Cardiff saw their grip on the summit of the Championship loosened further after they succumbed to a second defeat in three games, but Malky Mackay was at pains to insist the off-the-field issues to have affected the club in recent days have not played a part in seeing their advantage at the top trimmed to five points.
The Welshmen’s impressive nine-match unbeaten league away run was brought to a halt by a Middlesbrough side who rekindled their own play-off hopes thanks to first goals for the club from Kieron Dyer and Sammy Ameobi.
Aron Gunnarsson’s header from Craig Bellamy’s corner midway through the second half was the signal for Cardiff to lay siege to the Middlesbrough goal late on as Fraizer Campbell and substitute Heidar Helguson both came close to claiming an equaliser.
Mackay insisted: “There are no distractions as far as the team and I am concerned, We’re getting on with the football side of it.”
He was responding to questions in the wake of the resignation of chairman Dato Chan Tien Ghee to pursue alternative business interests this week, after the ill-advised statements from the owner Vincent Tan, who was forced to backtrack on suggestions the club could compete in the Premier League next season under the title of the Cardiff Dragons.
Source: telegraph
Source: telegraph