Omer Riza relieved as Cardiff edge Hull win to move six points clear of drop

Cardiff boss Omer Riza admitted he was “relieved” as he saw his side move up to 19th to sit six points clear of the Championship relegation zone following a narrow 1-0 home win over Hull.

The Tigers mauled the Bluebirds in Riza’s first game in temporary charge of the Welsh side back in September when they won 4-1.

But in a game between two sides locked on 33 points coming into the clash, Callum Robinson scored his 12th goal of the season after 52 minutes in the Welsh capital.

“I’m relieved and we needed that – we all knew that. We have got close to other teams around us and not been good enough,” said Riza.

“My eyes are hurting a bit after that because it wasn’t pretty, but it was a big three points. I didn’t think we played well, but we did what we needed to do.

“We didn’t have as much possession as I would have liked and our press wasn’t as proactive as I wanted. We were a bit tired.

“You could see how disappointed they were when we scored and we did well to contain them to only four shots.”

With regular goalkeeper Jak Alnwick likely to be ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a bad tear in his hamstring, United States international Ethan Horvath came into the side and kept only the second clean sheet in the past 22 games.

Hull’s next game is against fellow relegation candidates Plymouth, who are three points below them in the final relegation spot and boss Reuben Selles is hoping for a better performance next Tuesday night.

“We are a team that’s performing in two different ways. At times we look like we can compete with anyone and then at other times, we look like we are suffering,” said Selles.

“Plymouth is a big game for us because it is the next one and we need to show more. We have episodes when we take three points from a game we aren’t expected to win and then in the game after, we are a little bit speculative.

“We have to break that chain or we are going to suffer to the end of the season. We are disappointed because we have got a lot more to offer.

“We need to put ourselves in a position to do more. We talked about coming here and trying to be dynamic and to get a second victory in a row to give us a platform to grow. But we didn’t do that.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance to breathe a little bit. We need to find a way to come into these games and be a bit more aggressive to create chances. It took us until the 82nd minute to create anything.”