity and feeling and you don’t get it in other countries, but it has to stop at the final whistle.

“He’s the coach of Cardiff and he’s won a game 1-0, so you have to win with style and he said some not very nice things to us that I won’t repeat, but my assistant reacted to it.”

Television cameras, meanwhile, suggested Barnsley substitute Aaron Leya Iseka wrongly had a stoppage-time goal ruled out for offside, but Asbaghi added: “The fine margins are not going in our favour, but I can’t sit here and say we lost the game because of the referee.

“We conceded from the only chance they created and we shouldn’t have done because we had the advantage in that situation.”