Barry-Murphy urges Cardiff to be aggressive at Portsmouth

Brian Barry-Murphy says Cardiff City must be “aggressive” against Portsmouth as they take their search for a first Championship win of the season to Fratton Park.

Cardiff are licking wounds after suffering a maiden league defeat of the campaign at Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday.

The 2-1 loss came after the Bluebirds kicked off the 2026-27 campaign with three successive draws.

Cardiff are 19th as they prepare to re-establish themselves in the second tier, with their cause not helped by a lack of transfer activity before the window closed earlier this week.

Barry-Murphy, who insists he was backed in the transfer market, says his players must take the Loftus Road setback “on the chin” and focus on Portsmouth.

“We go there Saturday and give our all to try to be aggressive and win the game,” the Cardiff head coach said.

“We need to improve, we need to be better. We are not naïve. We know parts of our game [at QPR] were not at the level we need to win games.

“QPR are a very good team and so are Portsmouth, so we need to be at our best.”

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Cardiff maintained their record of scoring in every game this season thanks to Perry Ng’s thumping drive at Loftus Road, but the right-back’s strike counted for nothing thanks to two Rumarn Burrell goals.

While there was no lack of endeavour, Cardiff could not muster an equaliser on a night when QPR had the better chances.

“The opponents were pretty good but we just didn’t find the right level and as such we suffered,” Barry-Murphy added.

“We always try our best to give the supporters a team they can be proud of. The players kept going, but we couldn’t get it back.”

One of the new faces in Cardiff’s squad, Krystian Bielik, impressed on debut against Sheffield United last weekend but was only fit enough to feature as a substitute against Rangers.

Barry-Murphy says the Poland international had been suffering with “severe cramp” but Cardiff are hopeful he will be available to start against a Portsmouth who have lost three of their four league games so far this season.