Tomlin is Bluebirds’ magic man
NEIL Harris believes “magic man” Lee Tomlin has grasped his second chance at Cardiff City after his dramatic last-minute winner saw off Barnsley.
The Bluebirds came from behind twice, with Aden Flint, Danny Ward and Tomlin on target against the league’s bottom side, who netted via Conor Chaplin and Bamba Diaby, to extend Harris’ unbeaten start.
“When you’ve got a magic man like Lee Tomlin, you stay in those games, you’ve got players who, in any moment, can win it,” said Harris.
“He’s got the quality to open up a defence with a pass, like for Danny’s goal, or he’s got the quality to hit a ball dropping from the sky on the full into the bottom corner.
“It’s not just any moment either you’re talking about the 95th minute of a game, when he’s ran 12km again, which, last week, was the most he’s ever run in his career. He’s getting those rewards now. First and foremost let me be very honest, that wasn’t a great performance from us.
“We were lethargic and I’ll hold my hands up for it.”
It looked as if Barnsley were on course to move off the foot of the table when Chaplin put the Tykes ahead.
Mike-Steven Bahre picked up possession and slipped a through ball behind defender Curtis Nelson and into the path of Chaplin, who slid a perfectly-placed shot into the bottom corner for a 1-0 lead after 17 minutes.
But the advantage lasted less than three minutes as the Bluebirds got back on level terms through Flint. The defender stuck out a leg and poked home Junior Hoilett’s whipped cross to level things up with 20 minutes gone. Chaplin played a key role again two minutes after halftime when he fired the ball across the goal towards Diaby.
The defender outmuscled Lee Peltier and saw the ball go in off his side for a 2-1 lead.
But Ward came off the bench and latched on to Tomlin’s through ball to put Cardiff back on level terms.
And Barnsley were hit with a sucker punch in the 95th minute when Tomlin volleyed in from the edge of the box to snatch victory.
Barnsley manager Gerhard Struber believes his biggest task is changing the mindset of his confidence-drained players. “The feeling now is like being hit in the head,” he said. “I am very frustrated and disappointed. The mindset was not to go on and win the game after they equalised.
“We had control of the game in the first 20 minutes of the second half, we had the lead, but after the equaliser I saw the mentality of the previous month in my players.
“The mindset was not to go on and win the game, the personality is not to go and get the next goal, many players were thinking it would be difficult.
“This change is my job and responsibility, I need to change the mindset, so the players believe they can win, but now it’s only a mentality situation.
“My job is to help the boys for the next game, we are going in the right direction, we are very close to winning games, it is only a matter of time.”