Cardiff City withstood a second-half comeback from Middlesbrough as they produced one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Championship. Callum O’Dowda opened the scoring in the fourth minute before Mark Harris doubled their advantage in the 20th minute. Perry NG made it three in the 45th minute before Duncan Whatmore grabbed a goal back in the 76th minute. Rodrigo Muniz pulled another goal back a minute later but was not enough to earn a point.
Managers Reaction
Middlesbrough’s Chris Wilder: “The defending was terrible. We were playing a team that wasn’t on a great run and we wanted to get out of the traps, but we certainly didn’t do that. We made a fabulous fast start against Sunderland, where our intensity and decision-making were good, but the decision-making tonight, for all three goals, was really poor. If you give a team that’s struggling a bit of a leg-up, then they fancy it. I think we would have fancied it if we’d been handed three goals on a plate because that’s what happened.
Cardiff’s Steve Morison: We’re not Manchester City – we’re never going to dominate a game for 90 minutes. It was always going to be a different game in the second half, they were going to throw caution to the wind, but we were excellent in the first half. We had players that were having their first game in a while, so they were going to fatigue, and that happened. They (Middlesbrough) got two goals in quick succession, but we made a couple of changes to steady the ship and go and win the game. We’ve scored three goals away at Middlesbrough – it’s a tremendous performance. We’re not Man City and Liverpool so we’re not going to control and dominate games for 90 minutes.”
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