Cardiff boss calls Luton ‘not a great team’ as he doesn’t expect Town to ‘rob’ many more sides

Cardiff City boss Omer Riza called Luton ‘not a great team’ after the Hatters’ 2-1 win in Wales last night, also stating he doesn’t expect Town to ‘rob’ many more sides of the three points he felt they returned to Bedfordshire with.

Going into the fixture, the hosts had a five point advantage over Town, as the magnitude of the contest clearly got to the players in what was at time a truly woeful first half, Liam Walsh going closest with a volley that was saved by ex-Luton stopper Ethan Horvath. Things began to get more exciting after the interval though, Cardiff taking the lead when Calum Chambers volleyed Mark McGuinness’s headed clearance beyond Thomas Kaminski to break the deadlock.

Unbowed by going behind, Town finally showed some of the character that saw them get out of this division two years ago, restoring parity just seven minutes later in truly wonderful style through Jordan Clark’s magnificent attempt from outside the box. Then, with 10 minutes to go, the visitors won it as just 60 seconds after Chambers had hit the bar from range, Thelo Aasgaard rifled home from close range with his first goal for the club.

It ended a near six-month wait for an away win for Luton, who although remained in the bottom three, moved to within two points of their opponents and fifth bottom Stoke City who host Blackburn Rovers this evening. Riza, who saw his charges booed off following a third successive league defeat in which both sides had four shots on target, with Matt Bloomfield’s side enjoying four more touches inside their opponents’ penalty area, said: “They weren't great, they weren't great today, they’re not a great team.

"We've given them the opportunity to claw back some points against us and that's on us. Whether they can continue to go and rob other teams like they've robbed us today, which seems to be a common theme with us at the moment, I'm not sure, probably not, but we've got to worry about ourselves. If I said I was disappointed it’s an understatement.

"We're not doing all the things we need to do to win games, that’s the bottom line, we’re still making fundamental mistakes. We’ve been pulled right back in. It was tough anyway and to not get the result and for Luton to win, the boys need to understand where we're at and we need to get on with it. There’s small margins in games, we hit the bar at 1-1, but the fact of the matter is we haven't picked up a result again.”

The former Cambridge United and Denizlispor forward also went on to criticise his side for the way in which they allowed both Clark and Aasgaard to find the net on the evening, adding: “We’ve played into their hands. We didn’t get the ball down well enough, we forced the ball into areas and lost balls too easily, allowed them to apply pressure in the way they like to apply pressure. The goals we gave away were comical. We didn't get back into areas quickly enough, they skipped past players too easily, not enough people getting out to the ball and putting their bodies on their line to block shots for the first goal.

"The second goal was comical as well, we're just not doing the basics well enough and it’s costing us. We’re getting ourselves in good positions at times, but the same mistakes are happening over and over repeatedly. Players are not taking responsibility and we’re in trouble. If we’re going to do that we're going to be in big trouble. We’ve got nine games and we need to stop doing this stuff otherwise we're not going to win games.”

.