Cardiff City: Manager Sabri Lamouchi praises players attitude in relegation boost
- Published
Cardiff City need a maximum of eight points from four remaining games to guarantee Championship survival after victory at Watford
Cardiff City manager Sabri Lamouchi praised his players attitude as they won 3-1 at Watford to boost their hopes of avoiding Championship relegation.
The Bluebirds moved two places clear of the bottom three with victory, while rivals QPR and Reading dropped points.
The ex-France defender was delighted with the commitment shown at Vicarage Road.
"I'm so happy and proud of the performance and the result," said Lamouchi.
"Here we didn't want to play well, we just wanted the points to save the club. The commitment, the attitude and the performance was outstanding from the players.
"They ran and ran and never gave up. Even if we didn't control the ball, Watford didn't create a lot of opportunities to score in the second half. It was very good from all our players."
Lamouchi's praise comes nine days after the former Nottingham Forest boss said he was "angry" with Cardiff players' "bad attitude" during a home defeat to Sunderland.
They lost their following game 4-1 at Sheffield United but victory at Watford gives Cardiff a two-point cushion over the relegation places with a game in hand.
They now have three matches in nine days including a rearranged trip to Rotherham on Thursday, 27 April, the original game having been controversially abandoned in March.
The third of those fixtures is a potentially decisive game against 20th-placed Huddersfield Town, managed by former Cardiff boss Neil Warnock, who in contrast have 10 days to prepare.
"We have played five games in 20 days and we have the next three games in nine days," said Lamouchi.
"In the same time Huddersfield's next game is against us and will be rested but we have to play two games in that time.
"But it is what it is. The players are absolutely determined."
Lamouchi hopes to have Jaden Philogene, Jack Simpson and possibly Rubin Colwill back to face Stoke on Saturday and remains confident his squad can maintain the club's place in the second tier.
"I knew from day one they had the quality to stay up and I was probably the only one to say this.
"They don't want to be where they are but unfortunately we are fighting to prove to people they don't deserve to be there.
"Yes, there have been games when we missed some details but here [at Watford] we played together.
"We had players out with injury like Philogene, Simpson, [Callum] Robinson but the players don't like to complain, they just want to do the job and hopefully enjoy with the fans when the work is done."