Cardiff City: Barry-Murphy urges winless Bluebirds to be ‘more ruthless’

Brian Barry-Murphy says Cardiff City need to be more ruthless, while remaining relaxed about their winless return to the Championship.

The Bluebirds are yet to register a victory since promotion back to this level as their 1-1 draw with Stoke City made it four draws and two defeats from their opening six games.

They appeared to be heading for the bottom of the table after conceding sloppily against the Potters, before rallying via Joel Colwill’s equaliser.

And, with the hosts unable convert a second despite 27 attempts on goal and 70% possession, their head coach says his side need to find a greater sharpness.

“We’re having to come back in all the games at the moment and that’s a challenge in itself,” said Barry-Murphy, whose side had to come from behind to earn draws in three games so far.

“It’s very early days and we have to remain calm.”

Barry-Murphy believes their approach will pay dividends as the campaign progresses.

“We’re aware we haven’t won this season. We’re aware in many of the games we’ve played really well, created chances and haven’t taken them,” he said.

“So we just have to keep improving and the goals will come if we keep getting in the same situations and just be a bit more ruthless in terms of how we don’t give the opponents a head start.”

Barry-Murphy was pleased with an improvement in performance levels after poor outings at QPR and Portsmouth resulted in back-to-back defeats.

He added: “There could be a sense of here we go again, we’re behind and we haven’t won.

“But those things didn’t look evident. We have quite a few injuries so we’ll get stronger as the season goes on – and if we continue to play the way we’re playing and improve like I expect us to we’ll have a great season.”