By Gareth James
Erol Bulut has ordered his Cardiff City players to harden up after they lost their third match in five to drop further down the Championship table.
A 1-0 reverse at Blackburn Rovers has left the Bluebirds in 11th place as they crashed to a third successive away defeat.
Joe Rankin-Costello’s first goal of the season earned Blackburn their victory – Rovers’ only on-target attempt of the afternoon.
It means Cardiff are now without a win on their last nine trips to Ewood Park, stretching back to December 2012 when Craig Bellamy was on target for the visitors in a 4-1 triumph.
“It was a game between two teams that didn’t create many chances and always looked like one in which the first side that scored would go on to win,” said manager Bulut.
Just seen a replay of Goutas’ disallowed goal. Seems a harsh call for me. Wahlstedt is looking at the ball the whole way. He reacts and dives straight away so isn’t obstructed. Grant can’t move. Tough one for Cardiff to swallow, that.
— Glen Williams (@GlenWilliams12) October 21, 2023
“We had more shots on goal than they did, but they scored from a small mistake by us, which was down to our concentration and communication not being good enough down the middle of the pitch.
“We have to be more focussed, sharp and aggressive in those situations and areas of the pitch. In the last 20 minutes, we tried hard to score, but it wasn’t enough.”
Asked if he needs to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window, Bulut added: “Until January we have to go with this squad.
“We will try and make the best. In January we have to do something in the transfer market, because we need it.”
Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasso said: “It was a brilliant win against a very good Cardiff side, who are tough to play against.
Ten gol Joe Rankina-Costello dał nam trzy punkty we wczorajszym meczu przeciwko Cardiff City. ⚽
P.S. Cudowna asysta Tyrhysa Dolana. 🔥pic.twitter.com/G6phDMk4f5
— Blackburn Rovers Polska (@Rovers_PL) October 22, 2023
“It can be difficult after an international break to get started again, but we had an excellent win before it at QPR and backed that up in front of our own fans. The back-to-back wins should give us confidence, as should consecutive clean sheets.
“We have been giving unnecessary chances away before and, if you do that with the opponents you come up against in this league, they can score goals against you.
“It wasn’t the best game we have played and we were a little bit slow on the ball. We needed to go forward with a bit more speed but we spoke at half-time about getting runs in behind them, so it was really pleasing to see how we scored our goal.
“The boys also had to dig in to win, but we could have scored more goals because I thought we had five good chances and it was a well-deserved win.”
