Brighton win my best as Cardiff City boss, says Russell Slade

Russell Slade (right) celebrates Cardiff's win against Brighton with Bruno Ecuele Manga

Cardiff City manager Russell Slade described the 4-1 win against Brighton as the best performance of his 16-month tenure.

Two Peter Whittingham goals helped the Bluebirds keep their Championship play-off ambitions alive with a convincing display.

Cardiff, who appointed Slade in October 2014, are now seventh in the table, four points short of the play-offs.

"That was probably the best performance of my time in charge," he said.

"It would be up there certainly, but it wasn't too many weeks ago I was very happy with how we played at Wolves."

Cardiff's draw at Charlton the previous week was their 13th of the season, more than any other team in the Championship.

That was the Bluebirds' second successive goalless stalemate, and Slade was pleased with their improved finishing against automatic promotion contenders Brighton.

Cardiff led 3-0 within half an hour, and were never troubled.

"Sometimes you work hard and create chances, as in recent weeks, without the reward, but today our movement was good and our finishing was ruthless. It was good to see," he added.

"We can improve and we are improving, we have still got new partnerships out there on the pitch.

"We have Tom [Lawrence] and Lex [Immers] settling into a new environment. It is quite a new team and quite a young team as well.

"We are maturing and it was a mature performance, that was the most pleasing thing."