Erol Bulut delighted that Cardiff are playing with confidence again

Posted Thursday, March 07, 2024 by PA

Erol Bulut welcomed the return of Cardiff’s confidence after the Bluebirds moved within seven points of the Championship play-offs by beating Huddersfield.

Famara Diedhiou’s first-half finish secured a 1-0 victory as Cardiff claimed three consecutive wins for the first time since September.

“The last four games, I’m happy,” Bulut said after taking a 10 points from those matches.

“We are performing – it was not easy after the Bristol City win on Saturday, a derby – and we have to think positive.

“If you win games you feel much better. The last games we get our confidence back and it looks much better.

“We have 10 games to play and hopefully we can show much more.

“But I don’t think about play-offs right now. We take every game by game and at the end we see what we are going to get.

“There is 30 points (to play for) and we are trying to get the maximum.”

Senegal striker Diedhiou joined Cardiff on loan in January from Spanish club Granada.

It was the 31-year-old’s first Championship goal since bagging a brace for Bristol City in a 3-1 success at Middlesbrough on February 23, 2021.

Bulut said Diedhiou was unhappy at being omitted from Cardiff’s 1-0 Ashton Gate win against his former club on Saturday.

“Famara was expecting to play the last game against his old team, he was angry but he kept it for today,” said Bulut.

“He has played four years in the Championship and scored more than 50 goals at Bristol City.

“He has the experience. He showed that it is a good start and I hope he can continue like that.”

Huddersfield remain in relegation peril, above the bottom three only through having scored more goals than 22nd-placed Stoke.

“There are reasons why we are 21st in the table and in the last few years nearly the same,” Andre Breitenreiter said after his first defeat as Huddersfield head coach following a win at Watford and a draw against Leeds.

“It is not possible to change things in two weeks. But I learned a lot about the team and observed many things we should change because we are fighting for our lives to stay in the league.

“We need the same performance from the last two games and this was a day we should forget as soon as possible.

“I could have changed everyone after the first half, it was too slow and it was too easy for Cardiff to create chances.

“The second half we controlled the game and had big chances but you don’t deserve to get a point when it’s not 100 per cent.”