The Invisible Season.

Despite the best of intentions, I made no further blog posts for the 2020/21 season after October 2020. The constant absence of spectators from games just wore me down after a while, and it was difficult to get a good impression of how the team was really doing without seeing them in front of me through my own eyes, rather than on a TV screen. 

I've never paid for subscription services to watch on the club streaming service, and chose not to spend money on it last season. I don't know if it sounds better when there are fans in attendance, but I found the commentary very poor and dispiriting last season, and made an early decision to only watch those games televised live by SKY. The Cardiff City Player is always about a minute behind real time (the SKY 'red button' too), and it is infuriating to see that a goal has been scored via some other form of media so long before you see it on the screen.

I wouldn't say that I have lost my enthusiasm for the game or for Cardiff City - its just not the same without fans. Here's hoping that we'll be allowed back in the Cardiff City Stadium next season.

Performance Rating for the season? 7/10.

It was an up and down season where at different times we flirted with the playoffs, relegation and mid-table obscurity. We got rid of 1 manager and brought in a new one. We had two major winning runes and one major losing run (which cost Neil Harris his job). Our final position of 8th was probably a true reflection of our performance - 10 points away from the playoffs but the best of the rest.

What can we expect next season?

Firstly, there is a reasonable chance that we may actually get crowds back for the start of the new season. At the time of composing this post (27June 2021) it seems unlikely that full crowds will be allowed, but I'm pretty sure that season ticket holders at least should be able to have some sort of access to home games at the start of the season in August. Of course, this depends on the progress of the pandemic which remains impossible to predict accurately.

What about the progress of the team? Well, this too is becoming increasingly difficult to predict. The financial pressures on the club (and most other teams in the Championship) mean that there is not a huge amount of cash to splash around on new players. However, we have made a few signings already of some out of contract players, notably the experienced Luton Town striker James Collins, and former Crewe Alexandra midfielder Ryan Wintle who had been identified as one of the best free agents in the lower leagues. Let's hope he has the same impact as Perry Ng who we signed from Crewe last season. Also signed was Mark McGuiness, a former Arsenal youngster who played last season at Ipswich Town in League One. 

James Collins at Luton

Ryan Wintle

3 notable players from our promotion season will be leaving the club following the end of their contracts Sol Bamba (now thankfully over his cancer scare), Joe Bennett and Junior Hoillet. All of these players will be remembered fondly by Bluebirds fans, although my own favourite memory from these 3 is Hoillett's goal against Wolves in the Premier League - my favourite moment from that season.

Junior Hoillett scores against Wolves.

The main opposition to the team will, as usual, come from teams relegated from last year's Premier League. Perpetual yo-yo teams Fulham and West Brom will still be difficult to beat, and despite a dreadful season Sheffield United still have an experienced group of players. Manager Mick McCarthy has a lot of experience in this league and so could move us up into the playoffs or promotion, but equally it could all go badly wrong! But, the excitement for football fans remains the same in what appears to be the most open Championship season for many years.

What a Season THAT was!

I had the best of intentions last season to update this blog regularly and put lots of deep meaningful insights into the state of our Championship season. But due to a combination of health issues, holidays and the COVID-19 crisis I didn't manage to do any of this! But I refuse to give in and will do my best to keep up with things this next season, which is only just over 3 weeks away (we think).

I'm pleased to say that I successfully managed to predict 4 of the top 6 teams before the start of last season (Fulham, Brentford, West Brom and ourselves). I was a little surprised how bad Stoke were, but I think that with a new manager in place that this coming season could be their chance to get back up to the top of the division. Bristol City flattered to deceive again with a poor second half to their season, especially after the lockdown break.

Neil Harris.

Of course, we now find ourselves with a new manager following the departure of Neil Warnock last November. Many fans were underwhelmed by the appointment of former Millwall boss Neil Harris, but as the season progressed he has gradually on the fans over, and after the resumption of the season following lockdown he had clearly been able to impose his own ideas on the team and they were much improved. This means that we can look forward to the coming season with confidence.

Lee Tomlin - key to the attack.

Our final position of 5th in the Championship table was probably deserved. As we were under Neil Warnock, the side became very difficult to beat under Neil Harris, but unfortunately we were unable to turn enough drawn games into wins. Without Lee Tomlin in the team, we lacked a creative edge and couldn't give sufficient support to our strikers. Despite being at his fittest for many years having lost 2 stone in weight during last off season, Lee still suffered some knee, ankle and hamstring injuries which kept him out of the team for a while. The lockdown actually helped us from this point of view as the delayed resumption to the season meant that he was able to return to the team when he would otherwise have been out for the last 10 games of the season. But that's another season in the books and only a short break until the next one. I wonder if we'll get to go to a game this season?

Kieffer is a Bluebird

We have made our first signing of the new season - Welsh international striker Kieffer Moore has joined from Wigan. He has had a "slow burner" of a career playing at low levels in the west country until his breakthrough season with Barnsley 2 years ago.He now has a few Wales caps to his name too, and appears to be a shrewd signing. We certainly need a regular goalscorer .

Full season preview to come before opening day of 12th September 2020.

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!

Onwards and .....Upwards?

March is a month where the fixtures have been disrupted by unseasonably late bad weather, and as a result we have only played 3 fixtures so far. Of course, it should have been 4, but for a surprise and slightly suspicious late postponement of yesterday's game at Derby. There appeared to be very little reason to postpone yesterday's game, as despite there having been a fall of snow the approaches to Pride Park, as well as the pitch having the customary undersoil heating. Surely it was coincidence that Derby are in the middle of an injury crisis and now have the 2 weeks of the international break to get their team fully fit? Surely? Hmmm. Lets just say that Cardiff manager Neil Warnock was not impressed! 

However, on the field, the team continues to move forward. 3 more wins since my last post, and a couple of slip ups from Fulham and Aston Villa, our closest rivals for automatic promotion. We are now only 6 points behind top team Wolves too, with a game in hand. The 3 wins in March make it 7 consecutive league wins in total and even in cynical fans like me there is an air of optimism that we could actually do this!

Top of the Championship table 19/03/2018.

Results since my last post:-

CARDIFF 2 BARNSLEY 1

CARDIFF 3 BIRMINGHAM 2

BRENTFORD 1 CARDIFF 3

Its been an unusual run of games where we see to have been playing lots of teams beginning with the letter 'B'!. Barnsley were the first team up in March - a team struggling near the relegation zone - but a good footballing side nevertheless. This was a further match where we had to play without club captain Sean Morrison. Barnsley passed and attacked quite well, but always looked defensively frail. When Marko Grujic increased the Cardiff lead to 2-0 just after half time, then you would think that this should be a comfortable win. However, a deserved goal from on loan striker McBurnie saw the defence look a bit fragile for a while, before settling down and seeing out the last 15 minutes with the minimum of fuss. 

 Marko Grujic celebrates his first Cardiff goal against Barnsley.

The following Saturday saw the visit of another relegation threatened side, Birmingham City. Like Barnsley, Birmingham looked very dangerous in attack, but were poor defensively and as a result the game was all but over by half time, when Cardiff led 3-0 with goals from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Calum Paterson and Craig Bryson. After halftime, Birmingham were awarded a slightly dubious penalty which got them back into the game, and their second goal came deep into stoppage time at the end of the game. One of the encouraging points of this game was the first goal since August for Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, who appears to be returning to some of his early season form.

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing celebrates his goal against Birmingham - his first since August.

Three days later was a trip to Brentford for the re-arranged match postponed from earlier in the month. Just to add pressure to the team, this game was selected for live coverage by SKY TV. We have been featured on TV quite a lot this season, but at this point hadn't won any of our away games. However, this was the time to break that record. Despite going behind early on, and lucky not to be 2 behind, the team started to take control of the match from the 20 minute mark. A stunning equaliser from Sol Bamba and a third goal in 3 games for Calum Paterson just before half time turned the match around. A Kenneth Zohore goal after 52 minutes gave us a 2 goal cushion, and after that Cardiff were in control. The statistics say that we only had 33% possession during the game, but still won comfortably.

Calum Paterson does his now famous "Fortnite Dance" goal celebration against Brentford - his third goal in the last 3 games.

Meanwhile, our closest rivals for the automatic promotion places have helped us out too. Fulham managed to throw away a 2-0 lead on Saturday at home to QPR, whilst Aston Villa have lost their last 2 games after a very convincing 4-1 win against League leaders Wolves. This means that we are now 7 points clear of those 2 teams having played one game less. Exciting times for Bluebirds fans. 

Now comes a two week international break where hopefully we can get some of our own players back from injury. There are various theories as to how many points we require to get automatic promotion. My personal guess is 15 points from our remaining 9 games, although it is possible that as few as 11 would do it. Either way, its in our own hands. Really looking forward to the last 6 weeks of the season.

No One Likes Us - Do We Care?

As we reach the end of February, we once again find ourselves is second-place in the championship. Amazingly, we are now only six points behind leaders Wolves, and are four points clear of third placed Aston Villa. This seems to be quite an unlikely position following the disastrous Christmas period where we lost four games in a row. But we have not lost since New Year's Day.

Indeed, the month of February has been particularly kind to us with five league wins and one draw. But despite this success, there seems to be a general reluctance within the media and from fans of other clubs to acknowledge what Neil Warnock and the team have achieved. People want to describe “the Warnock way” as boring, uncultured football. But there is much more to it than that. It is based on hard work, teamwork but also a fair amount of skill. There is a lot of skill involved any defence keeping a clean sheet, as well as there is an attack which schools a lot of goals. We're just different skills.

The team has also acquired a number of unflattering adjectives, such as “uncompromising, dour, bruising, and downright dirty!”. This has mainly been as a result of one rash challenge in a high-profile televised FA Cup fixture against Manchester City. Undoubtedly Joel Bennett’s tackle on Leroy Sane was easily deserving of a yellow card. Indeed, slow motion replays made a good case for a red card. But there were a few other major incidents of note within that game. Neil Warnock has been seen as an old-fashioned relic of a previous era. But he gets results at a fraction of the cost of what other teams spend on players. I'm pretty sure that all negative comments he and the team receive is as much for jealousy of his achievements rather than the way that the team plays.

 Joe Bennett 'mistimes' his tackle on Leroy Sane.

Things are a little more optimistic since my last post. From the depths of despair over the Christmas period, there is now a new era of positivity about the club. Neil Warnock did some good trading before the end of the transfer deadline and brought in some needed new faces in to the squad. The defence has tightened up, and a number of players are no regaining full fitness following injury.

Results since last post:

CARDIFF 0 MANSFIELD TOWN 0 (FA Cup 3rd Round)

CARDIFF 4 SUNDERLAND 0

MANSFIELD TOWN 1 CARDIFF 4 (FA Cup 3rd Round replay)

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 0 MANCHESTER CITY 2 (FA Cup 4th ROUND)

LEEDS 1 CARDIFF 4

MILLWALL 1 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 2 BOLTON 0

CARDIFF 1 MIDDLESBOROUGH 0

IPSWICH 0 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 1 BRISTOL CITY 0

New players arrive.

Five players were brought into the club during the January transfer window to bolster the strength of the squad:-

MARKO GRUJIC. A 21 year old Serbian midfield player from Liverpool on loan until the end of the season.

Marko Grujic wrestles with Kevin de Bruyne in the Manchester city FA Cup tie.

ARMAND TRAORE. Full back signed from Nottingham Forest

JAMIE WARD . Utility forward signed from Nottingham Forest on loan

YANIC WILDSCHUT . Wide player signed from Norwich on loan.

GARY MADINE . A striker from Bolton, signed in a deal with a value up to £6million

Our first home match of the New Year was an FA Cup tie against league to Mansfield Town. The main encouragement for this game was the return of club captain Sean Morrison, who had been missing from the team during the Christmas period when we lost all four games. Kenneth Zohore also returned from injury in this game. Although the score was a little disappointing, there were some subtle signs of improvement. A week later the home game against struggling Sunderland also went someway to restoring the confidence of the team. To be fair, Sunderland are a poor, struggling side. Also, they were reduced to 10 men early in the second-half. But Cardiff clearly outplayed them for a  comfortable 4-0 victory.

Sean Morrison scores the winner against Middlesbrough.

The following week saw the replay in Mansfield where no mistakes were made and we comfortably came out 4-1 winners. Following this was a tricky trip to Sheffield Wednesday, where we seem to have had little luck in recent years. However, we managed to achieve  a 0-0 draw against an improving Sheffield Wednesday side who seem to be getting over some of their early season struggles.

We then had a break from league action for a match against the best team in the world! A home FA Cup fourth round tie against Manchester City. Unsurprisingly, this match at the Cardiff City Stadium was a sell-out with more than 33,000 present. The media only remember this match for the reckless tackle made by Joe Bennett on Leroy Sane. However, my memories of the match will always be of Manchester City breaking from within their own half with players running in all directions in beautifully choreographed moves. It is truly impressive to see that live, rather than just on a television screen. A 2-0 defeat was a respectable performance against what is probably the best club team in the world at present.

Then it was back to league action and two difficult away trips. Firstly, to Leeds. Since 2001, our record against Leeds United has been exceptionally good. This was another excellent performance resulting in a 4-1 victory for Cardiff. This is also resulted in the sacking of the Leeds manager Thomas Christiansen! A week later we travelled to Millwall for another difficult away trip. An early Junior Hoilett goal gave us hope another away win, but Millwall equalised just before half-time and ultimately a draw was a fair result for this game.

The versatile Callum Paterson scores the first goal against Leeds. Although nominally a full back, Paterson has found a role for himself in central midfield.

Our next home game was against Bolton Wanderers, who were still struggling near the bottom of the Championship. In fairness, Bolton were very poor in this game - in fact, I would say that their performance was even worse than that of Sunderland two weeks previously. It was an average performance by Cardiff, but this was easily too good for very poor Bolton side. Our next home game 4 days later against Middlesbrough proved to be more of a test. Middlesbrough continue to hope to get into a play-off place themselves. They will clearly a much better side than Bolton, but Cardiff also put in a much improved performance, and the final 1-0 scoreline does not do justice to the way that Cardiff dominated the game.

Our midweek fixture was then away at Ipswich town. This is another venue where we always seem to struggle. However, this time we managed to come away with a 1-0 win, despite Ipswich having much of the play.

And finally, to yesterday's match against our closest geographical rivals, Bristol City, in the "Severnside derby". The atmosphere was good, despite the kickoff being moved to 12 noon on a Sunday. Bristol City have been struggling recently, especially since Christmas. Many of us expected some free-flowing football from the visitors, but in fact they tried to take us on at our own game, and were not good enough. We were easily the better side, but fans were beginning to wonder whether we would manage to get a winning goal. Thankfully, this came in the 82nd minute, when Kenneth Zohore scored his second winner within five days. It is good to see him returning to form and scoring goals again!

Kenneth Zohore - 2 winning goals in 5 days! This one against Bristol City.

The big question is, can we maintain this form for the final 12 league games of the season? Can we achieve one of the automatic promotion places? Will we just make it into the play-offs?

As a football fan more than 50 years, my natural position is still pessimistic! But I will go as far as to say that I am more confident of achieving a top 2 finish than I was two months ago. However, three of the teams that were expected to challenge at the start of the season for promotion have began to show some good form themselves. Particularly Fulham and Aston Villa. Also, Derby are doing very well. These three teams and Wolves who are at the top of the table have all spent considerably more on players than Cardiff. I am pretty sure that we can easily make the play-offs. I am less sure about finishing in the top two, but I now feel that it is a possibility whereas two months ago I felt it was unlikely. I feel that 8 wins from our final 12 games may well see us into second place, but I realise that this is a big ask.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Following 4 consecutive defeats, you might think that this is going to be a depressing and negative post. But it isn't. Thankfully, the points that we had already achieved mean that we are still in 3rd place in the table, only 2 points below the automatic promotion place. And whereas this has definitely been disappointing, if we had been offered this position at the start of the season then we would have definitely accepted it!

8 league matches since my last post - 3 wins, one draw and 4 losses. But unfortunately, the pattern of those results means that we lost our last 4 games. In the midst of those defeats, a number of 'firsts' have taken place. The first time we have lost 2 consecutive games (also 3 games and 4 games!), our first home defeat (followed swiftly by our second home defeat) and the first time we have lost points from a winning position. Lets hope we have got all of those 'achievements' out of our system!

We then had a slight break with an FA Cup 3rd round match at home this weekend to Mansfield Town. 

RESULTS SINCE LAST BLOG

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 3 NORWICH 1

READING 2 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 1 HULL 0

BOLTON 2 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 2 FULHAM 4

CARDIFF 0 PRESTON 1

QPR 2 CARDIFF 1.

CARDIFF 0 MANSFIELD 0 (FA Cup 3rd Round)


The Good

Our previous good form continued with a 2-0 win away at Nottingham Forest. We must have played well in this game as the Forest manager and fans were moaning afterwards about how we had bullied them out of the game! A comfortable win, made even more special from one of the goals of the season from Danny Ward! Unfortunately, since that game Danny has picked up a serious injury which means that he is likely to be out for most of the rest of the season. Although not a natural target man, Danny's speed has proved a handful to defences and he quality of the goal in this game shows what he is capable of.

Danny Ward (9) scores a stunning goal at Forest.

The next home game against Norwich was the stereotypical "game of two halves". We were 1-0 down at half timed looked totally disorganised. Indeed, it could have been worse than the scoreline showed. But Neil Warnock must have worked his magic at half time, as after the break the team were unrecognisable, storming back to win 3-1 and even had time to miss a penalty (as well as score 1)!

There followed an away game at Reading, which featured a significant moment with an injury to Sean Morrison after half an hour. Lee Peltier came on to replace him, by which time we were already 1-0 down following an unfortunate own goal by Callum Patterson. Just before half  time Cardiff went 2-0 down following a series of deflections to a Modou Barrow shot which really put the team under pressure.

But in the second half, the team played better without much luck. Finally, 8 minutes from time Joe Bennet scored his first goal of the season with a fine volley. And to cap the evening  off, Lee Tomlin scored his first goal for the club with another fine shot off the underside of the bar after Sol Bamba headed against the crossbar. The team showed tremendous spirit to fight back from 2 goals down for the first time this season.

Lee Tomlin scores his first goal for the club with a late equaliser at Reading.

The home game on the following Friday evening at home to a struggling Hull City was our first without Sean Morrison this season. With hindsight, this was the first time that our ever increasing injury list was starting to catch up with the team. At this point, we were missing Aron Gunnarsson, Sean Morrison, Kenneth Zohore, Danny Ward as well as long term injuries to Kadeem Harris and others. Although Joe Ralls and Loic Damour have done a good job in midfield, fatigue was starting to show. But a hard fought game eventually gave us a deserved win if not an entertaining one, with a Sol Bamba goal following an Anthony Pilkington flick on being the decisive point of the game.

The Bad. And the Ugly.

Then came the bad run of games. Ironically, reports suggest that it was us who were bullied by the opposing team at struggling Bolton resulting in a 2-0 defeat. On Boxing Day, a 2-4 defeat to a Fulham team who have seriously under achieved this season brought more dismay. The only bright spot of the game was a stunning goal to bring the score back to 2-1 by Kenneth Zohore, returning to the team after minor ankle surgery. More on him later. And 4 days later a truly awful game against Preston resulted in a late 1-0 defeat. At least the defeat to Fulham was against what is obviously quite a good team with some talented players, but the game against Preston was awful by both teams.Ugly.

And to start the New Year, there was a trip to Loftus Road to play QPR where we took the lead but then gave it away to lose 2-1. (Junior Hoillet appeared to have a perfectly good goal disallowed at 1-1).

Don't Panic!

Finally, an FA Cup tie against League 2 Mansfield Town - a team we should beat comfortably, even though we didn't have our strongest team out. However, the match resulted in a disappointing 0-0 where we were unable to break down a well organised Mansfield defence.

Sean Morrison - badly missed but an encouraging return in the FA Cup.

There were a couple of positives out of the game, particularly the return of club captain Sean Morrison after injury. Although there is nothing wrong with the defensive abilities of Bruno Ecuele Manga and Sol Bamba at centre half, Morrison is clearly the leader and organiser of this team. It is not just coincidence that the slump in form has coincided with him being out of the team.

A further positive was Lee Tomlin. He is now looking leaner and fitter, as he has had to play more recently. He didn't always get things right yesterday, but his workmate was much better and he continued to work away and look for an opening throughout the game.

A slight worry from the game is the form of Kenneth Zohore. He appeared disinterested yesterday, and it is clear than Neil Warnock needs to work his magic on the young man again to turn him back into the player he was for the first part of 2017.

Kenneth Zohore - needs to get his ass in gear!

Now, lets look at the positive side of our situation. Despite our recent slump in form, we find ourselves in third place in the Championship, just 2 points off the second automatic promotion place. The pressure is starting to get to all of the teams now. Lets keep things in perspective!

We have to continue to trust Neil Warnock. The transfer window is now open, and we are assured that he has one or two players in mind to strengthen the squad - another striker and a dominant midfielder are essential. Every team has a bad run at some point in the season and lets hope that ours is at an end. 

We are a little down, but by no means out!