Cardiff need to maintain standard that brushed aside Luton, says Neil Harris

Posted Sunday, November 29, 2020 by PA

Cardiff manager Neil Harris hailed his players after they crushed Luton 4-0 to ease the growing speculation surrounding his future.

Captain Sean Morrison volleyed the Bluebirds into an early lead before young striker Mark Harris celebrated his second start in three years with a goal after only nine minutes of the Championship clash.

Wales forward Kieffer Moore headed in his fifth goal of the season after half-time and Sheyi Ojo completed the rout with a left-footed strike to ease the pressure on Neil Harris, who had held crunch talks with Cardiff owner Vincent Tan on Thursday.

“We have talked a lot in the last 10 days about managers’ jobs being based on results,” he said. “I’m delighted we not only had the performance today but the result as well.

“I thought it was a dominant display. We ran over the top of Luton, in the nicest possible sense.

“I pick the team and the tactics and it’s down to them to deliver it and they did it in an impressive performance with and without the ball.

“They have set their standards now. The start of the game was excellent and we dominated every area of the football pitch. The front pair were an extreme handful and we used them really well.

“We picked a game plan to play against an opponent and credit to my players for delivering the result of that.

“Mark Harris has got a lot to learn about the game, a young striker, but ultimately, he will stretch the play and be a threat in the box.

“We have worked really hard with him for a year now and he has got his reward today.”

Luton manager Nathan Jones admitted he felt “embarrassed” by the performance of his players, who had gone four games unbeaten before being hammered in Wales.

“I’m embarrassed if I’m being honest, because of the level of performance,” he said. “Regardless of what we wanted to do and how we wanted to start we went 2-0 (down) after nine minutes.

“The goals we gave away were a real embarrassment and we have to be better than that because it has been a bit of a theme at times, it was the same away at Millwall, identical.

“I wish I had made 11 changes, I genuinely do and we have to address that.

“We seem unable to handle three games in a week and keep high levels so I’m going to have to make changes and freshen things up to get the level of performance.

“Every time they put the ball in our box they looked dangerous. Whatever we tried to do in terms of shape it was futile because they made first contact with the ball every time they put the ball in the box.”