Morison post-Stoke | Proud as punch
Following the Bluebirds’ deserved 2-1 victory over Stoke City on Wednesday evening, City boss Steve Morison spoke to the press.
Despite the Potters taking the lead through Lewis Baker, the Bluebirds responded brilliantly, as goals from Tommy Doyle and Jordan Hugill secured the win.
“It’s an important three points. We didn’t deserve to be 1-0 down in the first-half,” began Steve. “I thought we were excellent. We got our just rewards being 2-1 up at half-time. They gambled in the second-half, they committed bodies forward, put us under pressure, which was always going to happen. I still think we had the better chances. If anyone questions the players’ attitude, those are the types of performances that put that to bed.
“All round, we defended really well. We played really well, scored two excellent goals in very different ways. When we started this whole process, we were in the bottom four and they were in the play-offs, tonight we’re level on points with them. It’s some turnaround from the team that went to Stoke 24 games ago. I’m really pleased, proud as punch, which is what I’ve told them in there.”
City reacted brilliantly to falling behind with some intricate build-up between Mark Harris and Joel Bagan leading to Doyle being played through, firing clinically into the bottom corner to level the scoring.
Buoyed by the equaliser, the Bluebirds continued to push forward and turned the game on its head, with Hugill firing brilliantly into the top corner from the edge of the box to send the Bluebirds into a 2-1 lead. With Doyle netting his second goal since signing for the club and Hugill scoring his third as a Bluebird, boss Morison expressed his delight at both getting on the scoresheet, adding: “We spoke about goals and assists from Tommy. I spoke to him before the game about what could you improve on, making sure you play forward more than you have done and goals and assists. He scored a goal. Jordan works tirelessly for the team, does all the horrible stuff and tonight he showed his quality and composure in the moment. He was excellent and it’s really pleasing to go away now into the international break now with a win and that’s four undefeated now.
“We’re in a decent place with 46 points, it’s a good number, it sets us up. Swansea won today against Peterborough, so they’ve got another game between now and then, but we’ve got quite a long time without a game now and we’ve got 12-14 players going out on international duty. It’s the longest break we’ve had. It has been a slog but a really enjoyable one.”
The previous meeting with the Potters in October ended in a dramatic 3-3 draw. Comparing the two results, Morison highlighted the development of the squad and the system since the point at the bet365 Stadium.
“Our level of consistent performance has gone up. We’ve been consistently decent, our average is higher in terms of being in that middle ground somewhere and we were excellent. We put a hell of a lot of work in the training ground and for tonight’s game, we showed them a video of what we wanted them to do. They took it on board and carried it out.
“They’re really good players in there, so when you’ve got really good players, they can take it on quickly, so I was really pleased with the all-round performance.”
