Omer Riza questions Cardiff City 'mentality' as he says Sheffield Wednesday sub changed game

The Bluebirds boss spoke after a frustrating 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday

Omer Riza has questioned Cardiff City's mentality after they dropped more points in a frustrating 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

The Bluebirds went ahead during a pulsating first half which they dominated thanks to Isaak Davies's sweetly-hit goal in the 21st minute. They could have gone into the break further ahead had they taken any of their other many chances or converted their possession and territory into goals.

But the visitors looked revitalised after the break and Michael Ihiekwe converted from a corner on the hour-mark which was a real gut punch to Cardiff, who failed to find a winner in the last half an hour. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.

And Riza was left deflated after the match, questioning why his side had allowed the opposition back into the tie and grab a point.

"First half I thought we played well," he said, assessing the match. "The first 10 minutes it was cagey, but after that we were dominant, created opportunities, scored a goal and had a couple more opportunities as well. It was a very good first half.

"The front four were energetic, caused problems and we had good stability behind the ball. We were hoping for more in the second half. But it just seems to be an element of a mental thing with the boys. They didn’t apply enough pressure in the second half. They sat and allowed them to have a bit more time in the midfield areas, which put us on the back foot, which was disappointing.

"Conceding from a set play, when we had worked on it this week, knowing how they work, was disappointing.

"There were some forced changes with Perry Ng coming off with cramp and having no natural right-back. We had to move players around to remain attacking and also bring attacking players on to the pitch to win the game, but we were unable to do it. A frustrating one overall."

Pressed on his side's lack of mental fortitude and how you would go about changing that so late into the season, he added: "It's just one of those moments we are going through where it just changed second half. We didn't tell them to sit back and protect the lead. It was about going to get another goal.

"If we had done that in the first half, it might have eased the pressure. We didn’t manage to do that. It didn’t happen and we’ve come away with a point.

"We allowed them to have a lot more of the ball. The reason why, I don't know. We came off the levels and intensity and we didn't step through enough.

"It's those moments in games, our players feel, maybe it's a subconscious thing, they know how important the three points are and it's a natural thing we are doing.

"We have come away with a point and we have to move forward now into next week with QPR."

Wednesday made three changes at half-time, but Riza believes the introduction of Southampton loanee Shea Charles really altered the complexion of the game and Cardiff failed to cope with the shift in focus the Northern Irishman brought to the visitors' midfield.

"Charles coming on second half caused us more issues," he said. "Dealing with two and not just (Barry) Bannan, and we didn't really get to grips with it well enough.

"We've spoken about it [mentality] a lot. Until you're in this position you can never understand how difficult it is for them on the pitch. You have to keep plugging away and look to QPR on the weekend.

"They are going to be frustrated and disappointed. But we have 90 minutes to get the job done and we haven’t done that. We can't find excuses, we have to find solutions."

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Asked if he regretted not making any changes himself to counter the new threats Charles and others posed, he replied: “No. We finished the first half really well. When we came in at half-time, the players were in a good place and high in confidence.

"You don’t want to make changes for the sake of making changes. They made three changes and it’s helped them and we weren't able to manage it. We made our changes when we needed to. I'd have liked to have seen the game through with most of the players on the pitch, but the changes we made, we had to make them.

"But no, I don’t regret not making changes at half-time.”