QPR 2 Cardiff City 2 > Malone You Beast

Upon signing Scott Malone from Millwall in January for approx £10, most Cardiff fans laughed at Russell Slade when he tried to convince us that the player had been snatched from under the noses of German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund. (Major LOLs all round)

After a patchy first few months though finding his feet in a lifeless team, he's started this season like a beast. Malone may have a hairstyle worthy of a dead arm every time you see him (and a lame tat of Marilyn Monroe on his hand) but he’s made a fine start to the campaign capped with an outrageous injury time equaliser on Saturday. 

True enough, City can’t keep relying on last minute worldies for points but things on the pitch have improved.

Many argued Cardiff deserved a point on Saturday but, given the dominance of the game and the amount of decisions that went against them, they will feel they deserved more. In a white-knuckle second half, City will feel hard done by after seeing QPR keeper Rob Green not sent off for handling outside the box when Antony Piklington was in on goal. And then there was the conceding of the weird double hand ball goal which everyone claimed not to see.  

Despite the s**ty luck, City looked like a unified team that had a plan, kept the ball and were willing to scrap. A refreshing change after last season’s limp slog.

Last year Russell Slade’s team sat in a mundane 1980s style 4-4-2 system and couldn’t hold the ball, resulting in inconsistency and mega grumpy fans (me included). Love Slade or hate him though (I've hated him) it’s clear to see work has been done over the summer. In the three games so far this season, City have mustered 62% (QPR), 57% (AFC Wimbledon) and 54% (Fulham) possession. Granted, this doesn’t earn you points, but it does highlight small improvements the bald one and his staff are making brick by brick. 

Things may have improved slightly but some longer term problems remain, like getting the team selection wrong. How Alex Revel continues to get picked is very mysterious to most who watch Cardiff play - model professional he may be but competent to lead the line ahead of Cardiff’s other striking options is an insane thought. How he started ahead of Sammy Ameobi and Kenwyne Jones at QPR only the bald one knows.

Then, when you add to that Craig Noone is foaming at the mouth to play after two slick goals in two games and is only on the bench… questions need answering.

A strong showing at QPR is pleasing and improvements are there to see, but with a few more tweaks and common sense we should’ve taken home a W. Lets hope more improvement is seen up at Blackburn tomorrow. 

Below: Scott Malone fan art