Riza deleted social account after Severnside derby

Cardiff City interim boss Omer Riza has admitted he deleted his social media account in the wake of comments after a game last month.

Riza has lifted Cardiff off the bottom of the Championship table since he took over following the sacking of Erol Bulut at the end of September.

But he took down his account on X - formerly known as Twitter - after the 1-1 draw at Bristol City, his third game in interim charge..

Cardiff led the Severnside derby through an Ollie Tanner goal before Bristol City equalised late on following a change of shape by the Bluebirds boss.

There were some angry comments on social media over a lost opportunity.

Riza reacted by removing his account and "felt better" as a result.

"I speak to the boys about white noise and sometimes you have just got to take it away to do your job properly," said Riza.

"I just felt I was reading all the time stuff I did not really need to read and it has probably helped me. I have come away from it and I can just focus."

Riza added: "I am not being ignorant I still read stuff because I think it’s good to read stuff because sometimes it can help you. But I decided to come off because it was getting to a point where I felt some of the stuff just made no sense.

"So when it makes no sense then why was I reading it? I came off it and felt better for it."

Riza has accumulated eleven points from his six games at the helm, which has included home wins over Millwall, Plymouth Argyle and Portsmouth. After a defeat at Hull in his first game in charge, Riza has steered the team to draws at Bristol and West Bromwich Albion.

On the back of a five game unbeaten run, Riza said: "I think if you win your games at home and draw your games away I think you are picking up good points.

"Obviously you want to win away as well, you want to win every game but it is not always as easy as people say."

The Cardiff manager said he had not spoken to the players about social media, but often checked on their mental wellbeing.

And as his side face a tough test at home to Norwich City on Saturday, he said: "As long as the fans can leave the stadium knowing the boys have worked really hard even if we lose. My thing is always if you lose a game then you are not good enough it is part and parcel of the game.

"I always say, when we come off the pitch we should have left nothing out there at all in respect of energy, intensity, work rate, work ethic for the fans. If you can top that off with a good performance, goals and wins then everyone is happy."