By Gareth James
Erol Bulut has told his Cardiff City game-changers to take their Carabao Cup spark into the club’s Championship campaign.
Mark McGuinness headed home Cardiff’s first goal of their 125th anniversary season to set-up a comfortable 2-0 home win over League One Bristol Rovers that saw them safely through to the second round.
City boss Bulut completely changed the starting XI that had gone down to a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Sunderland on the opening day of the Championship last weekend.
“It is important that players come on and change the game and change the result, but we need it in the league games not just the cup game,” said Bulut.
“First half it was not exactly what we wanted to show, we played too slow, we thought too slow.
“Second half was much better, and we created chances to score. There could have been more goals today.”
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McGuinness – the subject of interest from Luton Town – saw his header cleared off the line by Jake Garrett, but referee Charles Breakspear got the signal the ball had crossed the line and he immediately pointed to the centre circle to indicate the goal.
It had been a nice link-up between Rubin Colwill and Ollie Tanner that earned the corner from which McGuinness scored at the far post.
The right sided ‘bromance’ between the Bluebirds two most creative and flamboyant players paid rich dividends as the game wore on.
In the end, Colwill completed a man-of-the-match performance by tapping in a cross from the left by Kieron Evans as the game tripped over into added time.
Tanner’s introduction on the hour mark injected new life into the home side and after a low quality first half the Championship side dominated in the second.
Bristol Rovers fans making the short trip along the river seven into Wales to face Cardiff City tonight
Well done to all gasheads making the trip for Matt Taylor’s side#EFL #EFLCup #UTG pic.twitter.com/2TmzbPLpa2
— League1news (@3rdTierEFL) August 13, 2024
It took the home side 25 minutes before they unleashed their first shot when Andy Robertson’s attempt was blocked and went over the bar for the game’s first corner.
Robertson – a summer recruit from Manchester City – shot on the turn soon after and then Colwill forced a save out of Josh Griffiths with the rebound.
The first chance for Rovers came when Promise Omochere shot from the edge of the box.
His shot went way over the bar and he was inches away from turning in a Joel Senior cross at the start of the second half.
They had a couple of other chances late on, forcing Jak Alnwick into making one good save, but were never able to cause their hosts many problems in front of goal.
Cardiff City player ratings v Bristol Rovers as debutants impress as sub makes big difference https://t.co/iSQydCegxQ pic.twitter.com/Jv7cCh3EJp
— Cardiff City Online (@CardiffCityLive) August 13, 2024
