Cardiff chief Tien Ghee eyes promotion

Cardiff's Malaysian chairman Dato Chan Tien Ghee insists his club will use the pain of their League Cup final defeat against Liverpool as motivation to win promotion to the Premier League.

Tien Ghee was at Wembley on Sunday to see his Championship club give Liverpool an almighty scare in a dramatic match which the Bluebirds only lost when Anthony Gerrard missed the decisive spot-kick in the penalty shoot-out.

Cardiff took the lead through Joe Mason's first half goal and showed tremendous spirit to snatch an equaliser through Ben Turner with just two minutes of extra-time remaining after Martin Skrtel and Dirk Kuyt had put Liverpool in charge.

Even in the shoot-out Cardiff had a chance to complete a famous upset after Steven Gerrard and Charlie Adam missed Liverpool's first two penalties.

But Kenny Miller, Rudy Gestede and Gerrard all failed from the spot to end their brave fight.

Despite the agonising nature of Cardiff's defeat, Tien Ghee believes Malky Mackay's players should take great heart from the way they battled against a team packed with international stars.

"It was a disappointing way to lose of course but we feel we had the moral victory and we are very happy," he said.

"Coming to Wembley, I've been here twice now, is something so special. It means we are competitive. Not many teams get the chance to come here. I don't take Wembley for granted."

With the League Cup final out of the way, Cardiff's sole focus is promotion.

They are still firmly in the hunt for a place in the Premier League - they currently occupy the final Championship play-off berth - and Tien Ghee wants his side to erase their Wembley woe by clinching a berth in the top-flight.

"I just extended Malky's contract. This shows I am here for the long term and I just want to see this club go up. We are going to do our very best to do that," he said.

"It is a very difficult, tight league but of course it (promotion) can happen. This is football. Anything can happen."

Tien Ghee, who was part of a consortium headed by multi-millionaire Malaysian owner Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee that purchased the Welsh club in 2010, has seen the Bluebirds beaten twice at Wembley now after they also lost in the play-off final against Blackpool two years ago.

And he admitted the prospect of another Wembley visit for the Championship play-offs might be more than his heart can take, so he is holding out hope of automatic promotion instead.

"I would like to do it a bit easier if we could because my heart won't take much more of this, but if we need to come back to Wembley, yeah we will do it again," he said.

"If we need to win here, we will keep trying until we succeed."