CONWAY: WE'RE UP FOR THE BATTLE
Those were the proud words of Cardiff winger Craig Conway after a third win in seven days against a Millwall side with seven days rest in their legs.
Rudy Gestede’s neat eighth minute finish proved the difference at the end of a tough encounter at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday where ‘City, at times, threatened to run away with things against a strong and battling Millwall outfit.
“It was a really tough game,” Craig admitted. “I thought we started well, they came back into it and obviously they were fresher, not having played in a week. We all knew it was always going to be a difficult game for us as we had played just two days prior, but we battled on and probably could have won by more.
“Don’t forget, Millwall are a good team, they’ve been on a great run and have some good players, so we’ve done well to get a good victory, especially in front of our home fans.”
The victory brought to a close the home section of a tough Christmas calendar, with Birmingham away to come on New Year’s Day, and Conway was clearly delighted with the side’s cumulative effort thus far.
“It’s three wins in a row now off the back of the Peterborough game, which everyone was obviously disappointed with,” he said. “We’ve come back in the best fashion we could, with a couple of battling performances.
“If you’d have offered us nine points before this run of games we’d have snapped your hand off. It’s allowed us to open up a wee bit of a gap at the top, but we’ve always said it’s one game at time. I think we’ve done that really well with a great victory again, but this is a difficult period and we’re on now on the road to Birmingham.”
On a personal note, the match saw a resurgent Conway picking up the sponsors man of the match award for the latest in a string of fine individual performances from the former Dundee United man. With his phenomenal work-rate impressing since his re-introduction to the starting eleven, Craig was clear in the reasoning for his form.
“The manager is big on working back and helping thedefenceout,” Craig said “I feel fitter now than I’ve ever been. I think all of us could have done a little bit more going forward, but you get games like that. Everybody worked hard and getting the win over Millwall is a great result for us. But we’ve got to keep it going with a number of teams capable of adding extra pressure on the top two spots and know that on Tuesday against Birmingham we’ll have to be at our best yet again.”
