Mid Wales

Dafydd Pritchard
BBC Sport Wales

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Cardiff City head coach Brian Barry-Murphy was delighted his team were finally able to turn their domination into victory as they beat promotion rivals Bolton Wanderers.

The Bluebirds won 2-0 on Saturday, ending a three-match winless and goalless run at home, and a poor sequence of results overall which had yielded only two victories from eight games.

Second-place Cardiff moved 10 points clear of Bradford City in third, with Bolton manager Steven Schumacher admitting defeat had ended their automatic promotion hopes as they are now 11 points adrift of the Welsh side having played a game more.

Cardiff had bossed many of their recent games but a lack of cutting edge in the final third meant they had lost three and drawn three of their previous eight fixtures.

They corrected that with a convincing win over Bolton, with Omari Kellyman and Chris Willock scoring second-half goals.

"It's an incredible feeling. We had real awareness that our home results in the past few games haven't been what we wanted," said Barry-Murphy.

"To see the supporters return in such numbers today and give everybody ultimately what they wanted and craved is huge for us.

"I think we haven't been clinical enough in games previously. Today is a brilliant day for us, and we still could and should have scored more."

Next for Cardiff is a trip to Huddersfield Town on Tuesday. Victory in Yorkshire coupled with a defeat for Bradford at home to Stevenage on Saturday, and Stockport County dropping points at Wimbledon on Wednesday, would see the Bluebirds promoted on Wednesday.

Regardless of results elsewhere, Cardiff can guarantee promotion for themselves if they win at Huddersfield and at Reading the following Saturday.

Barry-Murphy's men still have three games to get the job done after the trip to Berkshire next weekend.

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

Goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux says Swansea City must use their final five games of the season as a springboard for success in the next campaign, beginning with Saturday's trip to relegation-threatened Leicester City (15:00 BST).

Swansea are comfortably mid-table in the Championship, seemingly with little to play for, but Vigouroux says the squad feels it has a point to prove.

"I think we're a massive club. We deserve to be a lot higher in the league and we know that as players," he said.

"But I think it's building blocks and I think we started off really well with the new manager (Vitor Matos), especially at home. You know we're really tough to beat and now we need to translate that form away from home and get as many points as we can.

"Some guys are trying to earn new contracts, some guys are trying to build their way into the team, for example like Sam (Parker) who was outstanding on the weekend, these are the kind of games for him that if he does really well, he can then become a really really important part of our squad.

"So these are the kind of moments, these kind of games where you can get as many points as you can, leave the season in a good place and then you're raring to go for next season."

The 32-year-old Chile goalkeeper has experienced a similar situation before with former club Leyton Orient.

Like the Swans, a change of manager during the season saw a period of upheaval that ultimately laid the foundations for future success.

"It's so important because then you know each other's strengths," he added.

"I had the same when I was at Leyton Orient... a manager left in the middle of the season, a new manager came in and then we've done really well towards the end of the season, and then the season after we won the league.

"It was literally because we had played together for that last 10 games. He didn't make too many changes, there were maybe one or two coming in.

"We knew what we were playing with, who we were playing with, and I think there's nothing to say that that can't happen here.

"We've got a really good group of players that know their jobs. They know each other's strengths and weaknesses inside out."