Stoke manager O’Neill is left in disbelief after Cardiff fightback
MICHAEL O’Neill did not have to read the riot act to get his message across as Stoke City suffered a fiveminute capitulation against Cardiff, writes PETER SMITH
Stoke had seemed well on course for a big win when Steven Fletcher scored his second to make it 3-0 in the 46th minute, adding to a header from Jacob Brown.
Not least because Cardiff had seemed devoid of confidence on the back of eight successive defeats which had cost Mick McCarthy his job last weekend.
But Stoke then conceded three goals from the 66th minute to the 71st to leave the stadium stunned.
O’Neill was late to emerge from the changing room for his post-match debrief, but said: “I think the players know. How you give them the message is not key, it’s what the message is. For me, we have to try to be positive with them.
“They are obviously very disappointed in there and going in and adding to that given that we’ve got a
game on Wednesday (at Blackpool) is not the thing they need at this minute in time. I think they need support.”
O’Neill said: “It’s difficult to explain. I’ve seen the goals back and we have a shambolic five or 10 minutes in the game when we concede a really poor first goal, concede a really poor second goal in a short space of time and the game unravels a little bit.
“The third goal as well we should have defended better and from being 3-0 up and being comfortable in the game at that point we find ourselves level. It’s incredibly frustrating from that point of view.
“I thought there was a little period prior to them scoring when we stopped doing a lot of the good things that we had done, which was play with purpose and play forward and move the ball fast. When we do that we look like a good team.
“When we suddenly start to do things that are maybe a bit more individual, people taking extra touches when they don’t need it, coasting at that point in time.
“Then we turn the ball over and we were always vulnerable when we turned the ball over. There’s no doubt about that.
“When you gift the opposition the first two goals as we did then you’re liable to concede again.”