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Erol Bulut feels Cardiff City can take plenty of positives following their Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton.

Bulut completely changed his starting 11 from Sunday's 1-1 draw with Swansea City, handing Malachi Fagan-Walcott, Adeteye Gbadehan and Michael Reindorf their first competitive starts.

Cardiff looked on course to take the second round tie to a penalty shootout as goals from Rubin Colwill and Alex Robertson in addition to a Ronnie Edwards own goal cancelled out efforts from Mateus Fernandes, Sam Amo-Ameyaw and Cameron Archer.

But James Bree and Archer both struck in injury-time to earn the Saints a 5-3 victory in the Welsh capital, although Bulut was pleased with the efforts of his much-changed side.

"I think we can take a lot of positives," he said.

"When we saw what the youngsters delivered, especially in the second half against a Premier League club, how we pressed to change the game.

"We had it in our hands. If [Cian] Ashford scored that chance, maybe we'd be in the next round, but this is the quality sometimes."

Defeat leaves Cardiff without a win this season ahead of Saturday's Championship clash with Middlesbrough.

Bulut is keen to add one more player to his ranks prior to the contest against Michael Carrick's side - with the summer transfer window closing at 23:00 BST on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Cardiff head coach refused to be drawn on the red card he received at Swansea.

Bulut was sent off by referee Oliver Langford at the Swansea.com Stadium after refusing to hand the ball back following an injury to Aaron Ramsey.

The Bluebirds have appealed the dismissal and are expected to discover the outcome from the English Football League (EFL) during the international break.

"About the red card, I will not say anything," said Bulut.

"I'm waiting for the EFL's decision. After that we can talk."