Daily Mirror

SHIELD OF DREAMS

The boss takes all the flak away from us so we can concentrat­e on winning

- BY GRAHAM THOMAS

BOBBY REID insists Neil Warnock will continue to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous insults – while his players busy themselves escaping relegation.

Reid scored his first goal for Cardiff as the spotlight moved from their manager – and his pre-match claim he would not bet on their survival – to players transforme­d by their first win of the season.

It was all a ruse, a Warnock wind-up where the old touchline warrior uses himself as a human shield for the crossbow crowd on Twitter.

“That stuff he jokes about takes a lot of pressure off us,” said Reid whose goal was his first in the Premier League following his £10million summer move from Bristol City.

“He had everyone talking about him and his comments, and then we go out and perform like that. We take it with a pinch of salt.

“We know if we can play our game, keep getting chances, and play like that, we can stay up – easily.”

Cardiff’s victory has catapulted them from bottom to clear of the relegation zone.

Fulham currently have more holes in their defence than the government of Saudi Arabia, but that should not detract from the size of the momentum shift this result could bring.

“I think it’s massive for us,” added Reid, whose goal put the Bluebirds 2-1 ahead. “We’ve been working hard to get to this point. We’ve had a tough run of games but we’ve stuck at it Internally, we have our objectives for what we want to achieve. The main one is staying in the Premier League and, if we give it a right go, I don’t see why we can’t do that.”

Andre Schurrle had given Fulham the lead with a 30-yard worldie, before Josh Murphy – the most dangerous man on the field – equalised.

Ryan Sessegnon levelled for the Cottagers after Reid’s strike, but there was nothing undeserved about City’s second-half surge as their raucous fans sucked in goals from Callum Paterson and Kadeem Harris.

Struggling Fulham have now leaked 25 goals in nine games, more than anyone else, and 12 in their last three matches.

The pressure is building on manager Slavisa Jokanovic and Schurrle confessed: “It’s now a pattern for us in every game.

“We have good moments, we score and get in front. But it doesn’t take us long to get a knock on the head and we concede a goal.

“It’s a big concern, for sure. We know that, the manager knows it – all the players know it. Everyone was quiet in the dressing room afterwards, because we know it’s not easy to get out of there.

“But there was no fingerpoin­ting. Everyone needs to look at themselves.”

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