One More Time!

Well. Its still in our hands. One more win next Sunday against Reading and we have gained automatic promotion to the Premier League! I'm already a nervous wreck and there are still 6 days to go! At the start of the season I was looking forward more in hope than expectation to challenge for the play-off places and a shot at the Premier League. What I wasn't expecting was a chance at an automatic promotion place.A win from our final home game against Reading and we've done it.

Reports from Cardiff City this morning (Monday April 30th) are that the match is already a sellout, including the Upper Ninian stand. Lets hope the team can send the 30,000+ fans home happy! The natural position of any long term football fan is to try to play down excitement and expectation in case of disappointment, so I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground this week and be realistic - if it all goes wrong on Sunday we'll still have our original target of the playoffs to go for. But this is our big chance - the biggest one-off game since the Blackpool playoff Final at Wembley in 2010. 

Although I obviously enjoyed the promotion of 2013, the season ended in a bit of an anti-climax as we weren't really challenged having been top of the league since December. We also finished the season off with 5 draws which was also disappointing. But this year, we have the chance to achieve something with a big occasion. Lets hope we don't blow it. I'm naturally pessimistic and cautious when it comes to my football team, so the best you'll get out of me this week is "We should be able to win, as long as the luck goes our way".

RESULTS:

DERBY COUNTY 3 CARDIFF 1

HULL CITY 0 CARDIFF 2

There was an extra edge to the Derby match following the controversial postponement in March. In the meantime, Derby had been able to restore some of their suspended and injured players to the team, but they were in danger of missing the playoffs completely following 3 consecutive defeats. Things went well for Cardiff in the first half with Cardiff taking the lead from an impressive Calum Paterson volley - his 10th goal of the season. 

But at the 60 minute mark things started to go wrong, with former Cardiff striker Cameron Jerome sneaking in ahead of Sean Morrison to score when the ball should probably have been cleared. Two further individual defensive errors occurred resulting in a 3-1 defeat. 

Sean Morrison - more defensive errors in one game against Derby than in the 43 previous games!

It was a disappointing defeat, but we can hope that we used up all of our quota of individual errors in one game!

And so to Hull last Saturday. Our rivals for automatic promotion, Fulham, had shown some nerves on the Friday evening against already relegated Sunderland but had come through to win 2-1 after going behind. So, temporarily, we found ourselves outside of the promotion places. But after the error strewn evening at Derby 4 days earlier, Club Captain Sean Morrison more than redeemed himself!

Firstly, on 32 minutes, he did what he does best! He lost his marker at a corner and rose almost unopposed to head in from a corner. Cardiff had already shown the most enterprise against a recently rejuvenated Hull side who had scored 5 goals in their previous game.

Morrison heads the opening goal at Hull.

Then, on 80 minutes he decides to charge away from his defensive position to follow a break upfield. He then receives a perfectly timed pass from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, stepped inside the fullback and put an unreachable shot into the far corner! Finished like a striker! 2-0 - game over!

The BIG one!

Next Sunday, May 6th, 12.30pm UK time. It doesn't get much better than this!

Nothing Gained - Nothing Lost

I feel perhaps that I should have cared more about last night's defeat at Derby County. But, ultimately, it has left us in the same position as if we had won - needing to win at Hull on Saturday. Our chances of automatic promotion stays in our own hands - if we win both of our last 2 games then we achieve automatic promotion. Who would have thought we would have been in this position when we embarked on this season last August?

What made last night's game more disappointing was the way that we collapsed after leading for so much of the game. The one thing we have been able to rely on this season is the ability of our defence to defend a lead. Unfortunately, last night we conceded 3 goals to individual defensive errors. Lets hope that we got all of them out of the way at once and that's our lot for the season! At least our game at Hull on Saturday isn't live on Sky TV - our away form when live on Sky has been pretty poor this season!

A great strike by Calum Paterson to give us the lead, but for the first time this season we didn't win a game in which we had been leading at half time. It wasn't a bad performance by the team - indeed we have won games when we have played worse than this - but one or two individuals seemed of the pace. Aron Gunnarsson was full of endeavour but not much achievement , Gary Madine badly needs a goal to settle his nerves, it was difficult to get Junior Hoillett into the game. Undoubtedly Neil Warnock will have some ideas about how to get the best out of the team for Saturday. 

We should be able to beat a safely mid-table Hull City. But this is the Championship and anything can happen. Who knows, perhaps already relegated Sunderland will do us a favour and beat Fulham on Friday night? Now that really is unlikely, but you never know in this league!

DERBY COUNTY 3 CARDIFF 1

Calum Paterson celebrates his 10th goal of the season with Gary Madine.

Sour Grapes from our rivals.

Much has been said by other leading clubs in the Championship that Cardiff don't play football in the "proper way", we have no flair or creativity, we play the "Warnock Way". Teams such as Fulham, Wolves and Aston Villa seem to think they have the right to be in the Premier League because they play attractive football and we don't. But is their football any different to ours? I'm not so sure - they only differ from us by one player each, in my opinion. I've watched all of these teams in the last couple of weeks and have come up with the following conclusions.

Wolves are clearly the best team in the Championship this season and will rightly go up as Champions. The main difference between us and Wolves is their midfield playmaker Ruben Neves. He has the ability to conjure up passes and goals that no-one else can do in the Championship. He has scored half a dozen exceptional goals in his own right this season. But ultimately, the first thing that Wolves did when they created this team was build a solid defence. The reason they are where they are is that they have the equal best defensive record in the division (with us), but have the creativity of Neves to score more goals.

Fulham are an exciting attacking team but are not automatically promoted with Wolves because they don't have a secure defence. Tom Cairney is a talented creative footballer - the Fulham equivalent of Reuben Neves. Not such a prolific goalscorer, but his creativity and passing is impressive. He must be getting  tired of the "best player in the Championship" tag and must certainly be on his way from Fulham if they don't get promoted this season. But Fulham's weakness in defence, especially before Christmas, has left them playing catch-up ever since the New Year came in. They may yet achieve automatic promotion, but have made it hard for themselves.

Aston Villa are also an equal team to ourselves. But they started slowly this season. They have found a defensive strength eventually. They spent a lot of money on 2 strikers - Jonathan Kodija and Lewis Grabban (who must have cost a hefty loan fee from Bournemouth). The creative spark for their strikers comes from the rather annoying Jack Grealish: annoying to the rest of the teams in the league because he falls over and whines if a player comes within 2 yards of him. Annoying to Villa fans because of his inconsistency brought on by constant injuries. It was hard to believe that the match he played against Cardiff recently was the first time he had played 6 consecutive games for Villa since 2015! But on his day, a match winner.

But at Cardiff we do not have a Neves, a Cairney or a Grealish. So how do we compensate for this? By sheer hard work, team spirit and doing the basics right. We may not have a creative genius, so we have to rely on scoring goals from set pieces. We have to play to our strengths. Its up to our opponents to overcome this. Despite two defeats to our rivals Wolves and Villa recently, we came back to beat Norwich and Nottingham Forest. Our fate remains in our own hands. It may not be pretty at times, but it is effective.

CARDIFF 2 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1

Only one game since my last post, but I like to keep up to date at this exciting time (especially for my friends on the other side of the Atlantic).

Fulham's impressive second half performance against an in form Millwall team on Friday night put them temporarily ahead of Cardiff in the table again. This put the pressure back on the Bluebirds. Thankfully, Forest have eased their relegation fears recently and were safely mid-table by the time the match kicked off on Saturday evening. You don't want to be playing against teams fighting to avoid relegation at this time of the season!

The match saw a return to the starting eleven for Joe Ralls who has been missing since February. Aron Gunnarsson and Ralls started together for the first time since October, when they were particularly effective. 

Forest were lively and looked threatening on the break all evening. An early break in the first half was effectively snubbed out by an alert Neil Etheridge (surely the most improved player of the season?). But, as half time approached Sean Morrison lost his marker at a corner and headed in unopposed. Sighs of relief around the stadium. Everything was going to be alright.

Neil Etheridge - keeps improving.

But early in the second half, two incidents within a minute restored the anxiety levels. Firstly, Aron Gunnarsson won the ball in midfield and released Kenneth Zohore, whose deft chip over the goalkeeper rebounded off the post to be cleared off the line by a defender. Then, a minute later a Forest break down the left was perfectly centred for Liam Bridcutt to score his first goal for more than 5 years! 

But, at this point the crowd really got behind the team, almost willing the ball into the net! Another break by Zohore resulted in a free kick just outside the penalty area. The ball was floated deep to Sol Bamba, who headed it back into the six yard box for Aron Gunnarsson to volley it home. The crowd erupted! Following this, the defence worked fairly well except for one wild back pass by Sol Bamba which inadvertently set up a good chance for Forest, but a combination of Gunnarsson and Neil Etheridge saw off the danger.

Aron Gunnarsson volleys the winner.

It wasn't pretty at times, but at this stage of the season its the result that counts.

Next game on Tuesday at Derby (weather permitting!).

Neil Warnock congratulates the returning Joe Ralls.

And we do this for fun?!

At this point, I'm going to return to a popular theme of mine. Some people think that football fans go to the games to have a good time and enjoy themselves. But sometimes these games can be anything but a enjoyable! A perfect example of this was the recent defeat at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite playing well throughout the game, a fantastic freekick from Ruben Neves meant that as the game went into stoppage time, Wolves were holding on to a 1-0 lead. But then the real excitement started. Cardiff were awarded a penalty. Up steps Garry Medine - but the goalkeeper saved it! Despair amongst the Cardiff fans – so near and yet so far! 

But wait! Aron Gunnarsson strides into the penalty area and is brought down! Another penalty! Another lifeline! Up steps Junior Hoilett. Surely this time? But no! Hoilett hits the bar, the referees whistle blows for full-time, and Cardiff have lost 1-0.

It wasn't so much the loss that caused so much consternation amongst the fans - it was the manner of the last that was so disheartening!

Four days later Cardiff make the trip to Villa Park to play another of our close promotion rivals, Aston Villa. It's an evenly matched game where Villa's goalkeeper makes two or three exceptional saves. But is finally decided by a Jack Grealish volley which nine times out of 10 would have ended up in the back of the stand. Another undeserved loss more despair for the fans.

Let's move on another four days. Cardiff make the long trip to Norwich, a trip of almost 300 miles. Traditionally, this is another of those venues where Cardiff rarely seem to come away with anything. But in the 87th minute Kenneth Zohore squeezes the ball in at the near post. Junior Hoilett scores with a 93rd minute volley and Cardiff win 2-0 - their first win at Carrow Road in 13 attempts.

And just to make the day complete, the late televised game on Sky television featured our closest rival for automatic promotion, Fulham, who were playing their local rivals Brentford. Fulham took the lead in the 70th minute, only for a 94th minute equaliser from Brentford! Two points dropped at home by Fulham, leaving Cardiff's promotion destiny in their own hands once again.

Kenneth Zohore squeezes in an 87th minute goal at Norwich.

Don't you just love the Championship?

RESULTS SINCE THE LAST POST:

CARDIFF 3 BURTON 1

SHEFFIELD UNITED 1 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 0 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1

ASTON VILLA 1 CARDIFF 0

NORWICH 0 CARDIFF 2

Although Burton are struggling near the bottom of the table, Cardiff played exceptionally well in a comfortable 3-1 victory. Goals from Kenneth Zohore, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Callum Paterson. NML is really beginning to show his early season form again.

Following on from this game was a trip to Sheffield United - a team who hope to force their way into playoff contention. In truth, this was not a very good Cardiff performance. But a point was saved by one of the lesser members of the squad in Anthony Pilkington. It is a testimony to his hard work, and also the man management of Neil Warnock, that "Pilks" has come into the side on a few occasions and done so well. Warnock made it clear that he was not a part of the first team plans, but a long term injury to Danny Ward has meant that Pilks has been a regular on the bench, and on this occasion his enthusiasm and cool finished salvaged a point for Cardiff in a game where perhaps they didn't deserve anything.

The next 3 games are outlined earlier in this blog.

Anthony Pilkington celebrates a late equaliser at Bramall Lane.

So, what now?

Well, with four games remaining (3 for Fulham) our destiny is once again back in our own hands. Quite simply, 3 wins from the last 4 games means that we would definitely be promoted automatically, no matter what happens with our rivals Fulham. Of course, if they could lose a couple of times it would make our job much easier! Congratulations to Wolves who are already promoted and will be crowned Champions. Of course, with the biggest budget and the best players, that was always likely. But we are still very much in this!

But I'm not sure I'll be having much "fun" over the next 3 weeks!