cardiffcity.no

Second best 27/11/2010

Q.P.R. 2 Cardiff CIty 1

Writing this just minutes after the final whistle I’m trying to take comfort in what Dave Jones said before the game:

“It’ll have a bearing on the season, but it’s not going to be the be-all and we know how we get carried away in this part of the world.”

With Swansea losing yesterday we still have a good grip on the second promotion spot, and although we lost today having been in the lead, there were positives to be taken from the game.

I got to watch the game for free courtesy of bet365.com’s live streaming, and it was good to see us revert to the familiar 4-4-2-formation. Chopra was not surprisingly dropped to the bench after his below par display against Nottingham Forest. Chris Burke was back from injury and took Chops’ place in the starting line up, and he was lively and brilliant in the first half but faded a bit in the second half.

The game started at a frantic pace. There were two attacking sides strutting their stuff at Loftus Road, and a few defensive lapses by City gave cause from concern early on.

You could almost expect Bellamy to score in a top of the table clash like this, and when Bothroyd brilliantly utilized a slip from a Q.P.R. player and delievered the ball to Bellamy – on the brink of off-side – through on goal there was only one outcome – 1-0!

Against the table toppers and the team with the best home record in the division, you knew it wasn’t won though, and not long after a good header from Kaspars Gorkss disappointingly made it 1-1. The replay showed how Bothroyd, back defending, was more concerned pointing and shouting at the other City players who they should mark than concentrating on marking a man himself, so Gorkss got a lot of space and time to put the header in. As the first half went on, Bothroyd didn’t look as sharp as he’s done, and Olofinjana was not quite himself either, which was a bit worrying.

Bothroyd wasted a good chance, then Bellamy cluttered an opponent, and you could sense City was loosing it a bit. When Bothroyd got injured it looked even worse. Luckily he was able to continue, as we all know how miserably we fall apart without him.

As half time approached the tempo was down a few notches, with Q.P.R. having the upper hand. Faurlin tested Heaton with a low, hard shot, but the Cardiff goalkeeper was equal to it. Bellamy and Bothroyd got called over to the referee for a talking too just before the interval, and whatever that was about, it didn’t bode well.

Q.P.R. started best in the second half, but Cardiff was hanging in there and got a good chance when Bellamy set off and combined with Bothroyd. Jason Koumas came on for Danny Drinkwater, but sadly Koumas didn’t provide the creativity and spark that Cardiff needed.

With about twenty minutes of the second half gone Heaton made a terrific save that kept Cardiff in it, but not for very long, as shortly after Q.P.R.’s star player, the impressive Adel Taarabt, stole the ball of Naylor and then made Hudson look rather stupid as he wrong footed him showing some of his technical skills, before putting the ball in the back of the net. Shite…

City showed no signs of lying down, but after a good effort from Burke, Koumas followed up with a poor, poor finish when he really should have done better.

Michael Chopra – the man for the big occasions – came on with about ten minutes left on the clock, but it didn’t help, although Q.P.R. started to loose the ball needlessly more often and surprisingly looked a bit uncomfortable.

The last noteworthy happening in the match was when City was clearly robbed of a penalty as Bothroyd was fouled. Nevertheless I can nothing but congratulate Q.P.R. with the victory, and as I in an earlier post said I hoped this would be the day that we were going to show that we are the best team in the Championship, well, it turned out to be the other way around…

Let’s just hope we’ll join the R’s when they’re promoted come May!