Erol Bulut staying grounded despite Cardiff’s surge into top six

Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2023 by PA

Cardiff boss Erol Bulut will not get carried away with any potential Championship play-off talk despite his side’s thumping 4-0 win at Huddersfield.

The Bluebirds romped to a big victory at the John Smith’s Stadium, one which lifted his team into the top six.

Asked about a play-off push this term, Bulut said: “It’s too early to talk about that, anything can happen at this stage of the season.

“Everything can still change, we’ve still got a long way to go in front of us this season.

“We’ve had really good performances earlier this season and not got the results we’ve deserved.

“Against Swansea and against Ipswich we played really well, but then last week against Blackburn, that was just what I didn’t want to see.

“Tonight was much more what I expect. Against the ball and with the ball we were so much better, and to be honest, it probably should have been more than four goals we won by.

“I’m satisfied of course, but if we’d have been a bit calmer in front of the goal, we would have scored more. Confidence is great in the dressing room.

“Defensively we were strong too, and a clean sheet away from home is good. We’ve been good offensively, though, so we need to carry this momentum on now.”

The game was over by half-time as the Bluebirds were already 3-0 up.

Some shocking defending did not help as goals from Callum Robinson, Dimitrios Goutas and Yakou Meite had Bulut’s men in cruise control.

The Bluebirds’ fourth goal – superbly curled home by Perry Ng – ensured Terriers boss Darren Moore was sent crashing down to earth after a first win under his charge at the weekend.

Moore said: “Let’s not dress it up, that just wasn’t good enough. We’ve conceded early on, and we’ve never really recovered from that.

“I think all the goals came from set-plays too, which is a big disappointment.

“I made the changes at half-time and changed the system around, but despite one or two chances in the second half, the final touch in the opposition penalty area just was not there.

“There are areas we need to look at going forward. Certainly goals can happen in football, but most of them were unavoidable. We have to take responsibility for that.

“Goals change games and breed confidence, and we need that tonight. But there was a bit too much hesitancy I thought.

“We took the plaudits and the pats on the back after beating QPR on Saturday, but we did not deserve anything like that tonight.

“It’s been a disappointing night all round, but we’ve got a big game at Leeds this weekend to focus on now.”