Brian Barry-Murphy beaming after Bluebirds belatedly beat Boxing Day blues

Cardiff boss Brian Barry-Murphy was relieved to finally lift the club’s Boxing Day blues as his side thrust Exeter back into the relegation zone with a 1-0 win at Cardiff City Stadium.

Barry-Murphy admitted he was concerned to learn that Cardiff had not won their traditional Christmas fixture since 2017 and was a relieved man when Alex Robertson scored his first goal since January to secure the win in the 53rd minute.

“I was slightly concerned before the game when I was told about Cardiff’s record on this corresponding day in previous years. It was a big motivation to try and put that right and I’m over the moon with the players,” said the Bluebirds manager.

“The mentality of the team was very good. The first half probably didn’t go as smoothly as we would have wanted, but we saw how good Exeter were against Barnsley last week and we knew it would be tough to overcome them.

“But in the second half we were really calm and the movement that created the goal for Alex was something that we wanted to do. The skill level from Dylan Lawlor to find the pass to Alex was perfect.”

Cardiff host promotion rivals Stevenage in the Welsh capital on Monday night as they look to build on their three-point lead at the top. Barry-Murphy is hoping for another bumper crowd following the 22,291 who turned up on Boxing Day.

“Stevenage have done so well this season. We saw first hand how difficult they were to overcome in the away fixture,” added Barry-Murphy.

“It took us everything to give ourselves a chance to get to the point where Callum Robinson won the game for us at the death. So, we’ll have to be at our absolute best like we were today.”

Exeter’s 12th defeat of the season saw them tumble from 20th to 22nd in the table and left their manager Gary Caldwell hoping for better luck moving forward.

“We have been in all our away games against the bigger teams and we’ve only fallen short by a goal. It shows what sort of team we can be,” said Caldwell.

“There have been small margins in all our games against teams in the top half of the table and so there is always hope. We know the type of team we are.

“We were in the game and caused a few problems. We just have to be a bit better.

“We were very good defensively against a very good side who like to dominate possession. We had to frustrate them and not give them chances, which we did apart from the one defensive slip-up.

“When we moved out of the relegation zone last week I didn’t mention it, so I’m not going to talk about falling back into it after this defeat. Our fight won’t be against the teams at the top in this league, but against those around and just above us.

“The best the club has ever finished is eighth in this league and we are only nine points away from that target. The only time the league table really matters is after the 46th game of the season, so we’ll see where we deserve to be by then.”