Cardiff City manager Russell Slade has praised his players for passing their toughest pre-season test to date against Ironi Kiryat Shmona.

Goals either side of half time by Bruno Ecuele Manga and Anthony Pilkington earned the Bluebirds a 2-0 victory over the Israeli Premier League side.

Slade believes that his team will benefit greatly from the run-out in the Netherlands, as they got off the mark at the third time of asking in their pre-season programme.

"It was the sort of competition that we wanted," he told Wales Online. "They are in Europe this season and we knew we were playing a good side and they turned out to be a good side and it turned into a good test for us.

"It was such a good work-out for us. Everybody set their stall out in the game, that's what we wanted to do. We wanted to start quickly, they started quickly too and it turned out to be a lively encounter from start to finish."

Next up for Cardiff is a friendly encounter against Sparta Rotterdam behind closed doors on Friday afternoon.