Article by Steve Garland

Scottish duo Ross McCormack and Chris Burke have called for the Bluebirds to kick on and secure their place in the play-offs in style, starting with a win against Queens Park Rangers this Saturday.

With just three games remaining and a seven point advantage over seventh placed Blackpool, City need just one more victory to secure that desired play-off berth and give them a shot at promotion to the Premiership.

But on an eight game unbeaten run, tricky winger Chris Burke has called for three wins from their remaining games to ensure the Bluebirds go into the play-offs in the best of form.

"We are eight games unbeaten now, which is good going in this league and we now want to maintain that run and keep that record going," claimed Burke. "The pressure is on the other teams to catch us now with just three games to go, but we are looking to win those games and get nine points, results that will definitely stand us in good stead.

"We have to have that winning mentality in these next few games when we are in the position that we are. Winning games has got us to where we are this season and we will look to carry on doing so for the last few matches."

But despite occupying what would appear as a comfortable position in the play-off zone, Burkey knows all too well that nothing is certain yet, pointing to City's late demise last year as a prime example of what can happen if a team takes their foot off the gas.

"It is still not over despite defeats for Blackpool and Reading in midweek, and we aren't taking anything for granted just yet," he said. "We are not going to think that we are there yet after what happened last season and we are not going to make the same mistake twice."

It was a view echoed by Scottish counterpart Ross McCormack who continued, saying: "I think we are in the exact same position as we were last season and that wasn't good enough. So we can't rest on our laurels and take our foot of the gas when it is not mathematically certain.

"The gaffer brings last season up quite a bit," the Scottish frontman added, "He brings it up as a warning to the side, but we have some experienced members in the squad as well as some young players and we all should be experienced enough to know that it shouldn't happen again.

"There is no panic though, we are doing well as a team and as a unit and we just have to kick on again going into our final three games, starting with QPR on Saturday."

Ross also praised Cardiff's solid defensive performances of late, a strength that has seen the Bluebirds claim some good results and vital points, saying: "Our defence has been outstanding in the past couple of games. Against Reading, Forest and Swansea our back five has been terrific and has ensured that we have got the points we have.

"We have had to chop and change our back four of late," he added, "Huds has been out, but Gabor, Gerrard and Darcy have covered well. But now everyone is coming back at just the right time for our final three games of the season, it's just unfortunate that Gavin Rae is injured, otherwise we might have had a fully fit squad going into the game with QPR."

And with no midweek game the City squad will go into Saturday's trip to Loftus Road fresh after a week-long recuperation, a period Chris Burke had been looking forward to: "The games have been coming thick and fast in the past month, so we had been looking forward to nice weeks break to go into the game with QPR fresh."