TURNER: WE'RE STILL THE TEAM TO BEAT

Quizzed on whether Derby provided a tougher game than expected on Tuesday night, City defender Ben Turner was frank, yet realistic.

"I expected it to be tough," said the uncompromising centre-back. "We played poorly on the day.

"Derby were high tempo, had a lot of work rate and put in a lot of effort. It stifled us on the night, but we didn't go out nervous, we went out with the right attitude but obviously as anyone who watched the game could see, we weren't at our best. That's why we drew the game and didn't win.

"There's nothing I can put my finger on at the minute straight after the game. We gave away passes that we usually wouldn't, that stifled our own attacks and allowed them to counter us. We didn't win enough second balls as a team and probably didn't win enough first balls throughout the team. As a result, we didn't win the game.

"If we played like we did and got three points we would have took it because we're in a very positive position after three quarters of the season gone. Because we played poorly and didn't win we need to address it; the performance must be better next week if we expect to beat Leicester.”

"People are going to look at it and analyse it how they want. Admittedly it's one win in four, but over the course of the whole season, so far we're the best side. Form will go up and down but we've got to look to put it right starting next Tuesday night. We've got to have a positive run and if we do it will be enough.

“Hopefully we will have one or two bodies in next week that we didn't have tonight. We weren't at our best tonight and it's hard for me to say why so soon after the game and put my finger on it but what I can say at the minute is we didn't pass the ball as well as we could, we let our attacks break down through sloppy passing and we didn't win as many second balls as Derby in the first half. In the second half I thought we did step on the front foot, but we still didn't really play fluid football."

And when asked if the spell of form was inevitable considering how consistently well Cardiff have performed over a long Championship season, Turner answered: "If you look at it like that it's a nice way to look at it because this is probably our worst period. As a four game block it's probably our worst and that's credit to the effort the lads and the staff have put in that each time we've lost we've bounced back with a win.

"Unfortunately we've lost and bounced back with a draw today. It isn't what we wanted, but it's only a block of four games and over the whole season we're confident we've got what it takes."