Lawrence hails 'deserved' win

Earnshaw's 12th minute goal put Cardiff on their way

Cardiff boss Lennie Lawrence felt his side's 2-1 win at Stoke was no less than they deserved.

Robert Earnshaw's cool finish and Leo Fortune-West's close-range effort on the hour mark put the Bluebirds within touching distance of a Millennium Stadium play-off final.

"If you'd have said 2-1 before the game we would have taken that," Lawrence told BBC Radio Wales.

"Anything other than a win would have been a small injustice.

"I think that the scoreline reflected the game. I didn't think in fairness to Stoke we were two goals better.

The key could be who gets the first goal on Wednesday

Lennie Lawrence

"I said just imagine it's a one-off game, forget about the second leg.

"Stoke threw the kitchen sink at us in the last 10 minutes but that's always the danger."

Lawrence feels that the team who draw first blood at Ninian Park on Wednesday will seize the initiative.

"The key could be who gets the first goal on Wednesday," he said. "If we score first they've got to make a super-human effort.

"If they score first the dilemma is do you chase the game or do you sit and wait and show discipline?

"That's a hard one. If there's no goals at all then you're still faced with the same dilemma."

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We proved at the end we're capable of putting Cardiff under pressure

Stoke boss Gudjon Thordarson refused to be too downbeat despite his side facing a tough task in the second leg.

"It was never ever going to be easy down there," he said. "And we haven't helped ourselves.

"With being a goal down to them down there it's going to be even harder.

"But we got a goal back and after we were two down we didn't have anything to lose.

"I think we proved at the end we're capable of putting Cardiff under pressure. People will think it's job done for them but we've still got 90 minutes to play.

"We only need to get one goal back and then after that we only need to get another one."