Bristol City centre-back Ashley Williams has spoken about his delight of beating Cardiff City on the weekend with his Robins side.

Lee Johnson's City side won for the first time on Cardiff soil in 17 years thanks to a stunning strike from captain Josh Brownhill midway inside the second half.

Williams, the former Swansea City captain, had to take more stick than most of his team-mates because of his Swansea connections, and his celebrations at full time showed just how much the result meant to the 35-year-old.

On the performance of his side, Williams said to the Bristol City official site: "As you say, it’s a happy dressing room, it was a difficult game, not pretty at times but off the back of the last two games that was a really big performance from us.

“It’s always important to go into the international break on a high, to try the next block of games with a win. We’ve looked after this end and after the disappointment of conceding late against Barnsley it was a really long week.

“We had to do a lot of talking and work on the field and you can see what the manager implemented within the week worked. In the second half they had eight or so players up front.

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“They are a big team but we still shut them out and you could see the lads out on their legs at the end. That’s the work rate, effort and application that you need in this league to get a clean sheet.”

The veteran defender helped keep the defence together yesterday as Bristol City arguably won the tie against the run of play, Cardiff's 16 shots compared to City's six as well as having fewer amounts of possession than the Bluebirds meaning that Cardiff seemed more in control of the tie.

The centre-back joined the club in August after being released by Premier League side Everton and he has been a rock at the back for City so far this season, improving their defence as the Robins have moved on up into the play-off places.

The Verdict

Williams played a large part in helping Bristol City claim their first win on Cardiff turf since 2002 as a solid defensive performance limited Cardiff to efforts from outside the area.

The experienced centre-back protected his goal well and didn't rise to the stick that the defender was taking off of the Cardiff fans as he concentrated on the game at hand and was able to achieve a vital win.