Brian Barry-Murphy hails ‘memorable day’ after Cardiff’s stunning comeback

Press Association Sport Staff

Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy said it had been “a very memorable day” as his side snatched a 5-4 victory from Burnley thanks to Alex Robertson’s stunning strike.

The visitors went into the game in the relegation zone after winning just one of their opening 14 league games, but were leading Cardiff 4-1 at Cardiff City Stadium.

“Even at 4-1 we felt we could be dangerous, but we obviously knew of the consequences if we didn’t,” Barry-Murphy said.

“We had a lot of players playing today who normally wouldn’t have played. Perry (Ng) was playing with one leg in the first half, Kristian Bielik wasn’t fit, Will Fish and Alex Robertson the same.

“It felt like a throwback to days gone by in that sense.”

Barry-Murphy added: “From the moment we got the second goal, I felt as though we became a very dangerous team, and the players’ belief was very evident.

“We have a very small squad that is stretched very thin, but we still have lots of attacking players who are so willing to learn and improve.”

Robertson had scored an own goal before grabbing the winner in the fourth minute of time added on.

“He’s a very young player playing a role with a lot of responsibility as a holding midfielder,” Barry-Murphy said.

“But his mentality was symbolic of the team, wanting to attack and create more.”

Australian Robertson said: “I don’t really remember much about the goal myself.

“I just remember sliding, then people were on top of me and calling me ‘kangaroo’.”

‘Wrong’

Burnley manager Fabio Celestini acknowledged that allowing teams to come back to win from three goals behind “cannot happen”.

“When it is 4-1, you have to control the game,” Celestini said. “We have to talk about what went wrong, live it is very difficult to understand because you are emotional.

“Maybe we have to understand where we are and what our situation is.

“I can understand if there is fragility at 1-0, but it cannot happen at 4-1.

“It’s very difficult to accept the situation, but in the last two games the team was more consistent.

“Normally you don’t need to score four or five times to win a game, but that’s the reality.”