Bob Bank Hero

All we are singing...is give us your best

Anyone who watches Championship football knows there's no such thing as a banker home win in this league.

So why was I left so shocked walking out of the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday after the Bluebirds surrendered to a mediocre Barnsley outfit?

We might not have been helped by a host of injuries and some tired legs but that wasn’t the reason we lost.

The truth is that this defeat was down to a lack of application and basic defending.

For the past half dozen games (Newcastle excluded) City have battled hard. Displays against Peterborough, Doncaster, Chelsea and WBA showed we are prepared to graft even when things aren’t going our way, or simply when teams are too good for us.

That's all we ask and that's why it infuriates supporters when we are occasionally served up with tripe like Saturday.

Take nothing away from Malta's Daniel Bogdanovic. His two finishes were top drawer but the opportunities were handed to him on a plate by defending normally seen on Pontcanna Fields.

Gyepes and Gerrard twice in four minutes aimlessly watched on as the ball was lobbed over their heads for the Barnsley striker to bag his brace.

The second was perhaps the worst with Gyepes trying to clear the ball and completely miscuing allowing Bogdanovic through on goal to hammer past the despairing Peter Enkelman.

The game could have been oh so different if Chopra would’ve converted a golden chance from two yards out instead of ballooning over.

But just as City looked like they might be able to force the opener we got done. Twice.

I'd like to say City looked as if they were going to get back into the game but the truth is with the defence playing like it was I was never confident – and I don’t think the other 19,000 City fans were either.

Barnsley are not a good side. They counter-attacked effectively but they don’t have nearly as much quality in their side compared to Cardiff. That’s why it’s such a bitter pill to swallow. 

To make matters worse the injury crisis is deepening. David Marshall was omitted from the starting eleven with rumours of ligament damage. This didn’t stop him warming the bench though.

Young Aaron Wildig headed for the tunnel after 35 minutes with his ongoing back problems refusing to go away and Gerrard failed to resurface for the second half after taking an elbow to the head. (not from Dave Jones although I wouldn’t have blamed him!)

As for the rest of the team. Chopra had a stinker and Gavin Rae looked terrified every time he got the ball. His confidence is obviously low and he’s constantly barraged by abuse from City fans.

McCormack came on for Wildig and did absolutely nothing. He looks out of shape, disinterested and ready to leave the club. I don’t want to see him go because on his day he is a class act but it looks to me that he will be one of the first to leave in the summer fire-sale.

The few plus points were Chris Burke who tried his best and Kevin McNaughton who was his usual dependable self. Adam Matthews looked good in the second half when coming forward although he still gets caught out of position way too often.

We hit the post and the bar but apart form a five minute spell in the second half we were just going through the motions. 

Dave Jones was rightfully critical after the game. “I'm just frustrated with some of the things we do,” he said.

"We get done with the same ball most times and people have got to learn their lessons and today was another example of that.”

Right on. Learn your lessons and let’s draw a line under this game. I don’t want to see another performance like that this season. Unfortunately I think I might.
 
Cardiff
Enckelman, McNaughton, Gyepes, Gerrard (Matthews 46), Kennedy, Rae, Whittingham, Burke, Wildig (McCormack 35), Chopra, Bothroyd
Substitutes
Marshall, Quinn, Taiwo, Blake, Matthews, Feeney, McCormack

Barnsley
Steele, Hassell, Foster, Potter, Dickinson, Colace, Filipe Teixeira, Hammill, Doyle, Bogdanovic (Gray 76), Macken (Rodriguez 76)
Substitutes
Preece, Butterfield, De Silva, Heslop, Rodriguez, Noble-Lazarus, Gray

Ref: Stroud
Att: 19,753

Battle of the Baggies

Two groups of blokes going hell-for-leather desperate for victory, old rivalries renewed, with only the walking wounded left to pick up the pieces.

Anyway, that's enough of the Chelsea fighting, what about the West Brom game?

The Baggies came to CCS as the form team in the division, winning their past four league games. Both sides were majorly depleted by injuries. WBA had nine players out with the Bluebirds missing long term casualties Joe Ledley, Josh Magennis, Steve McPhail, Kelvin Etuhu and Miguel Comminges.

To make matters worse, Aaron WIldig, Gavin Rae and Jay Bothroyd all started with knocks.

Speaking to a few West Brom fans before kick off they said they would be happy to go home with a point but by the end they could’ve rightfully gone home with all three.

West Brom are the best side I've seen at home this season. Plenty of pace to their game, physical and all eleven players comfortable on the ball.

Despite all that, City battled well, Bothroyd, Chopra and Burke causing the usual problems. At the moment Jay is unplayable – and it was the number nine that created City’s opener. A burst of pace saw him get in front of centre back Jonas Olsson in the penalty area, and the centre half brought him down. Penalty.

Di Matteo moaned like hell after the game but as far as I could see it was a nailed-on foul. How the boy didn’t even pick up a booking is beyond me. It was a goalscoring opportunity.

Whitts stepped up and sent Carson the wrong way to put City one nil up inside seven minutes. Bang went my quid bet for a 0-0 at 8/1.

Unfortunately, that was pretty much all Whitts could contribute to the game because after 25 minutes he limped off with what looked like a hamstring injury.

West Brom quickly reasserted themselves and nearly replied when Moore hit the post but it looked as if we would hang on until half-time. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.

Deep into first-half injury time, Zuiverloon bagged the equaliser after seeing his initial effort saved by Marshall. The only consolation was that I didn’t have to see the 1,800 strong Baggies supporters celebrate as I was already at the bar downstairs.

The second half was much the same. West Brom enjoying most of the possession with us battling away and trying to hit them on the break. It was entertaining stuff spoilt by some of our fans who seem to believe we have a divine right to win every match.

33-year-old Mark Kennedy is going to get beaten for pace sometimes. The 17-year-old kid Wildig is going to get knocked off the ball, and Gavin Rae is never going to be able to shoot accurately.  Get over it.

All these players are trying their best. We can’t bring anyone in. They are what we’ve got and we need to get behind them.  Accept that sometimes we will lose matches. It’s still a million years away from the likes of Craig Middleton, Gareth Stoker and Russell Perrett. Rant over.

The best chance of a famous City victory fell to Chris Burke who eight yards out could not find the target with his left foot. Bothroyd has a header late on but only glanced wide. 

A special mention must go to Chops who jumped in late on Scott Carson. The England international saw the funny side of it and shook hands, as opposed to last time the sides met when he headbutted Chops and walked off the pitch.

By the time the final whistle blew both teams looked knackered. As Jones says after every game, we’ve just got to pick ourselves up and keep going. Mark Robin's much-improved Barnsley come to town on Saturday. See you all there.

Cardiff
Marshall, McNaughton, Gyepes, Gerrard, Kennedy, Rae, Whittingham (McCormack 27), Burke, Wildig (Blake 70), Chopra, Bothroyd
Substitutes
Enckelman, Quinn, Taiwo, Blake, Matthews, Feeney, McCormack

West Brom
Carson, Mattock, Olsson, Zuiverloon, Tamas, Koren, (Cox 82), Brunt, Dorrans, Slory (Wood 63), Moore, Nouble
Substitutes
Kiely, Labadie, Mantom, Brown, Bednar, Wood, Cox

Ref: Woolmer
Att: 20,758

Brave City Go Down Fighting

It's been a long time since I had zero expectations from a City game. I'm glad I didn't because we lost 4-1.

The day began with a 6.30am start at Junction 34 as a car-load of us made our journey down to Hounslow.

There were plenty of City fans heading down the M4 as we successfully dodged any heavy traffic. One slightly worrying sight was a Volvo with one Wales flag and one Chelsea. I guess we South Walians aren't all plastic Liverpool fans then. ;)

After a welcome early bird fry-up we headed on to Wetherspoons in Hounslow for a 10am start. A hung-over barmaid looked distraught as about 30 City lads piled in for a 10am booze-up.

We arrived outside Stamford Bridge at a late-ish 11.30am hoping we’d missed the party. Thankfully we had and managed to avoid any trouble. There was one hairy moment when we managed to get cordoned off with hundreds of Chelsea fans as cops on horses blocked off a road but it all passed.

There'd obviously been some kind of row but I honestly didn’t see anything. There were rumours flying around about a bus getting smashed up, police attacking Cardiff fans and vice versa but I honestly didn’t see a thing.

There were the usual muppets in our lot giving stewards stick. It wasn't particularly well-organised operation from the officials in the Upper Shed but that's no excuse for grown men to hurl racist abuse just for checking your ticket - something I saw on two or three occasions. Dont get me wrong, we're talking a tiny minority – but there's just no need for it.

And so to the game – I missed Drogba's first goal because of the aforementioned chaos and obviously feared the worse that we had gone behind so early.

Thankfully, City didn’t lie down and as the game went on we looked increasingly comfortable. Mark Kennedy did a cracking job marshalling Joe Cole down the left aided by Whitts. Young Wildig was working tirelessly while Bothroyd was winning fouls left right and centre.

Chopra's goal was absolutely fantastic. We'd already threatened on a few occasions with a Bothroyd header being tipped over the bar and another shot getting blocked.

Bothroyd combined with Burkey. He swung in a lovely cross to the front post and Chopra heads in leaving Alex in his wake.
It was pandemonium in the Shed. At one point I was considering a leap of faith from Upper to Lower but decided against it at the last minute. That’s how it stayed until half-time. If only it was the final whistle.

Deep down we all knew Chelsea would step up a gear come the second half and unfortunately they did. A defence-splitting pass from Drogba sent Ballack free and he dinked the ball over Marshall. It was classy and it was game over really.

Fair play to our lot. The players didn’t give up and the City fans never stopped singing. Even the Chelsea fans were chuckling at some of the John Terry songs. One 'large man' who had been hurling abuse at the Shed from the start got dragged out of the stadium by stewards but in the main it was good natured fun.

Chelsea added two more goals courtesy of Sturridge and Kalou but by then it was all academic really. McCormack scuffed a rare chance wide with his first touch and Darcy Blake managed to rob Drogba of the ball with a cheeky nudge.

As for Stamford Bridge – we enjoyed it. It makes such a difference being in a ground with four stands as opposed to a bowl like ours. As one of my mates said to me: "I’d swap this one game for ten home games. Our stadium is crap."

We managed to hop on the tube away from any trouble after the game. By the time we got back to Cardiff there were plenty of rumours on CCMB about the fighting but like I said I didn't see any of it thankfully.

All in all a good day, despite the result. Now back to league business. The Baggies is a massive, massive game. 

Chelsea
Hilario, Carvalho, Ferreira, Alex, Lampard, J Cole (Kalou 46), Mikel, Ballack, Zhirkov
Drogba (Borini 88), Sturridge (Malouda 78)
Substitutes: Turnbull, Ivanovic, Bruma, Malouda, Matic, Kalou, Borini

Cardiff
Marshall, McNaughton, Gyepes, Gerrard, Kennedy, Rae (Blake 74), Whittingham, Burke (McCormack 78), Wildig (Taiwo 90), Chopra, Bothroyd
Substitutes
Enckelman, Quinn, Taiwo, Blake, Matthews, Feeney, McCormack
Ref: Marriner
Att: 40,827

Back On Track

 

 

It might not have been pretty but last night the Bluebirds found the perfect stinker to go on the rebound with after their weekend Geordie heartbreak.

 

A two nil victory courtesy of goals from Chris Burke and Anthony Gerrard against an atrocious Peterborough side cemented their playoff place and helped fans temporarily forget about off-field matters.

 

There is now a useful six point gap emerging between City and seventh place Sheffield United, and the Bluebirds have a game in hand, while Notts Forest and Newcastle also dropped points last night.

 

Make no mistakes about it, it wasn’t pretty, and Cardiff were not helped by a shocking playing surface, (apparently we can’t afford to fix it) but they dug deep, hobbled around, and found the two goals that mattered.

 

The midfield is really beginning to struggle for numbers. Ledley is out for the season. Rae out for at least another week, and yesterday Darcy Blake and Steve McPhail both went off injured with knocks.

 

Come Saturday it could be a central pairing of Wildig and Taiwo versus Ballack and Lampard. Ouch.

 

Cardiff started well with Bothroyd hitting the post from just outside the penalty box, and Chopra sliced wide when put through on goal.

 

Peterborough meanwhile look quite the relegated side. No pace to their game, no technical ability and a lack of cutting edge. 

 

They will do well not to finish bottom this season. How on earth we managed to surrender a four goal lead against these mugs earlier this season in beyond belief. 

 

Whitts had a free kick turned over the bar by England Under 21 keeper Joe Lewis before City opened their account. Whittingham and Wildig combined down the left before Kennedy delivered a swooping cross to the back post.

 

Bothroyd won his header and guided it  perfectly into Chris Burkes’ path who finished well. 1-0 City.

 

The rest of the second half was scrappy. The main problem was the game was played at such a slow pace but apart from a few hairy moments when Gyepes went missing Cardiff were always in control.

 

The second half started in familiar fashion with City coming out sluggish after munching on their half-time pies. Peterborough soon created their only real chance when Boyd shot straight at Marshall from six yards out.

 

Bothroyd and Marshall had a furious row after the Scot punched a ball that should’ve been caught and the fans became nervous. But gradually, with the help of the effervescent Chopra and Burke, the Bluebirds began to reassert themselves.

 

Finally, Gerrard sealed the win in the 78th minute after Bothroyd had again flicked on a cross, this time from Peter Whittingham. It was no more than they deserved. City was not great, but far superior to the Posh.

 

Not much else happened. Bothroyd has his usual five minute sit down in the opposition half, Taiwo came on for McPhail, and everyone left early.

 

As for off-field matters, as far as I’m aware the protest was very poorly attended. Looks like the three points and bitterly cold weather was enough to send the Riddler-haters home.

 

One fan in the Canton End did get his “Ridsdale Out” banner confiscated by a steward but other than that it all passed quietly.

 

Roll call to Chelsea? Happy days.

 

Cardiff

Marshall, McNaughton, Gyepes, Gerrard, Kennedy, Whittingham, McPhail (Taiwo 77), Burke, Blake (Wildig 21), Chopra, Bothroyd (Feeney 90+5) Substitutes Enckelman, Quinn, Taiwo, Matthews, Wildig, Feeney, McCormack

 

Peterborough

Lewis,  Williams (Simpson 82), Morgan,  Bennett, Frecklington,  Rowe, Whelpdale, Livermore, Mclean, Boyd, Mackail-Smith (Gilbert 46)

Substitutes: McKeown, Gilbert, Griffiths, Geohaghan, Lee, Simpson, Reid

Ref: Andy Penn

Att: 17,686

Rae is injured - but fear not...

Even Hitler Can't Stand Peter Ridsdale...

Courtesy of Gareth Baker (ccmb)