Life of a Bluebird

New Brooms and all that.

2022-08-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't post at all last season and perhaps that was a good thing. The season started poorly, then got worse, and then following the sacking of the manager we managed to avoid relegation with plenty of time to spare and playing better football, albeit with a number of very shrewd loan signings. It was very depressing for a time, and losing home and away to both of our closest rivals, Bristol City and Swansea, certainly didn't help.

But now, for the first time in a few years the club has had a major change of personnel, with 13 new signings (so far) coming through the door to (hopefully) revitalise the first team squad. Manager Steve Morison assures us that these were the players he has identified and who have bought into the idea of how we are going to play. Pre-season has looked promising, but most people agree that we're going to need at least one more striker before the season commences.

However, the first game of the season arrived with no new strikers, and so we had to make do with Max Watters up front - someone who has yet to fulfil the promise which prompted us to sign him from Crawley Town 18 months ago. To make things more worrying, our first game of the season was at home to the Championship favourites, Norwich City, relegated from the Premier League last season.

Jamillu Collins on the ball against Norwich.

The starting 11 only contained one player who started in the first game of last season, and there were 7 players making their first team debuts for the club!

But we needn't have worried. An excellent team performance saw Cardiff come out as 1-0 winners in a very intense game. The only goal of the game scored by another of our new boys, Romaine Sawyers. The players were obviously extremely fit, and all seem to have bought into the way the manager Steve Morison wants to play. The passing was crisp and intricate, and the defensive play was sound. There were no bad performers, although Max Watters still looks a bit out of his depth up front. But 3 players really stood out for me.

Cedric Kipre

Firstly , Nigerian left back Jamilu Collins, who was excellent in defence and attack, and looked a real find, having spent the last couple of seasons with Paderborn in Bundesliga 2. Also impressive was centre back Cedric Kipre, on loan for the season from West Bromwich, who looked in control all afternoon. Also, less surprisingly, was Ryan Wintle in midfield, constantly organising the players around him and setting a good example to others.

Ryan Wintle shakes hands with last season's Cardiff loan signing Jordan Hugill

In my opinion we still need an experienced striker or two - newspaper reports have linked us with one or two already - if we are truly to challenge at the top end of the table this season. But, all things considered, this was a very encouraging start.

The Invisible Season.

2021-06-27T04:35:00.002-07:00

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.

Good, Bad or Ugly?

2020-10-26T03:12:00.000-07:00

The unusual season continues with our customary not good but not bad start. 2 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses sums up how we have played for the last couple of seasons. Difficult to beat, but too many draws. The absence of spectators from stadia seems to have removed a lot of home advantage from games - both of our wins this season have come away from home, with 2 defeats and 2 draws at the Cardiff City Stadium. Lets hope the team can get over this, as it seems unlikely that any fans will be attending games until at least 2021.

The Transfer Window.

This has finally ended (until January), and it has been fairly successful for the club. In addition to the previous acquisitions of Keiffer Moore, Sheyi Ojo and Jordan Osei-Tutu, the club has also done a very useful piece of business in getting Liverpool player and Welsh international Harry Wilson in on a season long loan. Wilson was at Bournemouth in the Premier League last year, and at Derby County in the Championship in the season before that. His left foot has a little magic in it, and he also has a good bit of pace. He should take a little of the creative pressure off Lee Tomlin and it is always nice to have current Welsh internationals in the biggest club side in Wales (Moore, Wilson and Will Vaulks). It's a long time since we had 3 current Welsh internationals in the side.

Harry Wilson celebrates his first Cardiff City goal .

In addition to Wilson, the club also signed Phillip Benkovic on loan from Leicester City - a young and promising central defender who drew good reviews whilst on loan at Bristol City last season.

Fillip Benkovic.

CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS:

Cardiff 0 Sheffield Wednesday 2

Nottingham Forest 0 Cardiff 2

Cardiff 1 Reading 2

Preston 0 Cardiff 1

Blackburn 0 Cardiff 0

Cardiff 1 Bournemouth 1

Cardiff 1 Middlesborough 1

A slow start to the season, but I also feel that we have already played 2 of the best teams in the division already, including the only 2 teams in the league who remain unbeaten after 7 matches. Bournemouth have been better than I expected after letting go some of their better players following relegation from the Premier League. Reading are 5 points clear at the top of the table already. They have been a bit of a surprise, but were showing signs of improvement towards the end of last season. There's a long way to go in this strange season, but it is quite conceivable that they could go all the way.

The games come thick and fast, with 2 games a week over the next few weeks, Unfortunately there have been a few injuries at both left and right back for the team, but there have now been 2 complete games for youth team product Joel Bagan who has stepped up in a capable manner at left back and is likely to have a successful career in front of him.

Joel Bagan (on loan at Notts County last season).

For what it's worth, I'm still in a fairly positive mood to suggest that we can finish in the top 6 again this season. Let's watch this space.

Here we go again!

2020-09-10T05:14:00.000-07:00

Well, just 43 days after we completed the 2019/20 season, its time to start 2020/21! The continuing influence of the COVID-19 virus means that there still won't be fans in stadiums for a while - at the time of writing this blog it seems likely to be 2021 at the earliest. We just have to carry on with the "new normal" for the time being.

So what can we expect from the new season?

There have been 3 new signings to the club during this limited off-season so far. Welsh international Kiefer Moore has joined from Wigan to increase our attacking options. His form for Wales in two international matches last week looks encouraging, especially with him scoring the winning goal in the game in Finland. As mentioned in my last blog, Moore is a bit of a late developer but first indications are encouraging.

Jordi Osei-Tutu at Bochum

We have also signed two young players from Premier League clubs on a season long loan - Jordi Osei-Tutu from Arsenal and Sheyi Ojo from Liverpool. Osei-Tutu is a right back - an area where the club definitely needed help following the departure of Lee Peltier and Jazz Richards last season. He scored 5 goals in 21 appearances on loan at Bochum in Bundesliga 2 last season which is a pretty good scoring rate for a fullback - lets hope he can defend too!

Sheyi Ojo at Rangers last season.

Sheyi Ojo has played a dozen or so games for Liverpool over the last 4 or 5 years but has spent time out on loan at Wigan, Fulham, Wolves and last season at Rangers in Scotland. Its difficult to fully assess his ability as he is 23 now but has recently been given a new contract by Liverpool prior to his loan so presumably he is still rated there.

The transfer window extends for another 4 weeks yet so there may yet be some more comings and goings within the squad.

Kiefer Moore scores the winner for Wales against Finland.

The Big Question

Can we get promotion back to the Premier League? I would rate our chances about the same as last season - we should be good enough for a top 6 finish at least, and are capable of getting an automatic spot. Of the 3 teams relegated from the Premier League I would only think that Watford have a good chance of returning straight back to the Premier League. Both Norwich and Bournemouth have had their best players "cherry-picked" back to teams in the Premier League and must be considered as only outside chances of a top 6 spot although Norwich always seem to do it when least expected. Of the teams already in the Championship I fancy Stoke to perform better this season with a new manager in place, and from experience we shouldn't rule out what Neil Warnock might achieve at Middlesborough.

So here are my top 6 predictions for the Championship this season ( in no particular order) :-

WATFORD

CARDIFF

STOKE CITY

MIDDLESBOROUGH

BRENTFORD

NOTTINGHAM FOREST

I'm hoping that as we have been able to keep the bulk of our team together from last season while other teams have had to sell some of their better players (eg Ollie Watkins from Brentford) will give us a good chance of making the top 6. However, a lot rests on the fitness of Lee Tomlin and perhaps the club needs to find a near equivalent player to take some of the work off his increasingly injury-prone body.

But, this is the Championship where anything can happen where almost any team can get promoted or relegated. If I had to pick a team from "left field" then Coventry City might be a team that will do unexpectedly well. Football is back!

What a Season THAT was!

2020-08-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

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.

B minus or C plus?

2019-09-12T09:15:00.005-07:00

Well, the first flurry of fixtures are over and the start to the season has been OK. Nothing startling like our last Championship season when we started with 5 straight wins, but a solid 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses from our opening 6 league fixtures (and one Carabao Cup loss). I know there is little to differ between a C plus and a B minus, but I'm going to award the team a B minus so far and will attempt to explain myself below.

Results so far this season:-

WIGAN 3 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 2 LUTON 1

READING 3 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 2 HUDDERFIELD 1

BLACKBURN 0 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 0 LUTON 3 (Caraboa Cup)

CARDIFF 1 FULHAM 1

The opening game at Wigan was finally disappointing (especially as Wigan have not won any more league games and only scored one more goal) with a 3-2 defeat after Joe Ralls had given us the lead after 20 minutes. The team still had a bit of a makeshift feel to it, with new signing Aden Flint starting in the centre of defence alongside captain Sean Morrison. Up front, Gary Madine started the game as new signing Robert Glatzel had to serve a one match ban acquired at the end of last season's Bundesliga 2. The team was further disrupted when goalkeeper Neil Etheridge had to go off with a serious hamstring injury after 26 minutes, meaning that new signing Joe Day suddenly had to make his debut for Cardiff. Unfortunately, he was in goal for the 3 Wigan goals but could not be blamed for any of them - the defence seemed to lose a bit of organisation once he left the field.

Joe Ralls - best player of the season so far.

One week later, the team had a much different feel to it against newly promoted Luton Town. At the end of the transfer window deadline we had signed midfielder Marlon Pack from our Severnside rivals Bristol City. Also, Bobby Decordova-Reid had left the club to go to Fulham on an initial loan, with a transfer to be completed for £11.5m at the end of the season. Pack immediately took his place in from of the back 4 previously occupied by Aron Gunnarsson last season and looked at home. The newly promoted Luton team had some good individuals but eventually the pressure told and we got a deserved win from a stoppage time winner from Isaac Vassell, another player signed (from Birmingham City) on Transfer deadline day. A deserved win if a little late in coming.

Isaac Vassell heads a late winner against Luton

The following away game at Reading was an awful experience, captured live on Sky TV. On reflection, the game seemed to be going well until Marlon Pack went off injured in the 23rd minute. Reading had a couple of new signings who looked to be very useful acquisitions and caused the defence problems for the rest of the game. Leandro Bacuna had started at right back but was moved into central midfield, and new signing Curtis Nelson then had to play at right back. Although this was a poor performance, I think we may ultimately find that this is quite a good Reading team who are much improved on recent seasons.

The home win against Huddersfield was more comfortable than the scoreline suggests, with one moment of individual brilliance supplying their goal, but it could't disguise that Huddersfield looked rather lost and may struggle this season. The appointment of Danny Cowley as their manager this week may well help their season.

An away point at Blackburn provide the team with their first clean sheet of the season, although reports suggest that this was a game we should have won if we had taken the chances created.

A midweek loss in the Caraboa Cup to Luton was once again disappointing, but a side made up almost entirely of fringe squad players and members of the under 23 team shows what Neil Warnock thinks about the EFL cup.

Josh Murphy scores against Fulham.

The final game before the International break was at home to Fulham, relegated (below) with us from the Premier League last season. It is the performance in this game which made me feel that the team is worthy of a B minus instead of a C plus. Fulham are one of the favourites to get promoted back to the Premier League this year, and yet we easily matched them during the game. But for one momentary lapse in concentration, we would have won this game. Fulham tried to play lots of pretty football but mostly with no end product. Indeed , in the second half they barely got a shot at the Cardiff goal. The sending off of Harry Arter, a Cardiff hero from last season, should have meant a Cardiff win but ultimately a draw against one of our main rivals is acceptable. Considering we were missing a number of key players, this was a good performance and very encouraging.

HOT OR NOT? PLAYERS WORTHY OF A MENTION.

JOE RALLS: Has easily been the most consistent player this season and playing as well as ever. The season in the Premier League seems to have improved his game.

ROBERT GLATZEL: The tall and lanky German striker is undoubtedly talented and quite a handful, but the disruptions in midfield have meant that he has had limited goal scoring opportunities. The jury is still out on him.

LEANDRO BACUNA: Finally starting to win people around despite being made the scapegoat for poor team performances by a minority of disgruntled fans. Bacuna isn't a flashy player, but does a lot of the midfield ball winning and tackling. His extended run in the team following the injury to Marlon Pack is definitely improving his game (and popularity).

Marlon Pack.

MARLON PACK: This was a surprise signing just before the transfer deadline. Still only 28, he has been admired at local rivals Bristol City for a few years and we were really surprised that they let him go. Unfortunately injured for a couple more weeks, he could be a major influence if the team is going to be successful this season.

LEE TOMLIN: It has been well publicised that Tomlin is in the best physical shape he has been in for a number of years. Has basically forced Warnock to give him another chance, and the departure of Bobby Decordova-Reid to Fulham has given him that chance too. When at his best, his passing and creativity can't be equalled in our squad. A very good performance against Huddersfield, where you could see his confidence increasing in from top your eyes suggests that he could be a really key player this year after 2 years of invisibility.

Lee Tomlin is now slimmer than this!

ONWARDS:

The international break ends this weekend, and we have the privilege(?) of being in the first game back with a Friday night fixture at Derby County (live on TV again). Hopefully, this will be better than our last TV match at Derby where we lost 3-1 late on in our promotion season. I'm a natural optimist, and so I'm not yet downhearted about this season. Onwards and upwards!

Same Again? Season Preview 2019-20.

2019-08-02T08:06:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again. The excitement is building, and just 12 weeks after the last season ended (less for the big teams), then the football season is here once again! Despite the Cricket World Cup, The Open Golf, Wimbledon, etc etc etc, all football fans have been aware of something missing in their lives since the end of May (especially as there was no major international tournament this year). But football is back with the first game of the Bluebirds' season at Wigan just a day away.

We all really wish we could be having another season in the Premier League, but unfortunately we just missed the chance to stay up with the big teams. So its another season back in the topsy-turvy world of the Championship. I feel that I should point out to my American friends here just how big the Championship has become, as despite being the second level of the English football pyramid, it is now the 4th most watched league in Europe , and probably one of the most competitive in the world. Out of the 24 teams in the league this year, there are probably only a handful that you might say are incapable of gaining promotion to the Premier League, and equally there are few teams that you might rule out as being incapable of relegation!

INS AND OUTS - the outs

There has been the usual turnover of players to the Bluebirds' first team squad during the closed season. The outs include the enigmatic Kenneth Zohore to West Bromwich Albion. I saw a quote about him recently which summed him up completely when they said that he would be remembered "as a scorer of great goals rather than as a great goalscorer". He is only 24 and may yet become a big star, but if the reported £8m fee paid by West Brom is true then that was too good an offer to turn down - its about twice what he's worth in my opinion.

A further departure was Bruno Ecuele Manga. Bruno will be remembered as a classy footballer who exuded a great level of calm. It was quite widely stated that Bruno wanted to return with his family to France and has a transfer to Dijon in Ligue 1. Like all defenders he had the odd mistake in him, and he was clearly a better centre back than right back where he played a lot of his football over the last 2 seasons, but most fans will look back fondly on his time here and he owes us nothing.

Bruno Ecuele Manga - fondly remembered by all.

Another major departure was Aron Gunnarsson, who had agreed to a one season extension to his contract for another season in the Premier League. Another player who will be fondly remembered by fans and will be remembered as a club legend. He has gone to play in Qatar for a very lucrative contract.

And the final departure of note was Kadeem Harris who never quite seemed to be good enough to have a regular place in the team despite showing lots of promise. Another player who may yet come good, following him signing for Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

With 7 days to go until the transfer window closes, it is likely that more players will leave.

INS AND OUTS - the ins

There have been 5 confirmed first team squad signings in the closed season and the possibility of a 6th to finally be confirmed today.

Joe Day. A successful season last year at our League 2 neighbours Newport County has resulted in Joe moving to our club. However, I don't think he's been signed to be a third choice keeper and I'm pretty sure one of our 2 senior keepers will be moving on. At first this looked like it might be Neil Etheridge returning to the Premier League at Aston Villa but as I compose this blog that deal is off, and so I think it likely that second choice keeps Alex Smithies may move on in search of regular first team football.

Will Vaulks. Signed from Rotherham where he was a stand out player in a struggling team last season. Already a full Wales international, he certainly didn't look out of his depth when playing for Wales and so I see no reason why he shouldn't do well in a stronger Championship team.

Curtis Nelson. The first of two players signed from Oxford. A central defender or central midfield player who may yet be one of Warnock's excellent signings from the lower leagues. will be needed to provide cover while Sol Bamba returns from injury but may be the future of the club. May yet fill the defensive midfield role previously occupied by Aron Gunnarsson.

Curtis Nelson.

Aden Flint. Bought after only one season at Middlesborough despite considerable EFL experience. Did very well in a couple of seasons at our close rivals Bristol City. Tall, imposing defender who will also have a vital role to play with Sol Bamba missing in the early part of the season

Gavin Whyte. The second player signed from Oxford in League 1. A Northern Ireland international, at the age of 23 his career has been a continual climb, with this being the next logical step. Basically a winger, but played up front as a striker for Oxford in one game last season and scored a hat trick!

Gavin Whyte celebrates a goal for Northern Ireland

Robert Glatzel. Almost completely unknown in this country as he has been developing his game in the Bundesliga 2 for Heidenheim ( amongst others). 17 goals in 29 games for Heidenheim last season is a good return for the 6'4" striker - lets hope he can do it at Championship level. He is rumoured to have been Neil Warnock's number 1 target . Unfortunately, Glatzel will not be available for the season opening game against Luton as he has to finish a 2 match ban following a sending off for Heidenheim at the end of last season.

Could he be a 20 goal striker?

Can we bounce straight back?

That's the big question. The simple answer is that Yes, we can! But this is the Championship, probably the most competitive and evenly matched League in Europe. We appear to have a better squad than when we got promoted 2 years ago - but this was the case the last time we were relegated from the Premier League and that didn't work out at all. I think we are good enough to go back up, and we clearly have a manager who knows all about promotion to the top level.

The Neil Warnock factor!

But although it appears we have a good chance, the problem is that there are many other teams who will also fancy their chances. Teams such as West Bromwich and Stoke are almost certainly going to be better this year. Fulham continue to invest heavily, and Leeds United are also expected to do well this season after narrowly missing out last year. In addition to these teams, there is nearly always an unexpected team which comes from nowhere to claim promotion. In fact, last season you could argue that both Norwich and Sheffield United were unexpectedly promoted. I think Brentford might fall into that category this season. So here are my top 6 predictions for this season:-

Cardiff

Stoke

West Bromwich Albion

Brentford

Fulham

Bristol City

But I could be wrong! That's what makes the new season so exciting! A Happy New Season to football fans everywhere!

Yes! Yes! Yes! We are Premier League!

2018-05-09T02:15:00.000-07:00

We did it! The Bluebirds are going back to the Premier League! After a long season of ups and downs (mainly ups, to be fair!), promotion to the Premier League was accomplished with a final 0-0 draw with Reading at the Cardiff City Stadium at around 2.30pm on Sunday 6th May 2018!

After all the worry and stress of the previous week, wondering whether the team would perform on the big day, it was actually our closest rivals Fulham who finally cracked on the last day of the season by ending a 23 match unbeaten run with a loss at relegation threatened Birmingham City. Cue wild celebrations!

The final moments of the game as we clinch promotion to the Premier League - excuse the shaky pictures but it was quite emotional while I was holding my phone!

There's no point in an extended blog post for this event - I'm still savouring the moment from 4 days ago. Here's a few pictures, courtesy of Walesonline, to express the joys of the occasion.

This may be my last blogpost here for a while, as after almost 4 years of inactivity I will be re-activating my other blog - Premierleaguebluebird.blogspot.com ! Once the dust settles a little, i'll post there my views on what needs to be done to the squad for next season and our prospects for staying up this time for more than one season.

In the meantime - lets enjoy it!

Club captain Sean Morrison and manager Neil Warnock with the promotion trophy!

Owner Vincent Tan expresses his joy with manager Neil Warnock!

The squad at the End of Season Awards dinner!

One More Time!

2018-04-30T02:45:00.002-07:00

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

2018-04-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2018-04-23T05:06:00.000-07:00

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?!

2018-04-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

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?

2018-03-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

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?

2018-02-26T04:11:00.000-08:00

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

2018-01-07T05:17:00.001-08:00

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!

Case for the defence.

2017-11-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2017-09-28T02:17:00.001-07:00

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!

2017-08-20T07:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2017-08-03T01:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2017-03-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

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.

2017-02-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

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!

Half Way Point and leaving it late!

2016-12-30T03:33:00.000-08:00

As we arrive at our final game of 2016 this evening away at Championship leaders Brighton, its time to try and assess the first half of the season, as 23 games have been completed. Its also a convenient time to compare the 2 managers we have had this season, and try to assess the record of the 2 men.

We reach the half way point of the season in 19th place, 2 places above the relegation zone, having previously been at rock bottom back in September.

Paul Trollope: Played 11 Win 2 Draw 2 lost 7 Goals for 8 against 19 (-11 gd)

Neil Warnock: Played 12 Win 4 Draw 4 lost 4 goals for 18 against 19 (-1 gd)

Neil Warnock - made the team competitive again.

Paul Trollope - ironically now Assistant Manager at Brighton!

So, without setting the world alight, Warnock has clearly improved the team and the key improvement from my point of view is that the team is now capable of scoring goals, something that never looked likely before. Defence is still a concern, particularly as with Sol Bamba suspended for the last 3 games there have been 7 goals conceded. At the start of the season, most supporters would have thought that we had no problems with defence, but Warnock has already stated that this needs addressing and I think he will be looking at defensive options during the January transfer window, including a replacement goalkeeper for Ben Amos who has been struggling in recent weeks. Bizarrely, our only clean sheet in the Warnock era was a 0-0 home draw with top team Brighton!

RESULTS SINCE MY LAST POST:

CARDIFF 0 WIGAN 1

NEWCASTLE 2 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 3 HUDDERSFIELD 2

ASTON VILLA 3 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 0 BRIGHTON 0

IPSWICH 1 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 2 WOLVES 1

CARDIFF 3 BARNSLEY 4

BRENTFORD 2 CARDIFF 2

The last 3 games sum up our defensive problems despite our own never -say-die attitude. In the Wolves game, we fought back from an early Ben Amos error to take the lead in the 86th minute and a deserved win. Against Barnsley we found ourselves 3-1 down at half time, again following defensive frailties and errors by Amos. But we then scored 2 goals in the 80th and 88th minute to draw level, only to concede in the 4th minute of stoppage time! And finally, in our last game at Brentford we led until the 81st minute, took the lead again in the 89th minute and yet again conceded a stoppage time equaliser! You definitely shouldn't go home early from our games at the moment.

One positive note from our recent fixtures is the form of Kenneth Zohore, who came on at half time in the game against Wolves and played the best we have ever seen since he came to the club. He has kept this form into the next 2 games, capping it off with an excellently taken chance against Brentford on Boxing day. Neil Warnock has said all along that we needed a fast and mobile striker in the January transfer window, but the form of Zohore may yet make him feel that we have the answer within the club already.

Kenneth Zohore celebrates his 89th minute goal against Brentford

THE TRANSFER WINDOW OPENS!

Now this is where Neil Warnock can really make a name for himself. His experience around the game, coupled with respect from many players within football, should put us in a strong position to acquire the players we need to move away from the relegation zone. There are some financial restrictions at the club, and I suspect still that any player in the squad is available for sale at the right price, even those whose place in the side appears sacrosanct. But I think the fans have a great belief and support towards Warnock and trust him to do the right thing. Lets hope he can do it.

The Warnock Factor.

2016-10-29T03:38:00.002-07:00

How else can you explain it? The arrival of new manager Neil Warnock at Cardiff City was universally accepted by fans as a good move, but few could have predicted the immediate impact he would have on the team. NW had used his contacts straight away, bringing in a number of free agent transfers which immediately strengthened the squad. There have been 4 of these in total, with perhaps the most surprising being the arrival of Ivorian central defender Sol Bamba. NW had managed Bamba before, but most Cardiff fans felt that central defence was one of the stronger areas of the team. But what a difference he makes - he leads by example, and his performance against Bristol City was amazing considering he hadn't played a competitive game for anybody since his release by Leeds at the end of August. He even capped off an excellent defensive effort with a goal of his own!

Sol Bamba smashes home his first Bluebirds goal!

Warnock has also brought 3 other players to the squad, all with excellent pedigrees. Canadian international Junior Hoillet (another to have previously been managed by him at QPR), former Arsenal and Roma striker Marouane Chamakh and experienced Premier League defender/midfielder Kieron Richardson. The latter 2 have 2 months to prove their worth to the team on short term contracts, but Richardson in particular looks a very useful signing.

But perhaps the most important factor in what Warnock has achieved is how the existing club players are performing. Most notable of these is Aron Gunnarsson, who is now playing in his best role as the deep lying defensive midfielder in front of the back four - the role in which he was so successful for Iceland in last summer's European Championships. Also, Peter Whittingham and Craig Noone are playing so much better and having much more influence on the team than they have had for some time.

Aron Gunnarsson

Matches since my last post:-

CARDIFF 2 BRISTOL CITY 1

CARDIFF 1 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 1

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 CARDIFF 2

Cardiff 2 Bristol City 1

A Friday night game on TV against our second biggest rivals. The atmosphere was excellent from the start, and the performance of our players matched the occasion. As well as new players Bamba and Hoillet making excellent debuts, the performance of our regular players were also outstanding, especially the midfield trio of Gunnarsson, Ralls and Whittingham, and also Craig Noone out wide.

Craig Noone - back to his best.

A Peter Whittingham penalty and a Sol Bamba goal from a corner saw us home against top 6 team Bristol City.

Cardiff 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1

Five days later, some fans were a little worried that we might not be able to keep up the standards of the previous match. But we were not disappointed, as there was another good performance from the team against possibly the best opposing team we have seen at the Cardiff City Stadium this season. A good draw against a good side.

Nottingham Forest 1 Cardiff 2

This away game followed 3 days later, and yet again was shown live on TV. This was a far more comfortable win than the bare scoreline suggests. To be frank, Forest were awful at times during this game, especially defensively, and we probably should have scored 4 or 5. but the team ethic was clear to see, and a very enjoyable evening in front of the TV for me.

Joe Calls celebrates his goal at Forest.

Goals from Aron Gunnarsson and Joe Ralls clinched for Cardiff with Forest's only goal coming from a very late and slightly contentious penalty.

Today (Saturday 29th October 2016) is another home game against fellow strugglers Wigan Athletic. This could be harder than playing against high flying teams in the table, and lets hope for a further win today before next week's away trip to face table topping Newcastle United.

Big News from the Bluebirds!

2016-10-05T06:02:00.001-07:00

Big news at Cardiff city during the last 24 hours. Following a continued run of poor form, Paul Trollope was finally sacked about 24 hours ago. However, the board immediately appointed well known manager Neil Warnock as his replacement.

Make no mistake, this is a big appointment for the club. Although now approaching his 68th birthday, Neil Warnock can be seen as a manager who knows how to get teams to perform and how to get results. During his career, which includes a number of Premier League clubs such as Sheffield United and Queens Park Rangers, he has achieved promotion 7 times and in more recent years has saved clubs from imminent relegation, most recently last season with Rotherham United.

The fans can be genuinely excited about this appointment. It is something of a coup for the club, as undoubtedly Warnock would soon have been in great demand from a number of other clubs. The recent form of the team, which has resulted in six defeats in the last seven matches, finally made Paul Trollope's position untenable. It was a brave experiment for the club to appoint him following his success as a coach with a Welsh international team, but he clearly seemed out of his depth managing a Championship side. Despite an away win at Rotherham(the only team below Cardiff in the table), a poor home performance against Derby County 3 days later suggested that the players had become confused with what they were expected to do and what tactics they were expected to employ. Last Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Burton Albion was too much for many of the die hard fans who follow Cardiff to away games, and there were calls for him to be sacked. Thankfully the board has reacted quickly to the situation.

We now look forward to the Neil Warnock era at Cardiff city. To make things really interesting, the first Game that Warnock will be in charge for is the Severnside derby against Bristol City on Friday, 14 October. Coincidentally, this game will be shown live on sky TV here in the UK. Let's hope for a bumper crowd and the atmosphere.

Interesting Times at Cardiff City!

RESULTS

ROTHERHAM 1 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 0 DERBY 2

BURTON ALBION 2 CARDIFF 0

The Only Way is Up

2016-09-22T03:08:00.000-07:00

Worrying times at Cardiff City football club. For the first time in 12 years, we find ourselves at the very bottom of the Championship following four consecutive league defeats. Despite the acquisition of the experienced Rickie Lambert during the transfer window, Cardiff are still finding it difficult to score goals. To make things worse, there seems to be a general lack of confidence in the team. After Leeds United went ahead in the 60th minute last Saturday, you could see the body language of the players indicated that they felt that there was going to be no way back into the game for them. They badly need some form of confidence boost. Manager Paul Trollope is increasingly under pressure, and if results do not improve soon he may find himself out of work.

Rickie Lambert.

In general, I like to take a positive attitude towards the team. Indeed, in some of the home matches that I have witnessed this year there has been very little between the two sides playing. But Cardiff's inability to score goals, coupled with their increasing lack of confidence, has put them in a very difficult predicament. It is still a little early to talk about a relegation battle, but if results do not improve in the next three or four games then this is what we are facing for the rest of the season.

Matches since my last post:-

FULHAM 2 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 0 READING 1

NORWICH 3 CARDIFF 2

PRESTON 3 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 0 LEEDS 2

Despite conceding a late equaliser, the Fulham game was encouraging against a team who have made a good start to the season. The home defeat to Reading was not deserved, as Cardiff made plenty of chances but were unable to score, and Reading had one chance which they put away. A loss at Norwich, who I confidently expect to return to the Premier League this season is also no disgrace, especially at one of our most unlucky grounds. Reports suggest that the performance at Preston was very poor.

Last Saturday provided some encouragement for the first hour of the game. Cardiff probably should have been ahead just before half time when Aron Gunnarsson hit the post. But once Leeds went ahead in the 60th minute following an unfortunate penalty decision, Cardiff never looked like getting back into the game.

In general, Cardiff have played quite well at times in the 3 home games in which they have lost this season. But the capitulation after going 1-0 down on Saturday was worrying. Manager Paul Trollope badly needs to find a way to lift the confidence of the players, or its going to be a long season!

Paul Trollope - food for thought.