Caretaker boss Hudson not getting carried away as Cardiff move into the top 10

Mark Hudson was keeping his feet firmly on the ground despite watching Cardiff continue their recent Sky Bet Championship resurgence at Wigan, on a day when one of the goals was bigger than the other.

The Bluebirds have picked up seven points in the last week under their caretaker boss, which has lifted them to the top 10.

Goals from Callum Robinson, Sheyi Ojo and Ryan Wintle meant Wigan have still not won at home, with Charlie Wyke’s first goal in almost a year scant consolation.

It came on a day when there was the prospect of the game being delayed by up to two hours due to one of the goals being higher than the other, with Hudson in the end resolving to “continue with it”.

His side even managed to overcome the first-half loss of Robinson to pick up a deserved victory, although he was keen to keep a lid on the celebrations.

“Let’s not get too carried away just yet,” he said. “We’ve had a really good week, and I told them in midweek what I expected of them straight away, trying to focus their minds.

“And that’s all you can do. You can only put a plan together to make your team feel comfortable coming into a game, and confident they can carry it out.

“I thought we did that, and we also showed we can cope with the loss of key players and not let it affect us too much.”

On the loss of Robinson, he added: “Callum got caught from behind, at the top of his knee, and it swelled up straight away.

“He tried to run it off, and he did last a lot longer than we initially thought.

“We’ll obviously assess him when we get home, and hopefully it will have settled down.”

Goalposts

The game kicked off almost 10 minutes late due to the bizarre issue with one of the set of goalposts.

“A couple of the lads thought there was an issue with the size of one of the goals,” said Hudson.

“One of the goals was too high by a couple of inches.

“We obviously flagged it straight away, and then they had to recalibrate it because of ‘Hawkeye’, I think.

“We were initially told we’d have to wait a couple of hours for it to sink another couple of inches, but no-one wanted that.

“We decided to continue with it, and it was the same for both sides. I did ask if we could attack that end in both halves but they weren’t having that!”

‘Do the maths’

For Wigan boss Leam Richardson, it was another example of “the way things are going” for his side.

“One of the goals was two inches too high, and their third goal goes in off the bar…so you do the maths…” he said.

“It just sums up the day for us doesn’t it.

“Look, it doesn’t help you in terms of preparing for a game, but it’s the same for both sides.

“It’s just coincidental that the killer third goal is one that probably bounces away at the other end.”

On the game itself, Richardson added: “I’m obviously disappointed with the result.

“The main disappointment is the way we started the game, and going behind so early.

“We wanted to start with a real intent, after such a tough game at Hull on Wednesday night, when we probably came away with a result we didn’t deserve.

“I was disappointed with certain moments, and I just thought Cardiff were more clinical than we were.

“When you dissect it after the game without emotion, we had 35 shots and 60 per cent possession.

“And there were a few moments where, if you fall on the right side, it’s a different game.

“But fair play to Cardiff, and congratulations to them for the win.”