No high rollers, but Zohore fuels promotion drive
NEIL WARNOCK says there are no flashy cars in his squad but plenty of reliable motors like Kenneth Zohore.
Danish striker Zohore scored the only goal of a scrappy game to move Warnock nearer the record eighth promotion he craves.
It came from a Joe Ralls cross in the 81st minute and was enough to decide this Severnside derby in favour of the Bluebrids – their fourth successive victory without conceding.
“We don’t have the Rolls Royces that others have in this division but what we do have are players with effort and endeavour,” said Warnock, whose Bluebirds are now unbeaten in eight games.
“We knew this game was never going to be pretty. The pitch was terrible, the wind was lively, it was the coldest day of the year and it was a local derby. We said at half-time a
CARDIFF BRISTOL CITY
sloppy goal would settle it and we needed to make sure it wasn’t us who conceded it.
“But I thought we deserved to just about shade it because we had the better opportunities.”
Zohore had replaced for Gary Madine for the second half and his physical power unsettled Bristol City.
But a combination of a swirling wind and bumpy service seemed to be doing the visitors enough favours until nine minutes from time, when Ralls won the ball, surged forward, then set up Zohore with a deflected cross.
The goal was a deserved winner for Cardiff’s workmanlike spirit, even if the quality among two teams in the Championship’s top six was rock bottom.
Robins manager Lee Johnson, below, whose team have now won just once in 10 league matches – admitted they can now forget all about finishing in the automatic promotion places. He said: “It was a stinker of a game. I got in for free and I still want my money back. I’m so disappointed with the way we conceded the goal. “We stood up to a physical Cardiff team, yet we were mediocre on the ball.
“We’re competing for a play-off place now.
“You can’t have delusions of grandeur. We have to finish top of our mini-league table and we’ll do that by playing our way.”