Cardiff City boss Brian Barry Murphy offered his verdict after the 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough

Brian Barry-Murphy insisted Kim Hellberg’s decision to bench Will Lankshear had no bearing on his Cardiff City side, with their focus completely on themselves.

Cardiff gained a point at the Riverside after a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough. They held a 2-0 lead at half-time, only for Lankshear to come off the bench at half-time and inspire the Boro comeback.

In keeping with the bravery his side showed in the game with their approach in general though, Barry-Murphy insisted the shock Lankshear selection decision provided no boost to them ahead of the draw.

“I think what I thought was Kyle Joseph has personally caused me a lot of issues in the past, so I knew he was dangerous, and I had concerns about him, to be honest,” the Cardiff boss said.

“And then yeah, for us always, we have to avoid the temptation of thinking how lucky the other teams are to have all these players because the focus for us is always on our own players.

“I know that's a bit of a generic answer, but we've great belief in our own players. We've some outstanding players who are back at home today coming back from injuries. And we believe in our own academy prospects who are on the bench.

“So, we always try to focus on our own players despite the obvious talent that you guys have in reserve.”

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The approach was very much in keeping with Cardiff’s general mentality for the game. Rather than completely flip their style for the game, Barry-Murphy's side came to the Riverside and enjoyed more than half of the possession in the game.

“It was a very tough game for ourselves as we expected," he said. "In the first half, I felt we were dangerous when we had our moments. We would like to have had more of those.

“And in the end, obviously, when Middlesbrough come back into the game and have such momentum, it's difficult to stem the tide. We showed great resilience and character to be able to secure what was a hard-earned point.

"I think the players have responded so well to the way we want to play, and, and having a go on for our supporter like you saw there who really enjoy watching this team.

"So to take a step back or be really conservative by choice, I think is not what we're about, not what the fans want to see.

"So, there were spells in the game where we weren't as aggressive or, or dominant as we would want, and that was down to the quality of the opponent, how good they were.

"You know we knew we were in a game against a really good team and we had to show all of our other qualities in terms of resilience and team spirit, togetherness to manage to get a result. It was really important."