By Gareth James
Omer Riza has turned the spotlight on Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan by calling for clarity over the managerial position at the club.
His bold move comes after the interim boss further strengthened his hand by gaining another convincing victory for a team he has picked off the floor.
Cardiff climbed out of the Championship relegation zone with a second home win in the space of four days against Portsmouth on Tuesday night.
A Regan Poole own goal and Callum Robinson’s close-range effort put Cardiff in command after 13 minutes on a night when the Bluebirds’ only regret was that the winning margin should have been far greater than the final 2-0 scoreline.
Mid-week fun and three points! 💙#CityAsOne | @quinnbet pic.twitter.com/ZDtmj4Xjp2
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) October 22, 2024
The victory, fresh from Saturday’s 5-0 thrashing of Plymouth, means Riza’s claim for the job on a permanent basis is gaining momentum.
Since losing his maiden outing at Hull, Riza has harvested 10 points from four games and with wind in his sails, he said: “I have chats with the owner all the time.
“I spoke to him this morning and he was very nice and polite.
“Clarity is always best because then you can really move forward with the plans the club’s got in place or the plans I might have.
“Of course, it would be nice to have some clarity, but in the meantime what’s important is that we are going well.
“We are getting the points and we have climbed off the bottom of the table. We’re in a better position than we were and that’s important, because from there you can always move forward.
“We’ll keep trying to play the way we are in possession.
“But out of possession we will have to be on our game, making sure we don’t lose the ball or, if we do lose the ball, make sure we don’t get hurt.
“We want to create as many opportunities as we can. Once you get that balance, you can apply it really well. The next thing is that teams will not allow us to do this every week.”
FT.#Pompey pic.twitter.com/OTJHHDfKb3
— Portsmouth FC (@Pompey) October 22, 2024
Riza took charge last month with Cardiff bottom of the table after making their worst start to a campaign for 94 years; one point from six games signalling Erol Bulut’s departure.
Cardiff’s win over Portsmouth – who are now bottom of the Championship – followed their hammering of Plymouth..
Having scored just four goals in their opening nine league games , the Bluebirds have struck seven in two to climb off the foot of the table up to 19th place.
Portsmouth claimed a first scalp of the season at QPR on Saturday, but an inept opening 45 minutes left them with a mountain to climb in a city where they have not registered a league win for 40 years.
Cardiff-born Poole was a member of the Bluebirds academy before starting his professional career at nearby Newport, and it was his unfortunate touch that began Pompey’s misery.
Perry Ng’s cross was heading harmlessly across goal until the Wales international stuck out a foot and diverted the ball into the corner of the net.
10 points from 4 games.
Three home clean sheets.
Omer Riza’s audition for the Cardiff job is going very well 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/FxQpIzYXkA
— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) October 22, 2024
Cardiff doubled their lead after Alex Robertson, barracked by the away following after an injury-hit Portsmouth loan spell last season, swung over a corner that Dimitrios Goutas helped on.
Robinson, near to the far post and two yards out, prodded the ball in via the underside of the crossbar for his fourth of the season.
Portsmouth almost went under as Ollie Tanner’s angled drive flashed by a post, Anwar El Ghazi’s ferocious free-kick was pushed out by goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid and David Turnbull’s effort was deflected wide.
But it got worse for the visitors as Schmid limped off and joined early casualty Paddy Lane on the sidelines, allowing summer signing Jordan Archer to make his Portsmouth debut.
Callum Lang’s wayward attempt failed to trouble Cardiff goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, though it did spark sarcastic cries of ‘we’ve had a shot’ from the well-populated away end.
The second-half pattern was the same as Archer thwarted Turnbull at full stretch and collected more comfortably on his line from Rubin Colwill.
🗣️ "The boys have put in such a good shift, so I'm just really happy for them, the fans and the Club."
Omer Riza spoke to the press following tonight's victory 📺#CityAsOne
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) October 22, 2024
Portsmouth went close when Kusini Yengi’s strike deflected off Lang and Alnwick made a tremendous reflex stop low to his right.
Alnwick denied Lang again late on, but Archer saved well from from El Ghazi, Turnbull and Colwill and it is Cardiff who suddenly have a spring in their step.
Portsmouth manager John Mousinho said: “It was a really, really poor performance.
“The biggest disappointment for me was the slow start. We start sluggishly, don’t switch on from a throw-in, allow a cross into the box and put the ball into our own net.
“When you do that against a side like Cardiff, who are a really good side, who’ve come away from here with a 5-0 win on Saturday, confidence is really high. The way we have to approach the game in the first 10-15 minutes is completely different to how we actually did.
“At 2-0 down, it’s too difficult to get back into these kind of games against sides as good as this. The basics just weren’t good enough.”
READ MORE