Dave Jones hailed his injury and illness-ravaged squad after they came agonisingly close to snatching a dramatic FA Cup victory in the snow at Bristol City.
The Cardiff City manager said: "We've battled through a lot this week with injury and illness. Again, Ross gave everything although he was struggling. There were a lot of our players with chest problems, they were coughing and spluttering, and of course the cold and snow didn't help.
"We lost Quinny with a neck problem before the match. We had another problem when we lost Gavin, although on the plus side, young Aaron and Adam came in and did a superb job."
Commenting on Michael Chopra's goal, Dave said: "Sometimes strikers need that little bit of luck. They always go through barren patches, but Chops keeps working and he had a couple of little half chances. As long as he keeps getting into the right positions and doesn't switch off or get frustrated- and he's not the type of person who does that anyway - this goal will do him the world of good.
"I've been reading that Chops would be leaving us in this transfer window, and another one I read was that if young Adam played, we didn't have the money to give him a new contract. As I've said before, that starts with bull and ends with an expletive I can't use!
"Tonight we had to change the formation but the one thing I knew about the team out there was they are comfortable on the ball, and we caused the opposition a few problems. We had to work hard and it was no good lumping balls up there because we didn't have Jay or anybody else who was big."
Dave also had words of praise for Solomon Taiwo, who went on as sub when hamstring victim Gavin Rae was injured. The gaffer said: "Sol is going out on loan to Colchester . He needs to play matches. Sol did well tonight when he came on and that will do him no harm. If we don't get players in, he will have to stay, but I don't him to stay and just sit him on the bench.
"It was the right decision to finish the game. Both sets of players did their clubs proud and both chairmen will be happy with a replay. Conditions out there were very difficult. A little bit more care and attention and we might have won it. Maybe there were one or two tired bodies out there, so it ended in a draw rather than a win.
"And a big thank you to our fans. They were superb. I know some of the coaches were turned back because of the weather. I wish all our fans a safe journey back because I hear conditions back at home are quite rough at the moment."
