STEVE MORISON: “THIS TEAM NEEDS TO LEARN TO FIGHT AND GET RID OF THEIR SOFT UNDERBELLY.”
Steve Morison bemoaned Cardiff City's "soft underbelly" and called for his team to show more fight in the face of adversity.
The Bluebirds are yet to come back to win a game after going a goal down and the 2-0 defeat at Millwall was the latest example. Morison's side conceded two soft goals, the first from a set piece and the second, right at the death, following a lapse in concentration from City's defence.
STEVE MORISON:
"When they scored, We dealt with it on the whole and it changed the course of the game. It was tough for us to come back. We haven't done that yet, once we've gone behind, but yeah, we need to be better.”
"We haven't got much of a choice. Let's not focus on set plays. We have to defend them. We have to do better. We knew it was going to be tough today with that and on the whole we defended it well. It was just that poor moment, it was only a couple of minutes before Mark Harris hit the post and we could have been 1-0 up and it would be a different game."
Cardiff are now five games without a win, losing three and drawing two in that period, but Morison believes he has seen enough throughout the course of the season so far that this rot can be stopped sooner rather than later.
"We have not played five games, we have played eight games and the games we won and the games we have drawn we've been very good. In the games we've lost we haven't been as good," he added.
"I'm not worrying about the fact we have had only two draws in the last five (games). We look at the performances. Today, on the whole, it wasn't good enough. For example you can't say the Luton performance wasn't good, because it was good, we just lost the game.
"We need to get rid of this bit of a soft underbelly we've got. Once we concede the players don't seem to be able to fight back.”
"There were chances from both sides. They had a couple of moments in the first half, they had a couple of moments second half. We hit the post and they go down the other end and score. It's a game of fine margins.
"The second goal was the most disappointing out of all of them. It gave them the icing on the cake when we could have gone down there and got one right at the death. It's a disappointing goal. Not best pleased."
There was an unsavoury aspect of the afternoon, with Mahlon Romeo receiving a torrent of abuse from the first whistle to the last. At one point in the second half he drew the referee's attention to an object he felt was thrown on to the pitch near him.
Romeo, of course, played for Millwall for seven years and Morison thought he handled it well, despite finally appearing to snap at the end of the match, with Bluebirds' staff having to usher him down the tunnel.
"He will have to deal with it and get on with it. That's life. It's a lot easier to do it when they win the game as well," Morison said of the reception Romeo received at The Den.
"I think he handled it amazingly well from the first minute until the end. This shouldn't be the focus. We should be purely talking about the football."
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