Sabri Lamouchi will not let Cardiff get too carried away with Birmingham win

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2023 by PA

Sabri Lamouchi says Cardiff should not get too far ahead of themselves after recording a first win in 13 Sky Bet Championship games with a 2-0 victory at Birmingham.

In a game which lacked quality in the final third, it needed something special from Perry Ng to break the deadlock as he scored a stunning free-kick in the 84th minute.

Callum Robinson also scored a great solo goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time after he cut into the box from the right wing before smashing a shot into the top-right corner.

Lamouchi said: “It feels incredible. I’m so happy for my players, happy for the fans, but especially for the players.

“What a win, what a game, what a performance from them. The players who came off the bench made the difference as well but what I liked was the fighting spirit, I liked the mentality and what a goal from Ng.”

The former Nottingham Forest boss believes his squad has got enough ability to avoid the drop but says they should not get too carried away.

He added: “I’m happy for them as they didn’t deserve to be in this situation. They lost confidence but what we’re doing in training with the quality, I know I have a good squad. Like I’ve said before, we just need to play with more confidence, which is not easy.

“At the same time, I know it’s just one victory but the last one was in the middle of November which was a long time ago. They deserve to enjoy it with the fans, to be happy in the dressing room tonight, but from tomorrow we need to think about Reading and Friday night.”

Despite a lacklustre attacking performance, with Blues creating very few opportunities, manager John Eustance insisted his side at least deserved a point.

He said: “I don’t think we deserved to lose the game. It was a very scrappy game, a typical Championship game really, and I think both teams cancelled each other out.

“We won a lot of first contacts, second ball in midfield and again I thought we cancelled each other out. We weren’t great going forward, we never looked a threat.

“Obviously, the manner in which we lost the game from was from a fantastic free-kick and that was the difference between the two teams.”

Eustance was proud of his side’s performance and saw a lot of positives to take from the match, including the much-awaited return of former Brentford defender Harlee Dean.

He added: “It was difficult to get going, to press them, to go against them as they went very long, very direct and very early, so we had to show a different side to our team and I thought we stood up to it and did very well.

“The lads did very well at the weekend. Obviously we missed (Kevin) Long today who was poorly last night, he was sick and was obviously a miss, but Harlee came in and did really well for his first game in a couple of months.”