Cardiff City Head Coach Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to the press ahead of Saturday’s home fixture against Luton Town.
“I'm over the moon, I suppose, with the circumstances of the Rotherham game only heightening my pleasure at the resulting performance. It was a hugely satisfying day for us all.” Brian began. "The most important thing is to try and do your best and go for the games from the start, and not wait for anything.
“The previous week at Burton, we were a little bit tentative and didn’t quite show the best version of ourselves, and we were almost a little bit passive. From the first minute at Rotherham, I had a really good feeling that the team was in a great place and put into practice a lot of what we trained in the week. Once Ryan [Wintle] got sent off, it only seemed to increase the determination in the players to show that we could do it.
“It was a brilliant performance from the players, and we had so many supporters there."
Brian was full of praise for several of the City players, most notably Ollie Tanner. He commented on how privileged they are to have such strong attacking options.
“His decision-making in the final third is improving. I think he’s a player who’s different. He’s a bit of a throwback to wingers who can beat players one-on-one and create a lot of good situations for us and different situations for the opponents. I’m very pleased with him and really excited by what he can achieve.
“We believed in them from the start, and I suppose now that they’re doing everything that you’re seeing, it’s easy to forget where they’ve come from. All the players are improving all the time, and that competition between themselves on the training pitch is the most exciting part for me of being here.
“In any competitive team, you have to feel as if you have to perform every single day or else you won't play, and that focuses the mind like no other. So, it’s a very important part of why we wanted a small squad.”
Ahead of the clash with the Hatters, Brian gave an update about those members of the squad who are working their way back to full fitness.
“Dylan Lawlor’s back in full training, so he’ll be available. Rubin’s [Colwill] back in full training, but he’s been out for a long time, so it’s just trying to balance when he’s actually to get back on the bench and play.
“Yousef’s [Salech] is continuing his rehabilitation, so he won’t be available. Yousef’s seeing a specialist to have an update on his injury, and he’s making good progress, but no time scale. It’s not a common injury for us, so we just have to be really patient with him.
“Isaak’s [Davies] following concussion protocol. He was struck off the ball in an incident against Rotherham, and he had a delayed concussion. So we didn’t know about it until after the game, but he won’t be available until at the earliest, I would say, a week.”
City return to Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday, and they’ll be looking to keep their unbeaten streak alive. Brian discussed how big a part the City fans play as well as what they are expecting from Jack Wilshere’s Luton side.
“Their quality is obvious. A Premier League team so recently. You can see in every single position, they have players who are exceptionally good at building up. So a test like that focuses us perfectly, and it’s what we want, and we’re all really excited about it.
“We love playing at home. Our home record has been phenomenal this season, and the pitch is in fantastic condition. So we’re looking forward to it immensely, and we want to try to give the supporters what they crave on Saturday.
"We've seen how powerful it the support is this season when we're at our best and even when we haven't been at our best, there's been some games where it's been a rollercoaster ride or we've been beaten, but the support from the fans to our players has always been there, you can almost feel it and our intention is to give them more of the best of ourselves."