Quickfire double has Bluebirds flyin’ again
NEIL HARRIS’ Cardiff ended their barren run with a convincing win at Oakwell that put the Bluebirds back into play-off contention.
Quickfire second-half goals from Will Vaulks and Callum Paterson saw off toothless Barnsley and earned City a first win in five matches.
Harris said: “All we can do is put ourselves in the right position.
“Two points off sixth is a great position for us to be in. We can chase and try to catch the teams above us.
“We didn’t help ourselves in the first half and the guys took it too literally when I said don’t take any chances!
“At half-time we talked about composure, trusting each other and we saw some real moments during the second half.”
Cardiff’s pressure finally paid off with goals in the 65th and 66th minutes.
Vaulks slammed in a rebound from close range before the outstanding Sean Morrison sent Paterson scampering through to slot home.
Barnsley are left rooted to the bottom seven points from safety.
And things could get worse off the pitch too after reports of offensive chanting just weeks after the club was fined for an incident involving Stoke’s James McClean.
Boss Gerhard Struber said: “They played a lot of long balls and won all the aerial duels.
“In the second half we forgot what our plan was and when we tried to play Cardiff at their own game we stood no chance.”
A TOP-FOUR spot went begging at Molineux – but Nuno Espirito Santo’s mask showed no sign of slipping.
The Wolves chief remained stonyfaced after this 90-minute bore-fest as he refused to deviate from the ‘one game at a time’ mantra.
Victory by two goals would have moved them into fourth – for 24 hours at least – and given them a psychological lift ahead of their Europa League trip to Olympiakos later this week.
But those lofty ambitions appeared out of reach as Graham Potters’ Seagulls eked out a deserved point.
With just two shots on target from the hosts and as many corners throughout the afternoon, this was as insipid as it gets.
Perhaps tiredness was a factor – this encounter was Wolves’ 47th match of a hectic campaign that started at the end of July. But then, perhaps those canny supporters of both clubs knew this wouldn’t be a classic.
Seven out of the last nine matches between these two have ended goalless – as have three out of the last four.
Asked whether he was happy with the impetus shown, Nuno said: “It’s not about that. We’re not disappointed about that, we couldn’t perform the way we wanted.
“We are game-by-game. We do what we have to today and then we move on to Thursday night where we have a big challenge. We didn’t create too many situations.
“Brighton were very well organised. We weren’t able to unbalance them and they couldn’t do that to us. We didn’t move the ball fast enough. We should have circulated the ball faster which would have given them problems.
“They had good possession and we didn’t create too many chances. Nor did they. There were a lot of issues for us, mainly offensively.”
Only Oxford and Portsmouth have played in more games in England this season than
Wolves and, asked if it was catching up with the players, Nuno added rather gruffly: “No.”
There really wasn’t much to write home about.
With the help of Wolves’ social media team, Raul Jimenez hit the target with a gender reveal goalbound shot at Molineux in midweek when he discovered he was fathering a boy with Brigh undu Patri ball
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