Cardiff City City striker Yousef Salech spoke :

City striker Yousef Salech spoke to the press following his match winning goal against Birmingham City.

The Bluebirds forward returned to the matchday squad after missing three matches and was due to begin the game on the bench, however an injury to Krystian Bielik in the warm-up saw Salech called upon to start at extremely late notice.


Salech :

"I was told probably about 2 and a half minutes before kick-off," Yousef began, discussing his late call into the starting XI. "I wasn't planned to start today. I've had a lot of physical and contact training this week but that's probably not enough. The last five weeks I've been struggling with injury. But there was a change of plans. Everything worked out.

"I'm very humble and grateful for today."

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Salech stepped up to take a spot kick after 20 minutes following a foul on Perry Ng, but James Beadle denied the striker. Always alert though, Yousef refused to let that impact his performance and when Ollie Tanner played the ball into the box 12 minutes later, the forward showed phenomenal strength to hold off his marker and fire in what turned out to be the winning goal.




Speaking about the two moments, Yousef added: "I think the best way to see a penalty is as any other chance in the game. I've missed chances and I've missed penalties before.

"But that doesn't end the game. There was still 70 minutes left to play. I don't know if that made me more hungry, because I'm always hungry to play and score.

"I'm always trying to add what I can do to the team. Both by being aggressive and pressing without the ball, but also by being physical to try and protect the ball and keep it for my teammates.

"I'm also thinking about where I need to be around the box. Trying to be in the right position to make chances count.

"I just enjoy being me, playing football with these guys and for this Club."






Yousef Salech celebrates his goal against Birmingham City with his teammates.
Salech's return from injury is a big boost for both the player and for Brian Barry-Murphy's side. City's number 9 now hopes to push on in the coming weeks.

"I had a good pre-season. The first two or three games I had a good start. But then I had a small down period before the international break where I also got injured.

"No matter what happens though, I'm just trying to do my best everyday in training and in the games.

"I can't wait for the next game now."

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Salech:

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BBM:



“We didn't expect Yousef to be playing any longer than 45 minutes under any circumstances.” Brian continued. “But Birmingham are a very dangerous team with a really big set play presence, and it was important to have Yousef on the pitch for that. We could have played Chris Willock, but I felt as if it was important that we had a chance to defend the set plays that we would face.”

"[The goal] was a brilliant move and some of our play in the first half was very incisive, so we were getting good chances and I think even in the second half, Yousef had good chances. Once he gets back into his rhythm and is fully fit, he'll take those chances. I’m very pleased that he did such a great job for the team in such unexpected circumstances."






City got their first clean sheet of the season after some impressive defensive work from the backline, which included a first start of the season for Will Fish.

Brian continued: "It was the next thing to tick off for us. We've had a lot of really positive performances here, and to produce the performance we did is very satisfying, but at the end, the defensive players especially want to have that clean sheet, and to get it today was totally deserved.

“The intention wasn't to have Will back so soon playing such minutes but he did a great job. He was very important to keep us really solid. Joel Bagan stepped in and did the type of job he's done for us all season. He was incredible.”

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Yes he misses chances but I thought his physical edge that hes been missing for a while was back and he gave 2 big tough center halfs who hadn't Conceded a goal in 400 minutes a torrid time even Chris Davies thought so and a lot of brum fans are saying they should sign him in January

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Missed the pen - but got the winner and his head did not drop .