Steve Morison admitted he was left speechless and "emotionally drained" after his side bounced back from last week's hammering by Swansea City to beat Reading 2-1.
Morison had described the week leading up to the Royals game as "horrible" due to the nature of the South Wales derby defeat last weekend. But he knew his team had to produce a far better performance to get back on track after what has been a largely positive period since the January transfer window ended.
It looked like Cardiff were going to be on the receiving end of back-to-back losses, though, when Reading took the lead early on and dominated the first half. But goals from Alfie Doughty and Will Vaulks, who has had to be patient and bide his time recently, ensured Cardiff earned another victory to take their recent record to only one defeat in the last six games.
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It's fair to say, the culmination of such a week has left Steve Morison drained.
"I couldn't really talk to [the players] after the game, because that was an emotionally draining week and game. It shows all the good work we have been doing," Morison said after the dramatic late win.
"We asked them to be braver and play in a slightly different way. I'm just glad I can sit here and say we changed shape, personnel, went braver and got a result. No doubt I know what would have been said if it went wrong - that's the beauty of football.
"Will has had a tough time. The hardest job in management in keeping everyone happy. You've always got more players that are unhappy than happy. Will was really unhappy. You are a professional, you have to train hard every day but you're opportunity is only one injury away or one situation around the corner. He came on and he was excellent and got the winning goal. I was really pleased for him."
Asked if it was his most difficult week in management to day, Morison said: "Yeah... Yeah and no. Obviously it was a tough week because of the situation. The lads today have shown again how good they are and they rose to the occasion. They got steadily better as the game went on and the most disappointing thing was conceding early.
"It was an emotional day. We said at the start it was an emotional game. Winning the game is great.
"It's hard to enjoy it all the time, because you're not allowed to enjoy it all the time. The reality is our success because of what happened last week, I understand that, I get it.
"But we are 20 points clear of the bottom. When I took over we were in a bad, bad place. We did it in a way that takes courage. It takes good coaching, man management, good transfer window and recruitment, there are so many facets to it. That's why when I won Manager of the Month it was a picture of everybody, because it takes everybody."
