RICKIE LAMBERT is confident he will bag the goals to fire Cardiff City up the Championship table after opening his Bluebirds account.
The ex-England striker’s double in the 2-1 comeback win at Rotherham United on Saturday lifted City off the bottom.
Lambert’s goals were his first in 11 months – since scoring for former club West Brom last October – but believes his best is still to come.
The 34-year-old said: “There is a bit of relief I scored. I believe in myself, I always have. I know I can score goals but it’s just getting that first one.
“The quicker you can get that first goal it makes all the difference.
“Throughout my career I have normally scored in my first game. It’s taken me four games but I am off the mark now and I am looking forward to Tuesday now.
“When I joined I wasn’t quite fit. I’m still not quite there at the moment but the more minutes under my belt I’m going to get to the level I know I can get to.
“Scoring goals is also going to help me confidence wise but minutes on the pitch is what I have missed the last two years.
“To go from two years not playing to then play four games, I am made up.
“As horrible as it’s been the last few games, it’s nice to have 90 minutes.
“There is more to come from me. It doesn’t necessarily means you are going to score goals, but performance and fitness wise it’s only going to get better.”
The win ended a four game losing streak for Paul Trollope’s team who have a chance to move further up the table against the Rams at home on Tuesday.
And though Lambert insists there is still a long way to go, he is confident the squad are now on the right path to ease any relegation fears.
He added: ”I haven’t paid attention to what anyone has said.
“I know it’s horrible losing games and I have come here to try and help the team and I lost my first three games on the bounce and that’s not a nice feeling so I don’t need other people to tell me it’s not going right.
“I know it’s not going right and the other players knew, but we knew we weren’t a million miles off.
“I am just so happy we have got the three points, but not only we’ve we got the three points we have gone a goal down and come back to win.
“There was a lot of disappointment amongst the squad about the way we’ve handled going a goal down and I’m made up that we have responded in that way.
“It’s a small step on the way we want to get. We lost four on the bounce which was horrible to be a part of and everyone wanted to put that right.
“We shouldn’t have been bottom.
“I’m not saying that we were looking to get automatic promotion. We were hoping to get around the play-offs and I’m not saying we are going to get there just because we got three points.
“We are nowhere near that level yet. But it’s a small step today and that’s all we can do.”