By Gareth James
Erol Bulut admitted his Cardiff City team got lucky – twice – in their victory at Coventry City, but he intends to make the most of his good fortune.
The Bluebirds boss is out of contract at the end of the season, but a 2-1 away win boosts his chances of a top 10 finish in the Championship which might hold sway when it comes to being offered a new deal.
Bulut benefitted from two own goals by Coventry on Monday as his side recovered from back-to-back defeats to stay 11th in the table.
Two mistakes from defender Liam Kitching condemned the Sky Blues and prevented them from closing the gap on the Championship play-off places.
https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1774848488737501525?s=20
Bulut admitted that with just six games to go until the end of the season, the time has come for Cardiff to make their call on his future – or for him to make it for them.
“I am really focussed until the end of the season and on the rest of the games, to get the maximum we can,” he said.
“I have to respect it, if I don’t get a contract. If they make other plans, this is okay, but I think the time is coming that they will let me know. But I also have to make my plans for next season.”
https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1774860871245656243?s=20
On the win, which leaves Cardiff eight points off the play-off places, Bulut added: “It was really important to come back against Coventry.
“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 reaction. It was a great reaction from our team to come back and show this performance.
“We did it [come from behind] a few weeks ago against Ipswich, but it’s not easy when you’ve lost two games in a row – the Swansea derby when the morale goes down and home against Sunderland when everybody was expecting a win.”
https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1774828769460531409?s=20
Norwich’s lunchtime defeat at Leicester presented the home side with a chance to close to within one point of the top six and they appeared to be on their way when Ellis Simms struck to extend his superb goalscoring run.
However, the luckless Kitching twice put the ball into his own net to give the Bluebirds their first win in three games and keep the gap between Coventry and the Canaries at four points.
Defeat. ⏹️ pic.twitter.com/rwWfBPQHir
— Coventry City (@Coventry_City) April 1, 2024
Coventry manager Mark Robins said: “Life gives you opportunities sometimes, you’ve got to do everything you can to try and take them.
“Today feels like one of those that’s got away.
“It [Kitching’s first own goal] is inexplicable, he looks like he’s trying to clear the crossbar with it, rather than move it to the side of the goal, that’s what it looks like to me.
“Sometimes it happens when you’re under pressure and you feel you’ve got to do something, and in that instance you’ve made the wrong decision and the consequences are there.
“I think, to all intents and purposes, that isn’t why we lose the game. We had 20 minutes at the end of sort of sustained pressure on them, 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.”
Mark Robins on today's defeat.
— Coventry City (@Coventry_City) April 1, 2024