By Gareth James
Erol Bulut has given his Cardiff City players an early season warning they must stop giving away soft goals.
The Bluebirds went through to the second round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night – and will now face Birmingham City away from home in round two – but they needed a penalty shoot-out to see off Colchester United.
Cardiff led 2-0, but conceded twice to the League Two club before goalkeeper Jak Alnwick saved all three penalties he faced to earn a 3-0 win.
Kick off! ⚽
Cardiff City 0-0 Colchester United
Carabao Cup 🏆#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/KJyEuhTkYo
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) August 9, 2023
Manager Bulut has now seen his team concede four goals in two matches, both after having gone two goals ahead.
“The game today was quite good in terms of ball position and creating chances, but we did only score two goals, and we could have had four or five,” said Bulut, whose team were two goals ahead at Leeds United in their Championship opener last weekend before being pegged back to 2-2.
“On the other hand, we gave away two soft goals, and those were down to two individual mistakes.
“For this, we have to work a little bit individually to make sure the opponent does not get past us. We have to work on and correct these individual mistakes.
“Generally, the young guys did quite good. Ollie Tanner was good, Kieron Evans was good, there were debuts for Joel Colwill and Cian Ashford.
“Romaine Sawyers played good minutes after his injury. I was satisfied with how we kept the ball and created passing options, but we have to continue to work on it and get better.”
Super Jak Alnwick in goal & the winning @IUgbo spot kick! 💙#CityAsOne pic.twitter.com/flqgkOBozF
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) August 9, 2023
Wales international Rubin Colwill scored his first goal for Cardiff for 17 months before Kion Etete made it 2-0 10 minutes before the break.
But Colchester took advantage of some slack defending to level things up before half-time with goals from John Akinde and Joe Taylor.
Bulut added: “Rubin is a good player and a young player. He has to learn more things.
“I remember back to the first two or three weeks and how he was, to where he is now, he’s making good progress.
“I hope he continues like this, to learn and he will get chances to show it.”
Bulut had praise for Alnwick following his penalty saves and added: “He had a good game up at Leeds and today he was perfect with his penalty saving.
“I gave him all the things he needed for the penalties, and he did it well!
“I said that 99% of the time, left-footed players go to the left, and I told him to jump there, and the ball will come.
“He asked me what to do with right-footed players, and I said I don’t know, you’ll have to decide for yourself!”
Erol Bulut here on tonight’s game, deciding on Ollie Tanner’s future and the latest on transfers #CCFC #Bluebirds https://t.co/naJjSNvhJ5
— Glen Williams (@GlenWilliams12) August 9, 2023
