Pressure on Bluebirds, says Freedman

CRYSTAL PALACE boss Dougie Freedman believes the pressure is all on Cardiff City ahead of their Carling Cup semi-final second leg tomorrow night.

Palace take a one-goal lead into the second leg clash and Freedman believes nerves could get the better of Cardiff.

“I’ve seen Cardiff fall just short so many times over the past few seasons that they and their supporters must be scared stiff of failure,” Freeman said.

“When you get in stressful situations, it is difficult not to think of the past, and when you have their recent history of being beaten in the play-offs so often, they must have some very unhappy memories.

“In fact the last time they got over the line was when Lennie Lawrence was their manager, but unfortunately for them he is sitting in our dugout.”

Cardiff beat Portsmouth 3-2 at the weekend while Palace suffered defeat to Blackpool.

However, Freedman doesn’t believe those results will have any bearing on the result tomorrow.

“I thought our performance was very encouraging. The desire and the commitment was there for all to see but unfortunately we couldn’t quite hold on to the lead we had,” said Freedman.

“We had one or two good chances in the first half and in the second half we looked very good on the break and could have put the game to bed.

“But ultimately we didn’t take our chances and that cost us out there.

“There are a lot of positives to take from the game, we played well and we’ve gained experience because a lot of the players that were out there haven’t had enough game time.”