OLE: BUILD ON MOMENTUM

City boss sets sights on back-to-back victories

Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær has set the target of back-to-back wins for the Bluebirds as they prepare to face in-form Stoke City at Cardiff City Stadium.

After an excellent 1-0 victory away at Southampton last weekend pulled City right back into the fight for Barclays Premier League survival, a first back-to-back set of top flight victories since April 1962 are now the target for the Bluebirds as they take on Mark Hughes’ resurgent Potters.

Speaking to the press ahead of Saturday’s crucial encounter at Cardiff City Stadium, Ole said: “We had a fantastic result against Southampton and we’ve set that standard now. We’ve got to have that same level and consistency now especially in defence because that’s a good foundation for us to build upon.

“I’m looking forward to it. We’re in the fight. The result last week gives us all a boost and we’ve got a lot of belief in the camp now. This is going to be a month’s examination of everyone’s character – we need to keep working hard and battling to achieve the goal that we all want.

“It’s been a week where we’ve been completely focused on the task ahead. Results to do breed confidence. This week has been very positive and we’ve been working on how we can build on last week’s excellent result.”

The Potters will look to extend an excellent run of form themselves having won five of their last seven, with a highest ever Premier League finish and top half spot now the main focus of manager Mark Hughes and his Stoke City squad.

In that case, the City manager expects nothing less than a tough home encounter and said: “Mark [Hughes] has made a few differences to the way they play. They’re safe now, can play freely and are in fantastic form having won four of the last five. They’ll be tough opposition to face.

“We’re in decent form ourselves and you never know we could just pull it off. We have to look at how we approached the Fulham and Norwich games to see how we won them and replicate that against Stoke.

“It’s do-able, but it’s going to be tough. We’re in with a chance of staying up, we’ve spoken about pulling off a miracle and we might just do it, you never know.”
Fully focused on the final Premier League run in, Ole added: “It’s always tough towards the end of a Premier League season. If you turn up and give even 95% you will get beaten. We have to give everything, there’s still a few teams in this fight.

“When you get results you get that feeling that it’s do-able. We’ve got four games to go, we’ve beaten Southampton who have had a fantastic season and have some of the best players in the league. If we can win that then anything is achievable.”

HEAR OLE AND DAVID MARSHALL SPEAK TO THE PRESS AHEAD OF TOMORROW'S GAME WITH STOKE, BELOW.