Case for the defence.

The season continues to progress well. Certain key injuries have reduced some of our attacking options, but we now have the most frugal defence in the Championship and it is beginning to pay dividends, with a number of hard fought wins when not playing at our best. Neil Warnock suggested a few weeks ago that any team wishing to get promotion from the Championship needs 15 clean sheets over the course of a season, and we have achieved 8 after the first 18 games of the season. Not necessarily exciting, but effective nevertheless!

Championship Table 22/11/2017

Results since my last post:

CARDIFF 0 DERBY 0

BIRMINGHAM 1 CARDIFF 0

MIDDLESBOROUGH 0 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 0 MILLWALL 0

CARDIFF 3 IPSWICH 1

BRISTOL CITY 2 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 2 BRENTFORD 0

BARNSLEY 0 CARDIFF 1

After the excitement and performance of the victory over Leeds, there was always the danger that the game against Derby 4 days later would be a bit of an anti-climax - and so it proved to be. Derby are a decent side with a number of top level players, including Tom Lawrence who spent a season on loan at the Cardiff City Stadium 2 years ago. But Derby clearly intended to neutralise Cardiff's attacking threat. There was little excitement in the game and so a 0-0 draw was ultimately a fair result.

Defenders Sean Morrison and Lee Peltier in the 0-0 draw against Derby.

An international break followed, and the first match following this was a trip to St Andrews to play an underachieving Birmingham side who were playing the first game for new manager Steve Cotterill. It was a little ironic, as at the same time in the previous season, Neil Warnock was taking charge for his first game for Cardiff. And a similar result occurred, as Birmingham were clearly inspired by their new manager to win 1-0. It was another occasion when Cardiff offered little in attack, which was becoming a bit of a concern.

After a disappointing Saturday result, the team then made the long trek to Teeside to take on Middlesborough, a team still strong following their relegation from the Premier League last season. Another fine defensive performance, which turned into a win following a late penalty by Joe Falls. Cardiff's record has been excellent against the other top teams in the division, and Middlesborough became the latest victims after Wolves, Sheffield United, Aston Villa and Leeds.

Joe Calls celebrates the winning penalty against Middlesborough.

After a victory at high-flying Middlesborough , some fans thought that the following home game against Millwall was a foregone conclusion. But, this turned out to be another 0-0 draw. Cardiff were still trying to come to terms with being without Kenneth Zohore up front, who is an important part of our attack (even if he hasn't been scoring a lot of goals himself). Millwall played us at our own game, very defensive minded and clearly came to Cardiff hoping for a draw. Danny Ward played up front but didn't really threaten. After this game, Cardiff had only scored one goal in four matches (and that from the penalty spot) - a slight worry.

A New Star is Born?

After the recent poor attacking performances, manager Warnock made some attacking changes for the Ipswich game, with a first League starter Omar Bogle - acquired from Wigan in the early season. Also the sparsely used Lee Tomlin also made a start. An early goal from Junior Hoillet settled Cardiff nerves and finally gave the team its first goal from open play for 5 matches. Immediately after the start of the second  half, some neat and fast interplay between Mendez-Laing and Tomlin put Omar Bogle away to score his first league goal for Cardiff. A late goal for Danny Ward (who had replaced Bogle after 70 minutes), also created by Mendez-Laing, sales the deal.

Bogle side foots the second goal against Ipswich.

Cardiff then went to the Severnside derby to Bristol City with a very positive attitude. But Bristol were in a rich vein of form at the time, and despite a decent Bluebirds performance eventually lost 2-1. Perhaps more important during the game was an injury to Mendez-Laing, as well as a red card for Omar Bogle which meant a 3 match ban. not a good night. The international break probably came at the right time as injuries and suspensions were starting to catch up with the team.

The first game back after the international break was at home to Brentford, and was to be followed by an away trip to Barnsley 3 nights later. These teams from the lower half of the table are very often the more difficult to beat because of their negative attitude. However, injuries and suspensions meant that the Bluebirds were going to have to stop and dig in themselves - there were 7 first team [layers unavailable for the Brentford game.

Danny Ward celebrates the second goal against Brentford - created by Bruno Ecuele Manga!

An early goal by Joe Ralls from a poorly defended long throw immediately put pressure on Brentford. Then followed an amazing missed chance by Brentford's french forward Maupay! I still can't work out how he missed it! If you type in "Maupay miss Brentford" into the YouTube search engine I'm sure you'll find it! 5 minutes after this miss, persistent play by Bruno Ecuele Manga set up Danny Ward for the second Cardiff goal. Brentford played some very entertaining and slick passing football for much of the game, but the Cardiff defence held firm.

And finally, last evening came a long trip to Barnsley. I didn't witness this game, although I heard some radio commentary. The general opinion was that it was an awful game, not helped by wet and windy conditions. But, yet again the defence held firm and a late Callum Patterson scrambled goal gave the Bluebirds a win.

Callum Patterson celebrates his first Bluebirds goal!

The Negatives

So, after last night's results Cardiff find themselves back in second place in the championship, with a game away at Nottingham Forest on Sunday. It is noticeable that there is a lot of negative attitudes towards the way that the Bluebirds play. Both Brentford and Barnsley fans have described us as "the worst team we have played this season". And yet, we won against both of this teams! Undoubtedly Warnock has set the team up to pressure the opponents, and has put together a workmanlike team of steady pros rather than paid large amounts of money for flashy stars. But the fact that two of our most potent attacking threats have been missing for the last couple of games (Zohore and Mendez-Laing) has meant that the team has had to alter tactics accordingly. And we have won both games.

Its easy to win games when the team is playing well - it takes a good team that can grind out wins when not playing particularly well. 

The Championship is table is starting to take shape now, with Wolves at the top and Aston Villa starting to make progress too (both teams we have already beaten this season). But we are still in there as we approach the half way stage.

The last time we were promoted in 2013, we went top in the middle of December and never lost that spot for the rest of the season. There are more good teams in the Championship now than there was then, but I feel confident that we can stay up there for a while longer. As we enter the busy Christmas period, perhaps we will get a real idea of how far the team can go.

We are top of the league, I say WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!

Is this really happening? We are now 10 games into the season, and the Bluebirds sit proudly at the top of the Championship table. Thats almost a quarter of the season gone. Unfortunately I have been a football fan for too many years to start counting my chickens, putting the champagne on ice or any other well known cliche yet - but at the start of every season the general consensus is that after 10 games the league tables start to settle down and some general form starts to emerge. We are now at that point.

An interesting point to note about the table is that we have played each of the 4 teams immediately below us in the table, and have beaten 3 of them (our only league defeat this season coming against Preston). The pundits are starting to take notice of us now, and no longer see us as a statistical anomaly thrown up by early season form  - they are beginning to think that we are the real deal - and my naturally pessimistic football fan is reluctantly and cautiously starting to believe that fact too. Lets hope we can continue that form with a positive result against big spending Derby County next Saturday (30/9/17).

Results since my last post.

CARDIFF 1 BURTON ALBION 2 (Caraboa Cup)

CARDIFF 2 QPR 1

FULHAM 1 CARDIFF 1

PRESTON 3 CARDIFF 0

SUNDERLAND 1 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 3 LEEDS 1

Cardiff 2 QPR 1

After a slightly disappointing Caraboa Cup defeat with our reserve team playing Burton midweek, then came the more challenging home game against an inconsistent QPR team. During this game, we went behind for the first time in a league game this season when Sol Bamba and goalkeeper Neil Etheridge got into a mix up to allow QPR to take the lead after 15 minutes, very much against the run of play. But goals from Junior Hoillett and Sol Bamba before half time resorted Cardiff's lead which they comfortably held on to in the second half. Our 5th straight win from the start of the season, further extending our record start.

 Sol Bamba heads the winner against QPR

Fulham 1 Cardiff 1

Well - something had to give eventually, and the game at Fulham saw the Bluebirds fail to win for the first time this season. However, even this game had some positives with back up striker Danny Ward coming on late to score the equaliser, after Fulham had taken the lead in the 75th minute. Ward has often been used as a late substitute for Kenneth Zohore this season and has been a valuable part of the squad, and looks like being an able backup should Big Ken get injured.

Preston 3 Cardiff 0

Well, it had to happen eventually. A poor performance and a comfortable defeat, albeit to a Preston team who are performing well near the top of the Championship table. There were individual errors, including a major blunder by goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, and an all round poor performance by  the team. Even City hero Sol Bamba had a poor night. These things happen, and now al of us were wondering how the team would react to their first major setback of the year.

Cardiff 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

A game where we struggled against a good Sheffield Wednesday side who have continued to spend big having narrowly lost out on promotion last season. Wednesday are not a flashy expansive side, but are very well organised and very good in midfield. In the first half of the game, they had the Cardiff midfield and defence completely bamboozled and appeared to be running around in circles. however, there were still few clear-cut chances and as a result Wednesday were only 1-0 up at half time.

During the second half, Wednesday appeared to stop pushing forward and decided to try to hold on to their lead. But in the 4th minute of stoppage time a Lee Tomlin free kick was parried by the goalkeeper and a cross/shot from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was turned in by hero of the hour Sol Bamba to salvage a late point. Lee Tomlin, like Danny Ward, has had few chances this season, but continues to play a vital part when called upon.

Lee Tomlin against Sheffield Wednesday.

Sunderland 1 Cardiff 2

Sunderland continue to find life tough in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League last season. In fact, they hadn't won a home match since December 2016. And so it continued. In recent years, Cardiff have struggled against some of the teams from the bottom half of the table, but this was not one of those days. It seems that they should have had the game won in the first half hour, following Craig Bryson's 7th minute goal (his first for the club), but Sunderland then equalised later on, only for a late Joe Ralls penalty to clinch all three points for Cardiff.

Cardiff 3 Leeds United 1

And so to the biggest game of the season so far, when table topping Leeds United came to the Cardiff City Stadium. A record Championship crowd for the stadium of over 27,000, and an opponent who really fancied there chances. Despite very much being Leeds' bogey side since our FA cup victory over their Premier League leading side in that famous match in 2002, Leeds had actually won here on their last 2 visits.

But not on this occasion. Despite dominating possession, Leeds rarely threatened the Cardiff goal during the first half hour. Cardiff rarely gave Leeds much time to pass the ball around, and the persistence of midfielder Loic Damour ( in his first game for a couple of weeks) resulted in him stealing the ball off a Leeds defender, passing it to Junior Hoillett who found Zohore in the middle for his first goal since the opening day of the season. Hoillett's speed and quickness of thought often catches defenders unawares, and a few minutes later he took the ball from the goalkeepers kick-out, turned and ran at the Leeds defence and unleashed an unstoppable shot from 20 yards to put the Bluebirds 2-0 up!

Junior Hoillett

Just before half time the game was almost certainly sealed when Leeds central defender Cooper was sent off for a second bookable offence ( he was lucky not to get a straight red card for his first offence). The extra man began to tell at times during the second half, and a third goal (second of the night) for Kenneth Zohore all but wrapped up the game with 30 minutes left. Leeds managed what was only a consolation goal a few minutes later, but the night belonged to Cardiff, back at the top of the League!

Kenneth Zohore

It was nice to see him on the score sheet again on Tuesday night. There had been murmurings from some supporters that he should be dropped in favour of Danny Ward, especially as he hadn't been scoring goals. But, there is more to the play of a striker than simply scoring goals, and this season teams are much more aware of his style of play, very often doubling up on coverage of him.

Kenneth Zohore turns away to celebrate his first goal against Leeds!

This has given more space for Hoillett and Mendez-Laing to attack out wide. I really hope that the 2 goals on Tuesday will help spur him on for the rest of the season and get some of those supporters with short memories off his back.

And so to the next home game with Derby on Saturday - I can't wait!

Best..... Start........EVER!

Like most football fans, for much of the time my heart rules my head when it comes thoughts about how good my team is and what they can achieve. However, in my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine that we would have had this amazing start to the Championship season. 4 games played - 4 games won. 8 goals for, and 1 against. We are one of two teams with a perfect winning record, and sit proudly at the top of the league! Cardiff fans are living in dreamland!

To put things in perspective, Cardiff have never won their first 3 league games in the season, never mind 4. However, I have been a fan of Cardiff and football in general to not get too carried away yet. After all, there are 42 matches left until the end of the season! There will undoubtedly be poor performances and difficult times, but at the moment the fans and players are all enjoying the ride.

NATHANIEL MENDEZ-LAING.

There have been a number of outstanding team performances already this season, but one player deserves a special mention, and that is Nathaniel Mendez-Laing. There was always a feeling that this player had more to come, and had not fulfilled much of his early promise when he began his career at Wolves. He spent a number of loan spells at a series of League 1 clubs, and showed promise for the last couple of seasons at League 1 Rochdale, but only manager Neil Warnock could have predicted the immediate impact he has had at Cardiff. 5 goals from his wide midfield role in the last 4 games is a record that speaks for itself, but it is the relationship between all 3 of Cardiff's front players - Kenneth Zohore and Junior Hoilett as well as Mendez, that has enabled him to do so well.

 Nathaniel Mendez-Laing celebrates the winner against Wolves.

 RESULTS SO FAR:-

BURTON ALBION 0 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 2 PORTSMOUTH 1 (after extra time)(EFL Cup).

CARDIFF 3 ASTON VILLA 0

CARDIFF 2 SHEFFIELD UNITED 0

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1 CARDIFF 2


BURTON ALBION 0 CARDIFF 1

A large away support followed the team to Burton for the first match of the season, more in hope than expectation. The match was very even in the first half, but a well taken goal by Kenneth Zohore in the 87th minute was good enough to win the game. The statistics say that Cardiff have never been promoted without winning the opening game of the season. Lets hope this win is a good omen.

CARDIFF 2 PORTSMOUTH 1 (EFL Cup).

As is usual in the early stages of this competition, many of the reserves and backup players were given a chance in this game. The first half was poor from both sides, with Portsmouth leading at half time with a Sean Morrison own goal. Cardiff equalised early in the second half following Nathaniel Mendez-Laing's introduction at half time, and probably should have won the game in the scheduled 90 minutes. However, extra time was needed and this was where Cardiff's impressive fitness came into play. The winner was a well taken goal from Greg Halford, but it could easily have been a win by 3 or 4 in extra time.

Junior Hoilett has made an impressive start to the season.

CARDIFF 3 ASTON VILLA 0

This was clearly going to be a big test of Cardiff, against one of the teams expected to get automatic promotion this season. Villa have been spending large amounts of money since their relegation from the Premier League and have spent £80m on players over the last 2 seasons. (Cardiff have spent little more than 5% of that total). But they passed the test with flying colours!

Put simply, Cardiff were magnificent! The 3 front men of Hoilett, Zohore and Mendez tortured the all international Villa defence all afternoon. Experienced former England captain John Terry was all but humiliated as Cardiff ran riot and could have had 4 or 5. but this was not a poor Villa performance - this was an excellent performance from a Cardiff team from front to back. The best day at the Cardiff City stadium for a number of years.

Joe Ralls against Villa - another outstanding performer this season.

CARDIFF 2 SHEFFIELD UNITED 0.

Could they repeat the performance 3 days later against the Blades? Yes they could! Another comfortable performance against a team not up to the standard of Villa, but talented and confident following their promotion from League 1 last season. Sheffield had one or two chances late on, but goals from Sean Morrison and Mendez either side of halftime but Cardiff in control of the game which they won at a canter.

Kenneth Zohore - only one goal but has been the focus of the Bluebirds attack all season.

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1 CARDIFF 2

This match featured 2 of the 3 Championship teams with a 100% record after 3 games - and it was Cardiff who were able to maintain their perfect record. Wolves are another team who have spent big, but Cardiff got the result in an evenly matched game.

TRANSFER NEWS - INS and OUTS?

A further addition to the squad last week came in the form of Omar Bogle from Wigan Athletic. Bogle had only signed for Wigan from Grimsby in January 2017, but was unable to help them avoid relegation. It is clear that he is essentially a back up, but is another player who has played well at League 2 and League 1 level and now has a chance to prove himself worthy of the next step up. I expect to see him start in the EFL Cup second round match against Burton this week.

Omar Bogle signs.

The other transfer news is slightly more concerning - that a number of clubs are interested in signing Kenneth Zohore, including Brighton who are newly promoted to the Premier League. I'm pretty sure that he will stay, but there is always a worry that a desperate team will make a huge bid which the club can't turn down. I hope not. There was also news this week that left back Joe Bennett was allowed to talk to Fulham who had offered enough money to trigger his buyout clause. However, Joe refused to go as he is happy at Cardiff. good decision Joe!

There are now 2 more games before the first international break of the season - firstly a home second round EFL cup game against Burton on Tuesday ( where the fringe players will get a chance to shine), and a home game to QPR next Saturday. Exciting times at the Cardiff City Stadium!

Promotion to the Premier League?

The good thing about the football season in the UK is that there is such a short gap from one season to the next. And so barely 3 months after the last season ended a new one begins. My friends in the US wish that was the case with their major sports!

Unfortunately, my blog updates last season petered out rather like the season, and I haven't posted since the 3rd of March. At that point, I was finally convinced that we weren't being relegated, and the rest of the season was unspectacular but encouraging. We finally crept up to just make the top half of the Championship table in 12th place, with some encouraging performances against some good teams. This could be considered disappointing, but considering the desperate predicament we were in when Neil Warnock took over as manager then 12th place was more than acceptable. The performances were much better after that time too.

It has been well publicised that NW was asking for around £6m to strengthen the team in such a way to make a challenge for promotion this season, and the board has essentially backed him in this. With the ridiculous amounts of money now being paid for players in the Championship, that seems a ludicrously small amount of money. But NW has been very shrewd in his acquisitions, bringing in a number of players with something to prove, as well as a couple of players who he has worked with in the past. The pundits suggest that the Bluebirds will be a mid table team again, but we live in hope that the "Warnock factor" can encourage the team to out-perform what the experts say. Last season, Huddersfield proved what could be done with a good manager and a small budget and now find themselves in the Premier League - there is no reason why we can't do the same.

The Magnificent(?) Seven.

Ok - that may be exaggerating it a bit, but here are NW's summer signings:-

Lee Camp - an experienced goalkeeper who has worked with NW several times before. Probably our starting keeper for the season.

Neil Etheridge - an up and coming goalkeeper signed from League 1 Walsall - probably back up for Camp but may yet make the first team.

Loic Damour - a relatively unknown French midfield player from Ligue 2 in France.

Nathaniel Mendez -Laing - another player performing well at League 1 level and now gets the chance to prove himself at a higher level.

Callum Patterson - a young full back stepping up from the Scottish Premier League with Hearts to try his luck south of the border.Can also play midfield or up front. Not available until October due to an injury.

Danny Ward - another striker added to the squad to back up and play with Kenneth Zohore. He also has played for NW at Rotherham and deserves a chance in a better team.

Lee Tomlin - the only player who has cost a significant amount of money (and wages). Been at Bristol City and Bournemouth in recent years and on his  day is a very classy player. He was easily Bristol City's best player when they lost to the Bluebirds in NWs first game last season. Has a reputation for not always giving his best, but respects NW greatly. NW feels that he can bring out the best in Tomlin - lets hope he can.

Lee Tomlin

Goodbye to Whitts.

The closed season also saw the departure of Peter Whittingham - the last Cardiff City player to play for the team at Ninian Park. Whitts has been a legend for the club, but the time has finally come for him to move on as he approaches the end of his career. His spectacular free kicks will live long in the memory, but the goal the always sticks in my mind is the one he scored off the near post in the first leg of the playoffs at Leicester in 2010. I'm pretty sure that all Bluebirds fans wish him well.

Whitts in Blackburn colours.

Bruno is staying. Ken worth £20m?

A signing which is just as important as the new ones above is that of Bruno Ecuele Manga who has decided to accept a new contract from the club. It was widely expected that he would leave and return to France to play, but he has chosen to accept a new contract. Despite the odd glaring mistake, Bruno is a good footballing defender. I'm glad he's staying.

There have been rumours of interest in last season's sensation Kenneth Zohore, who continued his good form to us into good form for the Denmark under 21s in the summer. NW has slapped a £20m price tag on him, but emphasised that he is not really for sale. If he continues in the same form, then by the end of the season the big clubs may well be interested in him.

Burton away.

And so it all begins in another 2 days time with an away trip to relegation favourites Burton Albion. I've no doubt the season will be a real roller coaster as usual, but most of the regular fans are excited if not exactly confident about the new season. Bring it on!

Looking Forward - Not Back.

As predicted in my previous post we are now settling into our mid table position. At present we are 13th, and it would be nice if we could finish 12th or higher to say that we are in the top half of the table. The points total with 9 games to go is 48, just 2 short of the mathematically 'safe' figure of 50. It is now definitely time to look forward to next season, and hopefully everything is in place for a promotion push for next season. Lets hope that the "Warnock Factor" can make this a reality.

Despite some supporters criticising the owners, you can't really deny that the club have started to get things right since last October when Neil Warnock was appointed manager. He admitted himself that at first he thought his role was just to save the club this season, and then possibly retire or move on. But, he likes it here! And the fans have certainly taken to him! At the recent home game victory over Rotherham (Warnock's previous club), both sets of supporters were chanting his name at the end of the match!

Warnock takes his praise from both sets of supporters after the Cardiff v Rotherham game.

The good news is that he has signed a new contract until the  end of next season, but his terms to the board were such that he wanted them to guarantee him the funds for an attempt at promotion to the Premier League. This assurance seems to have been forthcoming, and was announced a week before season tickets for next season went on sale -  a good marketing ploy by the club. This has to be seen as good news.

Results since last post:-

CARDIFF 0 NORWICH 1

LEEDS 0 CARDIFF 2

DERBY 3 CARDIFF 4

CARDIFF 5 ROTHERHAM 0

CARDIFF 2 FULHAM 2

QPR 2 CARDIFF 1

BLACKBURN 1 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 1 BIRMINGHAM 1

At the time of our home defeat by Norwich, they were very much hoping for a playoff place to try to return to the Premier League. A decent Cardiff performance against a decent team, but this proved to be something of a false dawn for Norwich who haven't won a game since and sacked their manager after another poor result this weekend. 

Then followed the defining week of the Bluebirds' season - 3 wins in 8 days which finally put any thoughts of relegation away. The week began with an away win at major rivals Leeds. After having a long run of success against Leeds stretching back to the FA Cup win in 2002, the Yorkshire team had won the last 3 fixtures 2-0. However, this time it was our turn. Leeds look certain of a playoff place this season, but goals from Sean Morrison and Kenneth Zohore saw them off, and most of the Leeds crowd too, who had started their journey home early leaving large parts of Elland Road empty with 15 minutes of the match remaining!

Kenneth Zohore sends the Leeds fans home with the second goal at Elland Road.

Just 3 days later saw another great away performance at high-flying (but subsequently under-achieving) Derby County. Cardiff came back from 2-0 to take the lead 3-2, followed by another Derby equaliser. But in stoppage time Rhys Healey was brought down in the box and Joe Ralls calmly stepped up to take the penalty and seal a 4-3 Cardiff win. Derby have become the latest team to sack their manager with Steve McLaren departing yesterday. Losing to Cardiff is clearly dangerous for opposition managers!

Kadeem Harris celebrates his second against Derby!

On the following Saturday came a fixture against bottom of the table Rotherham. Very often, we have struggled against some of the poorer teams in the league (Wigan earlier this season springs to mind), but this was not one of those occasions. Cardiff went into half time with a 2-0 lead, without really playing well. Neil Warnock clearly galvanised them for the second half, and within 15 minutes of the restart were 4-0 ahead. Kenneth Zohore continues his recent form with a second classy goal 10 minutes from the end. It was the first time we have scored 5 since our move to the new Cardiff City Stadium in 2009.

EVEN OUR BAD RUNS ARE PRODUCTIVE

Since the Rotherham game we haven't won in 4, but have managed 3 draws and a late away defeat. The best game of that run, and probably the best game of the season was the 2-2 draw with Fulham. 2 more Kenneth Zohore goals helped us to a draw against one of the form teams of the division. Fulham are playing very well at present and look like making a late run into the playoffs. The most pleasing aspect of this game was that we matched Fulham for much of it, and it is this as much as anything that creates optimism for next season.

KZ scores his first against Fulham

The last 3 games have featured late goals by our opponents which have cost us points. Our previous unbeaten run came to an end at Queens Park Rangers. Despite taking the lead in the first half, the Bluebirds finally lost to an 83rd minute goal. An away game at Blackburn on the Tuesday following again saw the Bluebirds take a first half lead (KZ again), which they hung on to until the first minute of stoppage time. The difference in this game to the others is that Blackburn (under a new manager) were the better team for most of the match, and in fact a point in such a game was a good result although disappointing at conceding so late. Last Saturday's home game against Birmingham was a little bit bland compared to some recent games. The manager of Birmingham, Gianfranco Zola, was rumoured to be one defeat away from the sack himself, and as a result set up his team in a very negative manner. After working hard to take the lead from a Joe Ralls penalty in the 53rd minute, Cardiff were unable to withstand a late Birmingham onslaught which resulted in an 89th minute equaliser.

TIME FOR EXPERIMENTATION

Now that the club is safe from relegation, Neil Warnock has admitted that he will be giving a few of the fringe players the chance to prove themselves if they want to be here next season. He seems to have a number of players and a suitable budget in place to strengthen the squad in the summer for next season. Things are looking up at Cardiff City, shown by the fact that there were queues to buy season tickets for next season on the first day of availability, and there is definitely a 'feel good' factor about. Lets enjoy it while we can!

Good Start to 2017.

Immediately following my last post, the away game at Brighton was postponed due to fog, and was therefore played later in January. Its been a successful month all things considered, with 4 league wins and 2 defeats. Our league defeats came in away fixtures at 2 of the top 3 teams in the division - Brighton and Reading. There was also a forgettable defeat to Fulham in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup.

Results since my last post:-

CARDIFF 1 ASTON VILLA 0

CARDIFF 1 FULHAM 2  (FA Cup)

BRISTOL CITY 2 CARDIFF 3

CARDIFF 1 BURTON ALBION 0

BRIGHTON 1 CARDIFF 0

READING 2 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 2 PRESTON 0

The first match of the New Year came against Aston Villa, who were just starting to get to terms with their relegation from the Premier League last season. Neil Warnock clearly set out the team to minimise the risk of conceding any goals, with Sol Bamba rather unusually playing as a defensive midfielder in front of the centre backs. The plan worked perfectly, as a slightly fortuitous goal from Joe Ralls after 15 minutes proved to be good enough for a 1-0 win. This was the first clean sheet for the defence for a while (and only the third of the season to that point), and further proof of how the manager has improved the team.

Joe Calls scrambles home the winner against Villa.

The following week saw a home tie against Fulham in the 3rd round of the FA cup. Neil Warnock clearly did not see this as a priority and put out a notably weaker side. The least said about this the better. The FA cup continues its decline as a competition.

Then came an eventful Severnside derby against our closest (geographical) neighbours Bristol City. Of course, the Neil Warnock era at Cardiff City began with the home fixture against them. When that match was played last October, Bristol City were in 6th place in the championship and playing well. However, they have had an alarming (for them) decline since, and when this match kicked off both teams had the same number of league points. The game turned out to be a 5 goal thriller, with Bristol taking the lead twice, but late goals from Kadeem Harris and a screamer from Anthony Pilkington sealed a late Bluebirds win!

Anthony Pilkington strikes a classy winner against the Wurzels!

The following home game against Burton Albion was a bit of an anti-climax and a dreadful game, only raised by a stoppage time winner from Rhys Healey - his first Championship goal for the club. Rhys has spent the first half of the season on loan at Newport County, but now has his chance to try to impress the new manager here.

Following his, there were 2 away games against teams hoping to make it into the Premier League next season. The team set up in a very defensive manner for the re-arranged Brighton fixture, and held on until the 76th minute before going behind. At Reading, manager Neil Warnock was disappointed not to come away with at least a point, but another creditable defeat against a very good side. What theses two matches clearly illustrate is how competitive the team has become, and are capable of giving anyone a game.

And so to last night's 2-0 win over Preston  (our 3rd home clean sheet in a row). In the first half the team put together one of their best performances for some time, looking very good when attacking and deservedly going in 2-0 up at half time. 

The highlight of the game, and probably of the season, was the fantastic individual goal scored by Kenneth Zohore. He latched on to a Peter Whittingham clearance inside his own half, then beat 3 defenders as he progressed up the field and chipped the ball over the keeper into the net. A fantastic goal, and well worth searching for on Youtube if you haven't already seen it. Take a bow, son!

Kenneth Zohore chips the keeper for a fantastic goal!

So - What now?

Well, the team is now in 15th position in the league - 11 points above the relegation places and 10 points below the playoff places. Although like most supporters I always fear the worst, I am fairly confident we can avoid relegation now. And it looks to be far too much to get into the playoff places. So, mid table is looking like our fate. I'm hoping we can at least finish the season in the top half of the table, and perhaps then our Malaysian owners may back Neil Warnock financially for another crack at promotion next year? Lets hope its onwards and upwards!