Promotion would prove doubters wrong - Barry-Murphy

Brian Barry-Murphy believes he and his Cardiff City players will have proved their doubters wrong if they secure an instant return to the Championship.

The Bluebirds are second in League One and could seal automatic promotion with three games to spare when they visit Reading on Saturday.

Barry-Murphy inherited a team in disarray on and off the field last summer, as Cardiff were relegated to the third tier for the first time in more than two decades.

This season, however, Cardiff have been transformed, playing attractive football with a team full of young Welsh players.

"I've had the time of my life. A club of our size doing so well, backed by so many people is an incredible feeling and one that you treasure every single day," said Barry-Murphy.

"I think there would have been a lot of doubts about myself, the club [at the start of the season], I think it's easy to forget. The perception of the club in pre-season was of a club that wasn't very stable or wasn't very settled or didn't have a real clear identity.

"The players have transformed that, and the supporters have fuelled it with their energy."

This is only Barry-Murphy's second senior managerial role, having been in charge of Rochdale between 2019 and 2021 before working with Manchester City's Under-21s and Leicester City.

The Irishman has proved a big success at Cardiff, unlike most of the Welsh club's appointments in recent years.

Although the Bluebirds came down from the Championship with a wage bill and resources far greater than their League One rivals, there was no guarantee that they would bounce straight back.

A dozen senior players left during the off-season as they reduced costs following relegation, and Barry-Murphy was seen as a bold – if progressive – choice of head coach for a club which had previously been criticised for its lack of direction.

"We've come a long way in a short period of time," he added.

"That's why it's so important just to keep harping back to the importance of remaining focused on the immediate task in front of us."

Barry-Murphy was coy about the prospect of leading Cardiff to promotion in his first season in charge but said: "The most exciting thing I think about being at this club at the moment is the potential that we see in the team.

"The improvement since the start of the season we hoped would be enormous and it's exceeded even my expectations.

"On a daily basis, the hunger from the team to improve means that there is no ceiling to what we can achieve."