Bluebirds 2 v Rotherham 2 > One Step Forward, Multiple Steps Back

Cardiff City is now officially a club that drives its season ticket holders to golf.

Instead of attending the glitz and glam of the Rotherham home game on Saturday, my Pop instead turned his back on the Bluebirds and opted for the peaceful greens at the Vale Resort. All the while mumbling some obscenities about Russell Slade (above) and the current state of the club in the process - He would neither confirm nor deny whether this decision was related to me forgetting half time chocolate last time out.  

Anyway, shout out to my neighbour Sammy Larks who joined me last minute for what turned out to be a weird but entertaining (ish) game, one that displayed the frailties and inconsistencies it has become normal and boring to point out in a Cardiff side playing under Russell Slade.

Firstly, we have to start with Dave Marshall’s weird afternoon in goal. Usually a rock for City, Dave looked very anxious for some reason, strangely electing to rush out of his box and gift Rotherham their first goal just before half time. A widespread look of ‘W T F’ spread around the stadium at this point as Joe Newell slid the ball into an empty net. Moments later, the referees blowing of the half time whistle seemed startle Russell Slade (reportedly suffering from Man Flu) in his dugout seat - Perhaps he was taking a nap (?). 

It was Anthony Pilkington though, a winger now deployed up front by Slade all of a sudden, who carried hope for the Bluebirds. This was some performance from Pilkington, who was never out of the game and took two cute goals neatly and should have had another.  Good in the air, pretty and strong on the ball, Pilkington looks a better option up front than every striker on the books at City right now. 

Another limp showing from Joe Mason highlighting again (it does every week) that City still need to upgrade in this department. It’s been said before but Mason is a wimp and, although he can finish, wind could blow him over. 

New fella on loan from Feyenoord Lex Immers is supposedly a ‘number ten’ by trade but even he (on his debut) was sent up front in an attempt to make something happen. Lex looked like he’s got some tools and played a role in making Pilkington’s equaliser but he did fluff his lines when put through on goal minutes later. In his first game in the Championship, Lex learnt that dawdling usually results in you getting munched. With a few more games to settle though, Lex could be a big bonus for Cardiff. 

It wasn’t the strikers or Dave Marshall’s weird day that was most frustrating though. Neither was it a glaring unforgivable miss from Lee Peltier which I’m confident my Wife would have scored, or the general half arsed midfield pressing. Overall, the most frustrating thing is that Cardiff are still too flaky to follow up a good result or put a run together. That they have only won back-to-back games in the Championship this season ONCE (way back in September) tells us all we need to know about this weak season as a whole. 

This Rotherham match and the giant step backwards it represented following the good performance and win at Wolves previously, again nudges Vincent Tan and his Admin crew at the club to replace Russell Slade or face treading water like this until the summer. 

In a gloriously heavy weekend of sport, Sunday night also saw a crew of us take in the Cardiff Devils v Fife Flyers game (see above). Kudos to the Devils for putting in a face melting performance, going 3-0 up in the first few minutes and effectively ending the game. Unfortunately, this time we didn’t get to see any classic hockey knuckle-ups, the ones which lured my wife to the sport in the first place. There’s always next time though and there’s always hot dogs, foam fingers and good vibes.