MALKY: SECOND HALF DISPLAY BETTER
Gaffer praised second half City display despite loss
“We gave ourselves too much to do in the second half,” Malky started. “If you give a good team like Newcastle time and space like we did in the first half then you can be punished.
"To be fair, in the second half I thought we were back to what Cardiff City are all about – on another day we might have come back and taken a point from it. Nonetheless, we were playing against good players in a good team, and in that situation you cannot start like we did.
“It’s only happened about three or four times in two and a half years – as a whole group we’ve started half-a-yard off the pace, but to be fair in the second half the whole group were absolutely on the pace and showed that, in terms of the way we dominated and pushed Newcastle back. A start like that is something that we have got to make sure happens as few times as possible, certainly in this league, because here you will be immediately punished by very good players – we play against them every week.”
A star showing from substitute Jordon Mutch, whose trickery allowed Peter Odemwingie the opportunity to pull one back for City, did not go unnoticed by his boss. Malky had this to say of his young midfielder: “Jordon certainly came on and made a difference, but I would suggest that everyone upped their game and went back to being the players that I know that I’ve got here.
"Jordon took the game by the scruff of the neck and showed why he’s here. He’s a top young talent and he’s only twenty-one years old so there’s a lot of potential there. There are a lot of assets to his game, and there are areas that he’s improving on all the time. Here it’s about players taking their chance when they get it.
“Alan Pardew was the Premier League Manager of the Year two years ago, and a lot of the players he has now played for him then, when they finished in the top six. We had full respect for the team that were coming here to play us today, and we knew that it was going to be a tough game. We’ve got to start better, but I was very pleased with the way that we took the game to them in the second half.”
