Monday, 30 November 2015

Bluebirds 2 Burnley 2 > Unlucky or Naive?



It was the kind of rain that could get through to your pants if you’re not dressed appropriately. The kind of relentless downpour that favours slide tackles, long ball tactics and men rather than boys.

After a lame display up at Derby last week, City came out pumped for this one. Unlike recent weeks, the tempo was cranked right up and the ball was being knocked about in a slick fashion around the water logged pitch, with two touch and even one touch football! Not only was it a relief to see but it could even have been categorised as ‘entertainment’. For real - no joke. 

New loan player Tony Watt looked positive and carrying tools other current front players don’t have like pace, a directness and desire. City were not only creative and bright but dug in deep when needed in mental weather.

Sure, the result in the end felt like a cruel defeat but was it just bad luck or was it down to poor 'game management'?  



At 2-0 up, you could claim the substitutions could have been handled with a bit more care and perhaps the game could have been suffocated in midfield like most streetwise teams would. It’s clutching straws blaming Russell Slade for this one though after a rare piece of poor goalkeeping from Dave Marshall and a weird deflected injury time own goal from a usually reliable Matt Connelly. 

City need to move on though and take this performance to Bolton on Saturday, a team all over the place at the moment, and a winnable away game if we go there with ambition. Forget being functional on the road and looking for a ‘good point’ – Cardiff need to keep the tempo up, be ruthless and take the ‘W’.  


Shout out to the boy who attended his third City game with us and is yet to see a defeat. His reaction to conceding in injury time was of pure frustration as he prowled our empty seats angrily – This created mixed feelings for a Father who could be pleased to see he cared but also knowing he might need to get used to frustration.

On route home in car came some great quotes that only a six year who had just seen Cardiff could make:

‘Dad, why didn’t the defenders kick the ball away to stop the goal?’
‘Dad, why was Tony Watt subbed off?’

‘Shall we go out for tea?’ Was my response. 


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