WINNING WEEKEND FOR SWANS AND THE BLUEBIRDS
NEIL Harris praised academy product Mark Harris who took his chance against Luton Town to score his first Cardiff City goal in a dominant 4-0 win.
The Bluebirds and their manager were under pressure heading into Saturday’s Championship clash with the Hatters, lying in 18th position before the weekend kicked off and coming off the back of a 1-0 defeat by Coventry City in midweek.
But after Sean Morrison settled the nerves with an early goal, 21-year-old Harris, making his first start, gave the Bluebirds some breathing room with an expertly taken strike to put the Welsh club two ahead.
It might have been perceived something of a gamble, certainly with the manager admitting ahead of the match he felt like he was playing for his job, but the Bluebirds boss praised the tyro for waiting patiently for his chance and converting when it mattered most.
“Mark has done extremely well today,” Harris said after the 4-0 triumph. “He has been patient for his opportunity.
“He has got Kieffer Moore, who is held in extremely high regard in this part of the world and in our dressing room, and Robert Glatzel who has searched for a bit of form.
“We have had opportunities for Kieffer and Glatzel to play together before and done extremely well.
“Just felt today I wanted to play slightly different and Sparky deserved an opportunity. Not based on what he has done in training, or what I have seen in glimpses at times, but how I wanted to play and what I wanted from the team.
“If we wanted to play a little more direct and stretch the game then Mark has that in abundance.
“Mark has got a lot to learn about the game, but ultimately, he will stretch the play and be a threat in the box.
“We have worked really hard with him for a year and he has got his reward today.”
The spotlight was firmly on the manager heading into the clash with the Hatters, but his players responded with possibly their best performance of the campaign to date.
“I thought it was a dominant display,” Harris said. “We ran over the top of Luton, in the nicest possible sense, physically, it was cohesive.
“We played forward, ran forward. When we passed it, everyone knew we were passing it and when we played direct, everyone knew it was direct.
“It’s a game plan we had in place and credit to the players for delivering it. It might have been more lastseason-like, in terms of possession. We got just about every element of the game right. Today I saw a very passionate performance from my dressing room.”
A display so commanding has to be backed up when Huddersfield come to town tomorrow.
Harris added: “What we have had today is a top performance and top result, but it’s about following it up on Tuesday.”