Reading reaction | Brian Barry-Murphy

Brian Barry-Murphy and Noel Hunt
City boss Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to the press following the Bluebirds’ hard-fought 2-1 victory over Reading at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

“It felt like a pretty chaotic game,” Brian began. “You can see what that victory meant to the players at the end of the game.

“I don’t think we’ve played that well. I think we’ve been quite tentative in where we’ve played the game. 

"When we’ve been behind, you’ve seen us at our best - when the shackles have come off and we’ve gone forward in real numbers and with skill.

“I’m very pleased that we managed to win and move to the top of the table. 

"It’s really important and good for the players to feel that excitement of being top of the league, and to look forward to what we can achieve this season.”

Brian continued by praising City loanee Omari Kellyman, who scored his first goal for the Club in the win.

“I do feel that in our squad, we have a lot of players who can score goals, and he’s very much one of them,” Brian continued. “We’ve been patient with him while he’s been building his fitness. 

“It’s his first week training at this level of intensity. It would have been easy not to play him.

“He’s a great lad, works very hard, and since he’s come from Chelsea he’s shown great humility and connection with the players.”

Cardiff City celebrate

Yousef Salech’s winner ultimately sealed all three points for the Bluebirds, and the City boss was quick to highlight the quality of the goal.

Brian concluded: “That was the kind of goal we want to score. Getting to wide areas quickly, good movement from Ronan [Kpakio] and a very similar cross to the goal you saw against Leyton Orient, Callum [Robinson] finished it well. 

"Those are movements we want to produce over and over again to create chances for our strikers that we know they’ll convert.

“We didn’t do it in the first half. Reading were a difficult test in terms of when we gave the ball away, they were very direct and played quick passes to Jack Marriott, who looked dangerous. 

"It became a difficult game for the players. There is so much of the performance that we can do better, but I think it’s a really exciting time to be with this group of players.”

Read Time: 2 mins