Cardiff boss Steve Morison claimed Max Watters “wasn’t good enough” after hauling off the striker in the first half of the 2-0 win over Coventry.
Morison again showed his ruthless side when replacing Watters with Jordan Hugill in the 37th minute.
Watters had seen two chances saved by Sky Blues keeper Simon Moore in the time he was on the pitch, but Morison was not impressed by other aspects of his performance.
In much the same way as he chastised Zak Davies and Rubin Colwill in previous weeks, he let Watters know what he expects from his players.
“I’ve just got to use my words correctly this time or I will get annihilated – he just wasn’t good enough,” said Morison.
“Is he upset? Yes. Do I want him to be upset? Yes. Does he need to realise what it takes to be a Championship striker? Yes. Will we go through it with him and talk about it again? Yes.
“You can’t play up front in this team, any team in the Championship, and not have a physical edge to your game. The ball can’t keep coming back.
“Within all that, he could have had two goals. He could have scored a header in the first minute, I thought it was a goal as soon as it went to him.
“Then when he goes through, I’d already planned to take him off, but then I was like ‘Oh what am I going to do now, he is going to score!’ Because he is a goalscorer.
“But I think you could see the difference as soon as Jordan come on.”
Second-half goals from Joel Bagan and substitute Mark Harris secured another home win for the Bluebirds, who moved up to 19th and are now 15 points clear of the relegation zone.
As for Coventry, they thought they should have been given a penalty when Callum O’Hare was twice brought down in a matter of seconds in the Cardiff box.
Coventry boss Mark Robins was more concerned about his injury-ravaged side’s lack of energy than the fact they were not awarded a spot-kick.
“He had one shout for a penalty and the other one cost him a penalty because the referee looked at it and saw it was a dive. He was going at full-tilt and he tried to get out of the way and avoid contact,” he said.
“The second one he’s clipped him and it could have been a penalty. But it wasn’t given and we aren’t going to bemoan that.
“The fact for us was we were below par in terms of energy levels. This game was fitted in because of Covid in the Cardiff camp earlier on in the season. That played then would have been a different story. Us at full tilt and full energy is a different story.
“We didn’t do enough even though we had a lot of possession in the first half. There was nothing really in the game or goalmouth opportunities.
“We knew we were below par in terms of energy in the second half but there wasn’t a great deal we could do because those are the numbers of players available to us. That’s the frustration.
“We were a goal down when our big chance came. Viktor Gyokeres did everything right in heading it down and the goalkeeper just catches it with his foot.
“Bad luck, good luck, you have to take the chances. We conceded again before the end, but we just didn’t do enough.“
