Cardiff City manager Steve Morison had some stern words to offer his misfiring strikers after yet more golden opportunities went begging in the 2-0 derby defeat by Bristol City.
Max Watters had the chance of the match for Cardiff when he was put clean through on goal by Cedric Kipre, but fluffed his lines in a one-on-one effort with Dan Bentley, who saved his effort well from point-blank range.
Late on in the match, Mark Harris was sent through by a lovely Rubin Colwill pass, but the Wales striker couldn't round the goalkeeper, who snuffed out the chance when it looked like yet another golden opportunity to score.
And while Morison has staunchly defended his strikers, despite none of them scoring so far, the derby defeat was the straw that seemingly broke the camel's back.
"What did I say to them? I told them today 'I'm fed up of defending you, you've got to put the ball in the back of the net. That's your job. You get your moments, you have to put the ball in the back of the net'," Morison said of his strikers.
"That's exactly what I told them. But the plus point is, we are getting them the chances, they just need to put the ball in the back of the net.
"You have to keep plugging away. You have to keep believing and be confident. Just keep putting yourselves in the areas and take the chances. It's all about a mindset.
"I don't want to talk about myself because I had my mind and I can't tell you what they're thinking. I can only try and help them take those chances."
Morison has four strikers, one whom is unfit at the minute in Isaak Davies, all of whom are 23 or under and have fewer than 10 Championship goals between them.
When asked if the strikers he does have at his disposal have what it takes to get the requisite goals this season, he replied: "We don't know yet. They haven't done it. But it's what we've got. There's no one else there at the minute. There's no one else available that can come and do it either.
"We keep working and we will keep creating chances for them and hopefully they will start taking them."
On the derby defeat itself, the fifth straight derby loss for the Bluebirds, Morison couldn't hide his disappointment, saying: “I understand and everyone else understands, everything else doesn’t matter – we lost the game. That’s all anyone cares about and that’s all we care about.
“It was always going to be a tough start to the game. Everyone is fresh, energetic. We saw that period out. They had one chance where Rocky (Ryan Allsop) makes a save.
“Then we have the big moment in the game where we have to score and then they go down and score. They got most of their chances through us committing men forward and them hitting us on the counter.
“It’s all pretty much irrelevant. Nothing you say is going to have an effect. It’s another derby defeat.”
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