Steve Morison is pleased with how Cardiff City's new playing style is coming along - and it's not before time.
Seeing Mick McCarthy's side play the way they did last year hastened the calls for the Bluebirds to alter their primitive brand of football and the number of outgoing players this summer has afforded the club the chance to do just that.
Morison and his coaching staff have clearly been hard at work over the summer, drilling in a new philosophy which has been carried out consistently in pre-season. The goalkeepers are rolling the ball out, the centre-backs are being given more ball-playing responsibilities, the coaching staff are screaming at full-backs to get around their wingers - plus there are actual wingers!
The midfielders have a far greater say in dictating play, too, plus there is a patience and courage pertaining to the Bluebirds' build-up play, especially when trying to beat the opposition's high press, but against League One Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night they looked more than comfortable in their ability to combat that.
Fans will have to be patient, too, there will be shouts of "Get it forward!" from the Cardiff City Stadium terraces, no doubt, when the season begins. But football has moved on and the sides getting out of this division play in a way akin to how the Bluebirds are now trying to play.
For the most part, it was an assured and confident performance, or "dominant" in the words of Morison, against the Shrews. But, as we heard the manager say a number of times last season, that cutting edge was certainly missing at Montgomery Waters Meadow.
Both Max Watters and Mark Harris, Cardiff's only two fit strikers as things stand, had very good opportunities to score, all of which were spurned. It's clear as day that Cardiff need reinforcements up top, but that isn't news to the Bluebirds' recruitment team and work is being put in behind the scenes to ensure at least one new addition is brought in before the Norwich City game on July 30.
Barring that one aspect, though, Morison was pleased with how his side carried out their work up in Shropshire on Tuesday night.
"It was a completely dominant performance", Morison said. "Our goalkeepers didn’t have to make a save all night, so we’re not giving up any chances, which is excellent.
"We just need to put the finishing touches to it. We get from box to box really comfortably, and we should have won the game. We didn’t do it, but on another day we win that two or three nil.
"I think the first 25 minutes, before the drinks break, we were really comfortable. In the second half, after we got chance to speak to the lads properly, I thought it was really dominant. We're just disappointed we didn't get the win.
"It's a work in progress, but there's a clear identity to what we want to do. Are we going to have different challenges throughout the season, and are we going to have to adapt? Of course we are, but I'm really pleased."
Mark Harris was a microcosm of the whole team, really, he was fantastic in his movement, press, ball control and distribution, however that final and crucial aspect of putting the ball in the back of the net eluded him.
Gavin Whyte was another who injected a real spark after the hour-mark, so, too, did Tom Sang. While young Jack Leahy has drawn a few impressed nods from press boxes and stands alike in recent games.
Who knows, given Cardiff are likely to start the season in a 4-3-3, with Ollie Tanner and Rubin Colwill missing again on Tuesday night, Leahy might just be forcing his way on to the bench at this rate for that season opener against the Canaries.
"We needed a couple of extra bodies in Scotland and [Leahy] and James Crole came up, they handled themselves really well," Morison said of the 19-year-old.
"Jack is out there on merit. He has done really well. We want to play in a certain way and we need wingers, so hopefully he keeps pushing on."
Cardiff have two games this weekend, the first against Swindon Town and the second, officially an under-21s fixture, against Hereford FC at Edgar Street on Sunday, when a number of first-team players are also expected to play.
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