NEIL HARRIS: “ TODAY YOU SAW A VERY PASSIONATE PERFORMANCE “

Neil Harris has 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.

Wales under-21 international Harris later wrote on Twitter: "Dreamt of this for a long time now, words cannot describe the feeling!"

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 City tyro for waiting patiently for his chance and converting just when it mattered most.





NEIL HARRIS:

"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, i.e. against Barnsley and elements in games when I've changed it to a 4-4-2.

"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, a young striker, but ultimately, he will stretch the play and be a threat in the box.

"We have worked really hard with him for a year now 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 their performance in what was quite possibly their best performance of the campaign to date.

And City manager Harris was understandably pleased with what he saw at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday afternoon, a cohesive Bluebirds display.

"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 last-season-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."

Cardiff are not out of the woods just yet, though, and a display so commanding has to be backed up when Huddersfield come to town on Tuesday.

And Harris knows that all too well.

"I know my relationship with my players and the respect that goes both ways," Harris added. "That's for other people to make assumptions from the outside.

"The spotlight is on me, rightly so, it always falls on the manager.

"But what we have had today is a top performance and top result, but it's about following it up on Tuesday."

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Same again please on Tuesday Neil, go at it from the start

Same again please on Tuesday Neil, go at it from the start

Attack is the best form of defence.

Same again EVERY game please

I put the performance down to a big part leaving pack on the bench he slows the game down to much plus for tge first time since god knows when arris had his attacking head on
Its very simple you don't win games playing in your own half

No complaints at all about yesterday. Bu remember we beat Barnsley 3-0 followed by thee poor timid performances we need a run a a few games like this the convince a lot of people.

Odd that after all our complaints about our terrible youth set up it might just produce a couple of decent players in Bagan and Harris this season. Just by the law of averages we had to produce someone good sooner or later.