Erol Bulut acknowledged that his Cardiff City team was fortunate to win at Coventry City twice, but he plans to take full advantage of his good fortune.
The Bluebirds manager’s contract expires at the end of the current campaign, but a 2-1 victory away from home increases his prospects of finishing in the top 10, which may give him leverage when it comes to receiving a new contract offer.
Bulut benefitted from two own goals by Coventry on Monday as his side rebounded from back-to-back defeats to stay 11th in the table.
Liam Kitching, a defender, made two errors that doomed the Sky Blues and kept them from getting closer to the Championship play-off spots.
With just six games remaining in the season, Bulut acknowledged that Cardiff needs to decide on his future—or he needs to decide it for them.
“Until the end of the season and the remaining games, I am really focused on getting the maximum we can,” he declared.
“If I don’t receive a contract, I have to respect that.” It’s acceptable if they have alternative ideas, but I believe the moment will come when they will inform me. However, I also need to start thinking about next season.
“It was really important to come back against Coventry,” Bulut continued. “Okay, the first goal was luck, the second one was a bigger piece of luck because it’s a cross where the opponent touches it and it went into the goal. But it’s a great victory. To come back from 1-0 [down] and win the game was not easy because we’ve seen in Coventry’s last [few] games they’re pushing for the play-offs. For us, it’s a big victory and the most important thing is, after the Sunderland game, we’ve shown a great reaction. It was a great reaction from our team to come back and show this performance.
It’s not easy when you’ve lost two straight games, especially at home against Sunderland when everyone was expecting a win and the Swansea derby when morale is low. That was a few weeks ago against Ipswich.
After Norwich’s lunchtime loss to Leicester, the home team had a chance to get within one point of the top six, and Ellis Simms’ goal to continue his incredible goal-scoring run gave them hope.
But twice, the unfortunate Kitching threw the ball in his own net, giving the Bluebirds their first victory in three games and maintaining a four-point lead over the Canaries.
“Life gives you opportunities sometimes, you have to try and take them,” Coventry boss Mark Robins stated.
“I feel like one of those people who got away today.”
“It’s inexplicable, but it looks like he’s trying to clear the crossbar with it instead of moving it to the side of the goal,” said the player after scoring his first own goal.
“It can occasionally occur when you’re under pressure to do something and end up making the wrong choice with negative effects.
“I don’t believe that is the main reason we lose the game, in my opinion. At the end, we applied some sort of constant pressure to them for 20 minutes, where we’re
trying to get the equaliser.
“We got the one chalked off for offside, but you’ve still got to have that spell where you’ve got to have some bravery.”
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