One can only imagine what the Cardiff City dressing room was like at half time as Neil Warnock looked to lift his side after coming in a goal down.
“I shouldn’t have to go like that at half time – especially on my birthday,” said Warnock. “I’m not sure I’ve had to do it since I’ve been here, but we were so poor in the first half and something had to be done.
“In the end we made a couple of changes which is again something I don’t often do. But we took the gamble and it worked for us – we could have scored five or six in the end.
“I have to give Kevin Blackwell and Ronnie Jepson a pat on the back for the part they played at half time too. We had a chat about what needed changing and I thought they were fantastic.
“I felt the best we could hope for at half time was to get in at 0-0, but then they scored and it became even worse for us," the manager reflected. "We had to change things and then in the second half we showed what we’re all about.
“Maybe we were feeling a bit sorry for ourselves in the first half after one or two niggles and knocks in training. But then we were so much better after the break.”
Daniel Farke
“I am not willing to comment on the second half because if I gave you my honest thoughts I would be fined by the FA, 100pc,” he said. “I think it was quite obvious to anyone in the stadium what happened and the reason why we lost. I have to be careful a little bit.
“None of my lads has to be criticised because their performance was brilliant. The loss was for other reasons.
“I always speak to my players about small things determining games like a bad pass or a bad decision.
“We concede a goal after 47 minutes when we haven’t given one situation away.
“The cross came in and no-one can tell me right now where the foul is. It was a foul on my player, Ivo Pinto. You can watch it again. I wouldn’t expect a free kick but I also wouldn’t expect a penalty.
“It was a determining situation for the whole game. It was a present for them without a mistake by us.
“The second penalty, even the player came to me after the game and said he was sorry, he slipped.
“The third chance they had a shot against the bar that came from a free kick, which wasn’t a foul for me.
“Fourthly, we tried to put pressure on them and Vrancic was tugged on his shirt on a counter and didn’t give us a free kick and they go up the other end straight away and score the third goal. Frustrating. Totally frustrating.”
Farke admitted his side should have been further ahead at the break.
“I thought the first half was a brilliant performance from my lads,” he said. “We faced an opponent who is unbeaten in their home games and we didn’t give away one goal, we scored a beautiful goal and three or four chances to get a second.
“We had a couple of situations in the box. Josh Murphy got into the box and stayed on his feet. Nelson Oliveira was close to a penalty as well when he was in a brilliant shooting position and he had a two-on-one with Wes Hoolahan.
“We made one mistake in the second half when Josh lost the ball and stopped playing. The ball deflects back to their player and it is 2-1. He has to learn.”