Despite Cardiff City's 2-1 loss to Reading on Saturday, Steve Morison's strong words marked a significant shift in tone from last year and bodes well for the team's mentality and attitude for this season. 

The retired Welsh international provoked some controversy among sections of the Cardiff fanbase last April following a humbling 4-0 defeat in the South Wales derby against Swansea City.

At the time Morison appeared to play down the significance of the fixture, saying: "Hopefully we don't dwell on it too long, because the remit when I took the job was to keep this club in the Championship next year - not to win certain games [...] the goal was to stay in the Championship so that's what I'm going to focus on."

The perceived lack of recognition of the significance of the fixture angered plenty of Bluebirds fans, particularly as the occasion marked the first time either team had done the double over the course of a season in the derby. It was also a record margin of defeat at home in the fixture for either South Wales club.

This time around, deliberately or not, Morison appears to be cutting a much more empathetic figure with the fans. Post-defeat at the weekend, Morison remarked: "I'm disappointed. We just didn't turn up. It's disappointing because of how well we did last week and how poor we were today [...] Last week we were brilliant, this week I can only apologise to the 2,000-odd fans who gave up their Saturday to come and watch us not turn up."

Optimism remains high among the majority of fans who witnessed a win against promotion favourites Norwich the week prior, and there is particular excitement surrounding the potential for some rotation in the EFL Cup against Portsmouth on Tuesday involving the new young forward trio of Ollie Tanner, Kion Etete and Jaden Philogene.

Morison's post-match comments were not entirely resigned and apologetic in tone, with the former Millwall forward expressing some frustration at the penalty awarded to Reading in the 27th minute which turned the game on its head. "I don't think it should have got to that, I thought Cedric (Kipré) got a two-handed push in the back off Shane Long. I don't know the rules, there are so many different rules. Apparently he was running away from goal so it wasn't a sending off. I fully expected him to get sent off."

Regardless, Cardiff faded from the game after 5 minutes when Callum O'Dowda failed to convert a second chance in as many minutes to double his tally and put the Bluebirds ahead by two goals early on, and never really showed signs of coming back into contention.

Morison will be hoping he doesn't have to make similar comments on Tuesday evening after the clash against Portsmouth, or indeed when the Bluebirds host in-form Birmingham City the following weekend.