OLE: ALL TO PLAY FOR

City manager full of belief ahead of penultimate Premier League game

A determined Ole Gunnar Solskjær has targeted wins in both of Cardiff City’s final two matches of the Barclays Premier League season, starting with Saturday’s return to the north east to face Newcastle United.

Focused and full of belief that the Bluebirds could remain in the top tier with victories in their last two matches, Ole said: “It’s still possible. We could be out of the bottom three if we win this weekend, but we’ve got to give ourselves something to play for in the last game.

“That’s not inconceivable, so we’re still confident that we can put in a performance, but it’s not in our hands anymore. We’ve got to the must-win stage now.

“We need more of a cutting-edge. We conceded a poor goal at Sunderland from a set-piece and that’s disappointing, but we also needed a bit of luck to get the penalty which we should have had – Wes [Brown] landed on Fraizer [Campbell] and that should have been a penalty.”

Despite the setback of defeat at Sunderland last weekend, thoughts of the tie at Stadium of Light were quickly cast aside by the Bluebirds as they fully focused on the task at hand during the week.

“You can’t feel sorry for yourselves, like Don [Cowie] said this week, and the players don’t,” explained Ole. “They know that it’s going to be hard – it’s a difficult position that we’ve put ourselves in, but it’s still possible if we go and win against Newcastle.



“I still think we’ve been of the same mentality for the last month – we’ve known that we have to get results and also to get that little bit of luck to help us.

“Juan Cala got himself a goal up in Southampton and then last week was unlucky to end up in the situation that he is now. It’s just those margins that we have to contend with, and unfortunately they went against us last weekend.”

After the trip to St. James’ Park, Cardiff host Chelsea in the season finale at Cardiff City Stadium a week on Sunday and Ole insisted there was plenty to be excited about as far as the long-term future of the Football Club is concerned, saying: “In the short term, it is going to be a big mountain to climb. We have two games left and we need to win them both, and we need to have some help elsewhere.

“Right now though I’m only looking to Saturday’s game. Newcastle want to win and we must win, so hopefully it will be an open game.”

HEAR FROM OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER AHEAD OF THE GAME ON THIS WEEK'S IN THE CITY, BELOW.