Brian Barry-Murphy has admitted Cardiff City must start winning quickly after their wait for a first Championship victory was extended by a late 1-0 defeat at Bolton Wanderers. Thierry Gale struck in the closing stages at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, condemning Cardiff to a seventh league game without a victory.
Cardiff had dominated possession for long spells and created enough opportunities to take all three points, but once again failed to turn their control into goals. Barry-Murphy insists he remains convinced by his team's approach, but accepts results must start following the performances.
Barry-Murphy: 'I'm not naive'
"I'm not naive," the Cardiff head coach said. "I know we have to win games and do it quickly because we believe we're good enough to do it."
"Every single person who was here today for the club in the dressing room wanted to play for the club, wanted to win for the club. The response we got from our supporters at the end was incredible."
"The reason I keep going is because I believe I'm in an incredible club. A unique club in terms of being the capital city and a one-team club from the city. The following of every single game is incredible and I've never felt more motivated to give them a team that they feel proud to follow."
Missed chances prove costly
It was another afternoon where Cardiff's attacking statistics painted a more positive picture than the final scoreline, but they were ultimately left to rue their failure to take their opportunities. Yousef Salech was presented with one of the clearest openings when he met a delivery with a diving header, only for Bolton goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu to make an excellent save.
Barry-Murphy was encouraged by the striker's movement and believes the goals will come if Salech continues to find himself in those positions. "His movement in the box was perfect and the delivery we've been working on for a long period of time was perfect," he said. "If he keeps getting in those positions, it's inevitable he will score the goals that fire us to victory."
"The most important thing as a coach and as a team is to reaffirm what are the most important movements to make in that situation because we know they work."
Defeat leaves Cardiff near relegation zone
Cardiff had spent much of the second half on the front foot, with Barry-Murphy's side intent on continuing to attack right until the final whistle. But that left them exposed to a rare Bolton breakaway and Gale punished them, with the Bluebirds unable to recover after committing bodies forward.
"Disappointing from our perspective," Barry-Murphy said of the goal. "We were in the ascendancy and we were intent on attacking right to the final moment. But in football a team can have occasional breakaways and to come here against a team like Bolton, who we know pretty well, and to restrict them to as little as we did means that we did our job almost perfectly, but not perfectly."
The defeat leaves Cardiff in the wrong half of the Championship table, just above the relegation zone, and without a win after the opening seven matches of their return to the second tier. They now face Charlton Athletic at Cardiff City Stadium next weekend, with the pressure to turn promising performances into points only increasing as the games tick by.
Barry-Murphy said he wants to "inspire" his team on the training ground every day to get those results. Yet the Bluebirds boss believes the response inside and outside the dressing room after the defeat showed the togetherness he feels can ultimately drive the team forward.
"I think you have to be aware of it. I think you have to accept where we are because everybody who's associated with our club will be aware of it," he said of the league table. "Like I said, the most important thing for me was today we had a dressing room, support staff and supporters who were totally united, and understand that the performance we put in today, if improved upon and repeated, will allow us to win games."
"I'm very confident in what we do this season, and that confidence has only increased over the course of the start of the season, despite where we are in the table."
