by Tom Pritchard
CARDIFF City’s Neil Etheridge praised his teammates’ defensive efforts as they ground out a nervy 1-0 win against Stoke City on Tuesday night.
The Bluebirds kept a clean sheet for just the fourth time in the league this season, with the Potters looking bereft of any ideas going forward.
Leandro Bacuna scored his first goal for the club to earn Neil Harris his first win on what was his maiden game in charge at home.
“It’s always nice to keep a clean sheet, I think we deserved it this evening,” said Etheridge.
“We were punished twice on the counter-attack [against Charlton Athletic] at the weekend.
“We did a bit of work on the training field this week to rectify that, and it’s fantastic for everyone to keep a clean sheet and get three points on the board.”
This was just Harris’ second game in charge of the Bluebirds, after he replaced namesake Warnock on November 16, and Etheridge described the mood around the squad with the recent upheaval.
“The game changes and we have to move forward. A lot of the players were sad to see Neil Warnock go after bringing a lot of us to the club. But that’s football, we need to move on.”
“The new manager has got a new style of play, he wants us to play his style, we’re adapting and I think we’re doing extremely well foe the time being.”
The goalkeeper, who has played for the Philippines on 65 occasions, has noticed a change in attitude among the players since Harris’ arrival.
“I came back from internationals on the Wednesday, trained on the Thursday prior to the Charlton game and I could see that everyone was chomping at the bit to play. It’s a clean slate for everyone.”
“Neil has made it very clear that throughout the upcoming games around Christmas time, and for the rest of the season, the whole squad will be used.”
The stopper was quick to praise centre-back Curtis Nelson, whose assured presence in the back four meant he had a relatively quiet evening.
“Curtis came in at the end of the summer, and because of certain things he wasn’t able to get into the team, and now he’s played the last couple of games and done extremely well.”
The victory sees the Bluebirds move up to 10th in the Championship table, just four points off the play-offs, and Etheridge insists that the top six remains the club’s aim.
“I think the club stated that [we were targeting the play-offs] under the last manager, and this manager will be no different.
“The play-offs and promotion is tough at this level, but it will ultimately be where we want to find ourselves come the end of the season.”
