Barry-Murphy excited to pit wits against 'master coach' Mowbray

Cardiff City head coach Brian Barry-Murphy has labelled Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray "a master coach" as the two sides prepare to meet in the Championship.

The Bluebirds travel to Ewood Park on Saturday looking for their second league win of the season, having broken their winless run last time out against Charlton.

Rovers are aiming to make it three games unbeaten in the league, having lost four of their five previous games 2-1.

Blackburn boss Mowbray is approaching 900 competitive games as a manager, 277 of which have been for Rovers - with whom he won promotion to the Championship in 2018.

"[Blackburn's] recent form has been really good, they beat Millwall 3-1 in their last home fixture," said Barry-Murphy.

"They've got a master coach in Tony Mowbray, he's done it all and seen it all.

"He has always been someone I've admired and respected.

"It'll be an incredibly tough game but we're looking forward to trying to play our own aggressive game and try and win."

Cardiff's sole league victory may have been their previous game, but it was back on 19 September before the extended international window.

The win over Charlton kept the Bluebirds out of the bottom three by two points, and Barry-Murphy says they have been working hard in their prolonged break to improve in this upcoming block of games.

"This early in the season it is very important to focus on improving the players' understanding on how we want to play but also we can make big inroads into the physical condition of the players," said Barry-Murphy.

"That was the main objective of this extended window and we feel as if we've used the benefits of it to show in this next block of games.

"I think it's clear we need to do better, we're in a position in the table we don't want to be.

"Our motivation and ambition is to improve that quickly."