Steve Morison may have already given us a hint on which out-of-contract stars will stay at Cardiff City

Steve Morison was in lively mood when he faced the media ahead of the trip to Reading on Saturday.

The South Wales derby defeat to Swansea City predictably brought plenty of noise last week, and the Bluebirds boss clearly felt that some of the criticism aimed at his team was unfair. But whatever his opinion on some of the dissections from last week's defeat, the win over the Royals was a welcome first step towards healing some wounds.

It was also, perhaps, a chance to catch a glimpse into what we might be able to expect from City next season. With so many players out of contract and facing uncertain futures, it's going to be very difficult not to read into the line-ups Morison names over the coming weeks.

Steve Morison left speechless and drained after emotional win and reveals delight for 'unhappy' Cardiff City sta r

He himself would probably prefer to focus on the nature of his team's rousing second-half performance in Berkshire; one that will have gone some way to answering a few critics this week. Indeed, for all the doom and gloom around the club over the last few days, at times it's been difficult to remember that the defeat to the Swans is their only defeat in six outings.

But the importance of laying down some foundations for next season certainly isn't lost on him ahead of what is a hugely important summer that is likely to bring plenty of upheaval. Morison insisted both after and before the victory that he always had a team selection in mind for this contest, admitting afterwards: "I'd planned to play this team, planned to play this way, leading into this game because I knew what Reading were going to play. They were going to play 4-2-3-1, so I knew we'd be matching up shapes.

"We'd actually spoken about it