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.
