Millwall manager Joe Edwards defiant despite Cardiff defeat

Posted Sunday, December 10, 2023 by PA

Millwall manager Joe Edwards was defiant despite a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff leaving his side just two points above the Championship relegation zone.

A 78th-minute header from Bluebirds centre-back Dimitrios Goutas decided a dire encounter and left the Lions with just one win in their last 10 league matches.

Edwards, who took over from the sacked Gary Rowett in October, said: “It’s not a major concern, the Championship seems to go in streaks.

“In recent weeks it feels like teams at the bottom have done nothing but pick up points and we haven’t picked up enough.

“People will point out where we are in the league and that we are playing Leicester away in midweek, but at some point I think we will put a run together.

“But we can’t just talk about it, we just have to get some points on the board.

“It feels like we’re a group that lacks belief – it’s my job to snap us out of it.”

Edwards was annoyed about the manner of the goal that sunk his side – a header direct from a Joe Ralls corner by Greece international Goutas.

He added: “The goal that cost us was disappointing because normally we’re strong at set-pieces.

“It’s a new journey for me with this team, there are signs of progress.

“But I can’t sugar-coat things. It’s about results and we’re not getting enough at the moment.

“We just couldn’t get any momentum in attack even though we had a lot of the ball for an away side.

“We were well organised but didn’t have the quality to make the difference.”

Cardiff boss Erol Bulut admitted his side were partly responsible for a very poor spectacle.

Bulut said: “It was not the best game, but we knew they would be aggressive.

“We have to manage games like this better. We didn’t play how I wanted in the first half, but we were more compact in the second.

“We’re having periods in games where we are playing well but that is not enough.

“But today whoever scored the first goal was going to win the game.

“We’ve scored many goals from set-pieces, it is a weapon for us in games and we will use it.”

Cardiff climbed to seventh in the table with a victory that saw them bounce back from consecutive defeats against Southampton and West Brom.

They entertain struggling Birmingham on Wednesday night and Bulut added: “The table is very close. A couple of wins or defeats can mean a big change in position.

“I could see in the players’ faces afterwards how hard it was for them today, but they were happy.”