TOUGH-tackling defender Jlloyd Samuel has warned his Cardiff City team-mates to learn from their stressful promotion push because the heat is on every week in the Premier League.
The Trinidadian full-back, who found himself in hot water with Preston boss Phil Brown after the Bluebirds’ Easter Monday win, when a 50-50 tackle ended in star man Ian Hume hobbling off for the hosts, said: “This pressure is a good thing. It’s what you want as a player.
“If you go up to the Premier League, it’s pressure every week.
“There are a lot of good players in this league. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge gap to the Premier, but I’m still trying to get my fitness back.
“I’ve just enjoyed the games I’ve played for Cardiff and I’m confident if we can keep winning we’ll finish in the top two.
“Everyone could see at the end of the Preston match how much it meant to the players and how much it means to Cardiff City.”
After Peter Whittingham’s early goal, from an incisive Craig Bellamy breakaway, was the difference between the two sides at opposite ends of the table in Lancashire, Trinidad international Samuel paid tribute to the Bluebirds’ attacking prowess, saying: “As a defence, it’s nice because we know we’re very good on the counter-attack.
“We’ve got some very quick players and some intelligent players.
“To be honest, we’re always confident that we’re going to score.”
But he also took time to praise his defensive partners, who have kept three shut-outs this month, saying: “Our clean sheet at Preston was very good for the team.
“We made hard work of it and they put us under a lot of pressure, especially in the second half.
“But we did what we had to do.
“We stayed switched on as a unit and we held them out.
“They’re a team who were fighting for their lives, but so were we at the other end.”
The Bluebirds, who welcomed former captain Mark Hudson back to the first team after Kevin McNaughton left the field injured, were forced to weather a late storm from a Preston side intent on avoiding the drop to League One.
Samuel, who is on emergency loan from Bolton Wanderers, said: “We’ve just got to keep the pressure on and that’s all that we can do.
“The pressure is on Norwich because obviously it’s in their hands now.
“We had the control, but unfortunately we weren’t able to win against QPR.
“But we went to Preston knowing what we had to do and we’ve done it.
“Now it’s up to us to keep winning our games and hopefully Norwich will slip up.”
Looking ahead to next Monday’s vital final home game against Middlesbrough, the twice-capped Soca Warrior said: “It’s going to go down to the wire as long as we keep winning.
“Playing before Norwich on Monday will be a help because if we get the win we can put the pressure right back on them.
“We are not aware of what is going on in other games while we are on the pitch, but having them playing after us means we can keep an eye on them.
“Middlesbrough haven’t done as well as they might have thought, but in this league anyone can beat anyone and we won’t be taking anything for granted.
“It’s all about mental toughness from here on in, for us and Norwich.
“We’ve just come off the back of two games in three days and we all think a good rest is due. But there’s obviously only a couple of games left now and we know we have to win them.
“We’re just going to have to be ready for Middlesbrough and Burnley.”
And, after impressing in Cardiff at the business end of this season, Samuel is keen to keep his options open for next season, saying: “I’m not looking at where I’ll be playing next season yet, I’m taking it one game at a time and hoping I can win promotion with Cardiff. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait and see.”