Down in a Hull 16/03/2012
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2011/12.Tags: Anthony Gerrard, Hull City, Joshua King, Kevin McNaughton, Robert Earnshaw, Seyi Olofinjana
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Cardiff City 0 Hull City 3
Norwegians will get the headline pun. After the good away win at Bristol City on Saturday, I thought we had turned the corner and envisioned three home wins to come. After our poor performance and grim season worst home scoreline of 0-3 against Hull, we fell out of the Play Off places and figuratively into a hole (which is hull in Norwegian) that we need to climb out of pretty fast if promotion is still to be a possibility this season.
Agonizingly close, but the pride outweighs the heartache 07/03/2012
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2011/12.Tags: Anthony Gerrard, Craig Bellamy, Kenny Miller, Liverpool, Rudy Gestede, Steven Gerrard, Wembley
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Cardiff City 2 Liverpool 2 AET, 2-3 on penalties League Cup Final, Wembley
(Photo: Jon Candy)
Nine days on from the League Cup final at Wembley, and my voice has just recovered from all the singing and shouting. My disappointed heart is also on the mend, and the pride of our brilliant performance in the League Cup final is starting to outweigh the heartache.
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Lucky against Ipswich, then shattered at London Road again 20/10/2011
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2011/12.Tags: Anthony Gerrard, Ipswich Town, Malky Mackay, Michael Chopra, Peter Whittingham, Peterborough United, Rudy Gestede
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Cardiff City 2 Ipswich Town 2
Peterborough United 4 Cardiff City 3
On Saturday Michael Chopra – not surprisingly – made a goal scoring return to Cardiff with his new team Ipswich, and we were lucky to get a draw thanks to a dubious penalty decision after having fallen behind 1-2 in the second half. Two seasons ago we surrendered a 4-0 half time lead to let Peterborough back into the game and score four goals in the second half to make it 4-4. On Tuesday we twice had the lead at London Road, and went 3-2 up with just eleven minutes remaining, but we still couldn’t hang on to it. Devastating.
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Injury-struck Bluebirds foil the big spenders 25/09/2011
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2011/12.Tags: Andrew Taylor, Anthony Gerrard, Darcy Blake, Darius Vassell, Gordon Conway, Lee Naylor, Leicester City, Malky Mackay, Mark Hudson, Robert Earnshaw, Rudy Gestede
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Cardiff City 0 Leicester City 0
First of all, it was a great pleasure to be able to watch a Cardiff match live on TV for the first time since the league opener against West Ham. It was not so great to witness one Cardiff player after the other become injured and weaken our effort against big spending Leicester City’s star-studded team, forcing Malky Mackay to change both tactics and personnel early on.
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Cardiff City 9 Leicester City 8 28/07/2011
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2011/12.Tags: Anthony Gerrard, Clive Goodwillie, Craig Bellamy, Dave Jones, Filip Kiss, Gavin Rae, Jay Bothroyd, Jlloyd Samuel, Joe Fagan, Joe Mason, John Carew, Kanny Miller, Leeds United, Leicester City, Malky Mackay, Matthew Green, Michael Chopra, Miguel Comminges, Neil Danns, Remco Van Der Schaaf, Robert Earnshaw, Rudy Gestede, Shefki Kuqi, Stephen McPhail, Sven Göran Eriksson
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While Norway slowly recover from last Friday’s shocking atrocities where at least 76 people were killed, Cardiff City continue the preparations for the upcoming season. Most notably three more players have come in since my last post, Sloavakian U21 international Filip Kiss on a season long loan, Scotish international and prolific goalscorer Kenny Miller and last but not least the talented Frenchman Rudy Gestede, bringing the total number of newcomers this summer to nine. That’s one more than big spending and ambitious Leicester City, who, at least in the eyes of many bookmakers, are emerging as one of the favourites for promotion.
Great win, but emergency when Ramsey leaves? 25/02/2011
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2010/11.Tags: Aaron Ramsey, Anthony Gerrard, Arsene Wenger, Dave Jones, Leicester City, Seyi Olofinjana
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Cardiff City 2 Leicester CIty 0
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger dampened the celebrations after the superb win against Leicester Tuesday when he announced that Aaron Ramsey, Man of the Match and goalscorer against the Foxes, is to return to Arsenal after Saturday’s match against Hull.
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Window shut, but backdoor still open 06/09/2010
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2010/11.Tags: Alan Lee, Anthony Gerrard, Chris Riggott, Craig Bellamy, Dave Jones, Francis Laurent, Gabor Gyepes, Gavin Rae, Jay Bothroyd, Mark Hudson, Seyi Olofinjana, Southend
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The transfer window might be shut, but the backdoor is still open for free agents.
For Cardiff City that means that Chris Riggott, who has been training with the club lately, and the trialist Frenchman by the name of Francis Laurent, whose last club was League Two side Southend, might still become Bluebirds. It was funny to see how Cardiff played down that they had a trialist (Laurent) who actually scored three goals in the private reserve team friendly against Llanelli by not mentioning him in the article about the match on the official web site. The headline there was that Gavin Rae scored two of the goals.
This was obviously done not to alert other clubs about Laurent, and I’m a bit surprised they decided to include his goals in the highlights on Cardiff City Player! I hope Laurent becomes a Cardiff player and that he can become the cover for Jay Bothroyd that we still need in the squad.
Speaking of Gavin Rae , I must say I’m a bit surprised to see the amount of stick and criticism he gets from a lot of Cardiff fans. I haven’t seen him play that many games, but is he really that bad? I agree though that with the new players arriving it’s natural that Rae moves on, at least on loan somewhere.
A quick word also on Anthony Gerrard and his season long loan to Hull. It’s obvious that with the size of Cardiff’s current squad someone had to move on. I’m not sure I agree with Dave Jones in picking Gabor Gyepes and Mark Hudson in the center of defense ahead of Gerrard, but I haven’t seen enough of any of them to really be able to have a too strong opinion. One thing’s for sure though, and that is that at Wembley in the Play Off Final back in May when Gerrard came on as a substitute he showed great enthusiasm and was more fired up than any other Cardiff player on the pitch. However I can’t see how Sky Sports can defend calling him “a star for Cardiff last season”… The best part of Gerrard moving to Hull on loan is that Olofinjana now can play against the Tigers!
Elsewhere I noticed that former Cardiff City player Alan Lee has signed for League One team Huddersfield, which I found a bit strange considering he had started most of the games this season at City’s Championship rivals Crystal Palace and scored twice. But then again – some say it’s strange that Craig Bellamy decided to move to Cardiff!
No fears 05/04/2010
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2009/10.Tags: Anthony Gerrard, Chris Burke, Chris Gunter, Dave Jones, David Marshall, Joe Ledley, Kelvin Etuhu, Nottingham Forest, Peter Whittingham, Robert Earnshaw, Ross McCormack, Stephen McPhail
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Nottingham Forest 0 Cardiff City 0
An away draw against Nottingham Forest is definitely a point gained, and it’s great that having beaten both Leicester and Swansea recently Cardiff have shown there’s no need to have any fears in meeting these teams again should that happen in the play offs.
I got to watch the game thanks to the live streaming at bet365.com, and despite the game ending all square it was an eventful and fun match to watch.
Cardiff had to play without the injured Peter Whittingham which made way for Joe Ledley in the starting eleven. Chris Burke is still injured, so Kelvin Etuhu took place on one wing and Ross McCormack on the other. Etuhu deserves a mention, as he had a very good first 45 minutes making some brilliant runs showing his Premier League class.
There were two former Bluebirds in Forest’s line up: Robert Earnshaw and Chris Gunter. It was a nice gesture from the former when he just after missing a chance in the first half did the Ayatholla at the request of the Cardiff following.
There were chances both ways before the break. Cardiff looked particularly dangerous on corners and set pieces, but sadly couldn’t convert any of them into goals.
The first half also saw two “suicide attempts” from City. The first let Earnshaw through one on one with Marshall after a ball strangely being played high back into Cardiff’s own half by a City player. You would expect Earnie to score given a chance like that, but Marshall saved brilliantly. The second one came as Stephen McPhail wanted to take a free kick quickly in Forest’s half ignoring the two Nottingham players standing in his way only a meter or so in front of him. The ref let play continue probably thinking he’d punish McPhail for being stupid enough to take the free kick too fast, and Forest immediately attacked and nearly scored.
In the second half there was another “suicide attempt” as City gave the ball away near the goal, but again David Marshall pulled of a world class save.
Towards the end there was an unbelievable situation when Gerrard and Marshall – yes, that’s two Cardiff players – literally got in the throat of each other. What stupidity! They should have been booked the pair of them, and judging from Dave Jones’ reaction he’ll probably give them a deserved talking to. It was Gerrard who started it when he in a not very friendly way told Marshall he should have shouted for the ball. Marshall reacted and it was embarrassing to see them not being able to calm down and leave the discussion for after the match. Going off the field after the final whistle you could see them shaking hands and smiling, but a bust up like that doesn’t happen unless there’s some underlying reason.
Four league games to go now and Cardiff are still fourth with a six point gap down to in form Blackpool in seventh place. Sadly Swansea, Leicester and Blackpool all won today, so we’re not there quite yet. Apart from the incident involving Gerrard and Marshall though City can at least go into the final games feeling confident.
