Central defender Ben Turner (centre) says Cardiff can stay up
Cardiff City defender Ben Turner said he and his teammates believe they can stay in the Premier League next season.
“Everyone at the club wants to remain a Premier League footballer and to do that we have to perform as a team on the pitch to get the points,” the 25-year-old said.
“We know that we can actually do it, we know that there’s a good enough foundation within the team and the squad to get the points that we need.
“But it’s about performing and we don’t want to be coming off the pitch many times between now and the ends of the season having lost games and dropped points where we shouldn’t have.”
Bluebirds fans are dreaming of a great espcae after a goal drought topping seven hours of Premier League football finally came to an end at the expense of a hapless Fulham side.
Such is the nature of football, before Saturday’s win, the daggers were out for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men, who were seemingly destined for the drop into the Championship without so much as a modicum of fight left in them.
But a decent performance, albeit with Lady Luck on form, and the terrace chatter has now turned to what fans will almost certainly refer to as The Greatest Escape, if Cardiff can manage it, of course.
In what has been a season marred with off-field controversy and often erratic behaviour from club owner Vincent Tan, the chance to salvage something is still very much alive with the table as compact as it currently sits.
Cardiff lie in the relegation zone on goal difference alone, just two wins from the safe and static West Ham in tenth place.
What is key about the next run of games is Cardiff play the teams around them in battles that will be worth six points to the winner. Each game is now crucial to what would be the most miraculous of escapes.
The next two games will welcome both Merseyside clubs chasing Champions League spots and in scintillating form; don’t expect more than a two-point haul.
However, Cardiff play fellow strugglers West Brom, still winless under Pepe Mel, at the end of March to begin a run which includes Crystal Palace, Southampton, Stoke and Sunderland.
All winnable and against teams in similar league positions; three points would feel like six. Four wins in the next six would certainly gloss what has been a season to wish away for Bluebird fans.
In what should have been a maiden season in the promised land of football’s best league has been dogged by acrimony between owner and fans.
Even if Cardiff manage to perform an escape to Premier League safety, the deep-seated bad blood between Vincent Tan and the majority of Cardiff fans refuses to quell.
Even when the three points were in the bag last Saturday, thousands of the terrace faithful directed their chants towards Tan sitting in his executive box. Apparently, he’s a banker.
