Steve Morison was “proud as punch” after seeing his Cardiff team beat Stoke 2-1 to move level with the Potters in the Championship table.

Five months ago, Morison launched his Bluebirds reign at Stoke and confessed he wanted the ground to swallow him up when his side went three goals down.

They hit back to steal a draw in the end and halt a run of eight successive defeats, and now his resurgent team sit comfortably in mid-table.

“When we started this whole process, we were in the bottom three and they were in the play-offs. We are now level with each other on points,” said Morison.

“I’m as proud as punch. It has been a really tough seven weeks but it ended so well and I’m really pleased.

“We didn’t deserve to be 1-0 down but in the end we got our rewards. They gambled in the second half and committed more men forward and our defenders had to defend for their lives.

“That put us under pressure but I still think we had the better chances in the second half. I thought there were some all-round excellent performances.

“Anyone who wants to question the players’ attitude or application, that kind of performance puts that completely to bed.”

Lewis Baker opened the scoring for the visitors but Cardiff hit back with goals from on-loan duo Tommy Doyle and Jordan Hugill.

Stoke Manager Michael O’Neill did not believe his team did enough to halt a miserable run of nine games without a win.

“We didn’t play well enough and didn’t deserve to take anything from the game, despite going ahead with a good goal,” said O’Neill.

“We were a bit fragile. You have to get to half-time and defend your lead and we didn’t do that.

“We were 1-0 up with six minutes to play in the first half and we went in behind – that epitomises where we are at the moment.

“Straight balls down the pitch, there wasn’t any real guile about it but the pace of Jordan Hugill and Mark Harris caused us problems.

“We had a lot of the ball but our quality in the final third was poor. We were suspect and we aren’t in the play-off places anymore because we’re not good enough.

“We tried to shuffle the pack in January, which we felt would make us better, but ultimately it hasn’t. I can’t sit here and defend things and say we shouldn’t be in this position.

“We definitely should have more points than we have but we can’t keep asking the same questions week after week.

“We can’t keep coming away and saying we didn’t get what we deserved. We didn’t deserve anything tonight.”