By Gareth James
Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut paid tribute to his players’ fighting qualities as they gave him a first Championship win on the day Aaron Ramsey savoured his first home taste of victory as a Bluebird since February 22, 2011.
Ramsey’s side snatched victory in the 97th minute in a 2-1 triumph over newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday.
The Wales skipper had a hand in the opening goal of the game two minutes after half time as Ike Ugbo hammered in his third goal in four games since transferring from French Ligue 1 side Troyes in the summer.
But he was on the bench when his former Wales midfield colleague Will Vaulks was adjudged to have handled the ball in the seventh minute of added time.
That gave Ryan Wintle the chance to step up and hammer home the winner from the penalty spot to give Bulut his first league win.
“I didn’t expect it [first win] to be so difficult. After three games, what we played, we were unlucky at Leicester and Leeds, conceding last-minute goals, so confidence was not like before,” said Bulut.
https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1695475641347367202?s=20
“That is why this game was really important for us. We could have been 2-0 up if Callum O’Dowda or Yakou Meite could have taken their chances.
“I think we deserved the win. Everybody fought and we really wanted these three points.
“Sometimes, it’s not enough to play well. At Leeds, we played well for 45 minutes, 45 minutes at Leicester. We could have more points by now but 45 minutes is not enough.
“Today, for 90 minutes we were really fighting and we had our moments to make it easier for ourselves, but I’m really happy we got three points for the morale of the team. It’s really important.”
It was a cruel way for Wednesday, still pointless after four games since coming up from League One, to lose a game in which a screamer from inspirational skipper Barry Bannon in the 76th minute seemed to have earned them at least a point.
“I think it was our best performance of the season today and we need to continue like this. After we drew level we began to control the game and tried to go on to win it,” said Wednesday boss Xisco Munoz.
“We need to improve on our clean sheets because at the moment we need to score at least two goals to win any game.
Cardiff City have their first win of the new Championship season after scoring a 98th minute goal against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, while Swansea City lost 2-1 at Preston #HeartNews pic.twitter.com/z998ujOfJZ
— LBC News Wales (@LBCNewsWales) August 27, 2023
“We lost today because of some of our mistakes, it wasn’t so much a case of Cardiff winning it.
“I am very, very sad for my players because I know how hard they are working every day. We have lost the game because of some silly mistakes.”
Bulut confirmed after the game that goalkeeper Ryan Allsop has been given the go ahead to leave the club. He has been linked with Hull City.
“We got a message from his management. If somebody wants to leave, we don’t keep anybody here,” explained Bulut.
“For that shirt, you have to fight. He did it in years before but his management said they wanted to make their move, so we made our move also.
“We took Alex Runarsson on loan so we let him go.”
