Neil Warnock says his Cardiff City side can face any Championship rival with confidence following their stunning 4-3 win at Derby County.
The Bluebirds manager feels there is a rising tide of confidence in his squad after their comeback victory on Tuesday night lifted them to 12th spot in the table.
Cardiff are currently truly mid-table in every sense – 12th out of 24 clubs and 13 points above the relegation zone, 13 more behind the play-off spots.
“I think we can go anywhere and give people a good game now, the biggest problem we’ve got is ourselves,” said Warnock, who has said he thinks he requires a modest £6m to spend on three players to launch a promotion bid next season.
“It gives me a lot of pride when I see us come to a place like this and stand up and be counted and that’s why I love the Championship more than any other because you get genuine lads in this level.
“I was disappointed at the start. I know we were two goals down but it was our own fault really, it wasn’t so much that they were so good it was how poor we were.
“The goal before half-time helped us enormously and we talked about not thinking about drawing the game but trying to win it.
“That’s what you call old fashioned football, end-to-end stuff and that’s why I love the game and it was great to be involved in one like that, especially coming out on the right side.”
The victory followed Cardiff’s 2-0 win at Leeds United at the weekend and they have now taken nine points from their last four matches.
Warnock is due to hold talks on his own future at the club with chairman Mehmet Dalman this weekend, following the home game with one of his former clubs, Rotherham.
He added: “It’ll probably be a horrible game on Saturday. It’s all about trying to get the three points.
“It does not matter how we play on Saturday because they will not give anything. I have been there, they are a good group of lads. We have to get our minds on that.
“It’s nice to get the points. Eight points and we are safe and we move on. We have gone to two difficult places in the last three days and we have stood up and been counted.”
Derby’s play-off hopes suffered another blow when they squandered a two-goal lead in another roller-coaster match at Pride Park.
Steve McClaren’s team had come from three goals down to draw with Bristol City at the weekend but this time they were cruising when Julien de Sart’s first goal for the club and another from Darren Bent put them in front inside 17 minutes.
But this time it was Cardiff who hit back through two Kadeem Harris goals either side of half-time before a great strike by Craig Noone put the visitors in front.
Bent headed an equaliser only for Cardiff to have the final word when Joe Ralls coolly converted a last-minute penalty to leave Derby adrift of the top six.