Cardiff City manager Brian Barry-Murphy was pleased with his side's resilience after they came away from Middlesbrough with a hard-earned point following a demanding afternoon at the Riverside Stadium.
The Bluebirds made a positive start to the contest and showed they could cause problems going forward, but Middlesbrough's response put Cardiff under considerable pressure as the home side looked to turn the game around.
Barry-Murphy admitted it had been a difficult game, but was pleased with the way his players stood up to the challenge.
“It was a very tough game for ourselves, as we expected,” he said.
“In the first half, I felt we were dangerous when we had our moments. We would like to have had more of those. And in the end, obviously, when Middlesbrough come back into the game and have such momentum, it's difficult to stem the tide.
“We showed great resilience and character to be able to secure what was a hard-earned point.”
The Cardiff manager also explained that his intention at half-time had not been to encourage his players to sit back and defend what they had, but to continue looking for opportunities to hurt Middlesbrough.
Having experienced similar situations during his coaching career, Barry-Murphy understood the temptation to become more conservative when protecting an advantage away from home. However, he wanted his side to keep playing on the front foot.
“I've been in those positions where you come to a stadium like this against a team like this, and at half-time when you're 2-0 up, you want to be conservative and hold on to what you have, but we have to push our players and our intention was to be even more aggressive in the second half and try and push on.
“It wasn't possible but it wasn't because we didn't try.”
His comments underline the approach he wants to establish at Cardiff, with the Bluebirds encouraged to remain positive even when facing sustained pressure from the opposition.
There was also an interesting insight from Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg, who explained his thinking behind making changes to his attacking line-up. He wanted to introduce fresh legs to help his side press Cardiff, who he described as the league's leading team for possession and touches inside the opposition penalty area.
“We needed fresh legs up top in some way to press a team that has been, up to this day, the most ball possession team and with the most in-the-box touches,” Hellberg explained.
“They're very high in terms of creating chances in the league and we needed to match that in terms of energy.”
Hellberg also defended the need to manage his squad carefully over a long Championship season, pointing out that selecting the same players week after week could eventually lead to problems with squad depth and fatigue.
“It doesn't matter if you're Real Madrid or Middlesbrough, if you're going to pick the same 11 players, we're going to say in three months that we have no depth,” he said.
“You need to manage your players in this league and look into numbers.”
The Middlesbrough boss also spoke about the importance of protecting players who had arrived late or missed pre-season, explaining that finding the right balance between maintaining momentum and managing workloads was not always straightforward.
For Cardiff, the result represents another test passed against strong opposition. Although Barry-Murphy would undoubtedly have wanted his side to maintain their advantage and take all three points, his emphasis on resilience and attacking intent suggests he was satisfied with the spirit shown by his players.
The Bluebirds will now look to build on the performance as they continue their Championship campaign, with the point at Middlesbrough providing further evidence that they can compete in difficult away fixtures.
