WE HAVE MADE GOOD PROGRESS THIS TERM, SAYS BULUT
EROL Bulut regretted not repaying Cardiff City’s fans with a victory in their final home game of the season – but insisted he was pleased with his side’s campaign.
Despite a relatively even game in terms of chances, the visitors were clinical and found the back of the net with unerring accuracy throughout the afternoon.
It left Cardiff on the wrong end of a heavy defeat. But Bulut was far from unhappy.
“The last game at home, we wanted to win in front of the fans, it didn’t happen,” said Cardiff’s boss.
“If we see the whole season, until now, I am personally satisfied with the season.
“I think our fans and our board are satisfied with where we are now. We have one more game left against Rotherham.
“We could have had a few points more but we have built really good and progressed as a club this season. “Cardiff can only build on it.” Cardiff almost began the game in wonderful fashion thanks to an audacious 35-yard effort from David Turnbull, who attempted to lob Seny Dieng in the Boro goal, but the goalkeeper managed to tip it over the bar.
Boro hit back immediately when Finn Azaz’s deflected shot fell kindly into the path of Emmanuel Latte Lath. But Ethan Horvath produced a top save to keep the scores level.
It was Azaz’s free-kick which helped put Boro ahead on the stroke of half-time. The midfielder lifted a ball to the back post and Clarke got around the back of Famara Diedhiou
before producing a tidy finish.
Cardiff thought they’d levelled after the break when Turnbull sent in an inviting cross for Dimitrios Goutas. The Greek sent a powerful header on target, but Dieng saved acrobatically.
Cardiff were made to pay just seconds later. Alex Gilbert burst through a couple of tackles and the ball fell kindly for Azaz, who lifted it over Horvath and into the City goal.
The hosts should have immediately halved the deficit, however. Josh Bowler played a lovely pass into the
box and Turnbull lifted it over Dieng, but the ball trickled past the upright.
Before the hour mark Latte Lath was sent clean through with a simple ball over the top and the striker buried the chance. And the fourth went in when Luke Ayling produced a cute pull-back for Gilbert, who swept a first-time effort into the top corner from the edge of the box.
The stadium emptied at an alarming rate after the fourth goal flew in and those who had left didn’t get to see Callum Robinson play in Bowler for a relatively simple tap-in in the 91st minute.
Bulut said: “I’m disappointed with the result, to concede four goals, but if we see the whole game, how many chances we had, we didn’t deserve to lose that game by three goals.
“We had enough chances to score and even to lead, but we concede in the last second of the first half.
“Then in the second half we concede a goal in three minutes. That was an unlucky goal.
“We had enough chances to come back but we couldn’t finalise our chances.
“We don’t have to forget also that we didn’t have half of the team with us today, but this is not the reason that we didn’t score.
“We didn’t have the final touch today.”