Cardiff City: Russell Slade praises team's backbone after late win

Cardiff City had thrown-away two-goal leads in their previous two home matches.

Cardiff City manager Russell Slade praised his team's backbone after their nail-biting 3-2 win over Brentford.

The Bluebirds led 2-0 at half-time, but were pegged back to 2-2 before Kenwyne Jones clinched victory in stoppage time with his second of the night.

"I told them at half time 'there are three bones in life; a wishbone, a funny bone and a backbone'," Slade told BBC Radio Wales.

"It was the last one we had to show, and fortunately we did."

In front of their smallest home crowd of the season of 12,729, Slade's team was roundly booed when John Swift equalised for Brentford with four minutes remaining.

Cardiff had squandered two-goal leads in their previous two home matches, and appeared to be on their way to an unwanted hat-trick before Jones slid in to claim the winner in the third minute of added time.

Slade said he hoped the result marked a turning point.

"It was another really strong first half performance," he said.

"We've been there before [and] we had to wait until it was up until 2-2 before we got the winner which will hopefully be a vital three points going forward."

On-loan striker makes an impression

Tony Watt scored Cardiff City's first goal and made the second for Kenwyne Jones

The game marked another impressive performance by on-loan striker Tony Watt, who claimed his second goal since joining from Charlton Athletic.

It was enough to persuade the manager that the former Celtic player could be worth a permanent move.

"He couldn't be doing any more, he's getting fitter, he's getting stronger, he plays with no fear, he's a threat, he wants to take on centre-halves, he's getting shots off," added Slade.

"We look like every time he gets the ball in and around the box something might happen so we want to continue in that vain, he's set his stall out so we wan to keep him at it."

Asked if he wanted to keep Watt, Slade added: "Yeah Yeah, keep him here, keep him at it and we'll see what the window brings."

Cardiff will face League One Shrewsbury at home in the third round of the FA Cup, after the Shrews beat Grimsby 1-0 in the second round replay on Tuesday evening.