This was a very frustrating afternoon as despite us dominating the attacking play, Cardiff packed their defence, kept us closed down pretty well all over the pitch and managed to steal the winner very near the end.
BEFORE
We're all buzzing after three wins in a row and eleven goals but I'm taking nothing for granted as of course Cardiff would love to spoil our party. They've won three out of their last four games after a wobbly start but have conceded twelve goals, an average of almost two a game. If we play like we have done of late, I'm sure that we'll score at least two ourselves. It looks like Rusyn will finally play some part this afternoon after getting his visa sorted and I'm looking forward to that. Ekwah is still injured and he'll always be missed but his team-mates have all battled well in his absence. The Cardiff defenders must be dreading facing Clarke in his current form while Ba, Pritchard and Roberts have caused plenty of problems too. I'll be in the company of other members of the London Branch for the match and my prediction is a 2-1 win for us.
I got the team-news around 2.30 and saw that there were no changes from the starting line-up in the Blackburn game but Rusyn was on the bench. I didn't recognise any of the Cardiff players. I was a bit alarmed by the fact that I was the only member of the faithful present and that the barmaid was vague about the match being televised. At 2.45, however, she did start fiddling with a couple of remotes and this calmed my nerves. We got the feed on but after a couple of minutes it went off again and then it came back once more. We even got the sound on – there's posh. Meanwhile a number of the faithful had joined me so there was bound to be a decent atmosphere.
THE GAME
We did most of the pressing in the opening minutes and were passing the ball around confidently. We were awarded a free-kick in a tasty position by the left touchline in the fifth minute but didn't make anything of it. Cardiff were putting in some hard tackles and Ba went down looking distressed in the ninth minute though he recovered okay. Soon Cardiff mustered a couple of attacks but they were wasted by passes being hit much too hard. Grant then had a shot from outside the box and it reminded me of one of Catts's efforts. By the quarter-hour mark neither goalie had had much to do at all and then a Jobe header at least made Alnwick stretch a little bit. We won the first corner shortly afterwards but it was cleared and then Patto had to dive to stop them winning one. Cardiff were defending in depth but we came close to cracking them when Jobe and Ba combined well but Pritchard's effort was blocked and from the resultant corner Neil shot not far over the bar. That was more like it.
By the half-hour mark Cardiff were showing that they could put together some speedy attacks but they were getting no change out of our defence. Next thing Alnwick dropped the ball as he leapt to catch it and it bounced off one of his defenders and the danger was averted. A great crossfield ball from O'Nien almost landed for Burstow in their box but it was just a little bit ahead of him. Then Pritch was clattered not far outside their box winning us a free-kick and when he took the kick himself it bounced off their wall. Cardiff won a corner in the thirty-eighth and it sailed right across our box. As half-time approached we continued to do most of the attacking and a goal before the break would clearly be crucial. A low Clarke effort was parried by Alnwick after we'd had a penalty-shout denied. Collins was down injured for a while so I was expecting a fair bit of stoppage-time but surprisingly only two minutes were announced. It remained goalless as the whistle went and it had been frustrating for us. I reckoned we'd still win it but it was looking more like 1-0.
Cardiff had made one change as we kicked of again, bringing Tanner on for Grant. A bloke from the U.S.A. sat down next to me and he'd enjoyed S.T.I.D. on Netflix so I deemed him to be affiliated. We were doing all the attacking but Cardiff's defence remained resolute. In the fifty-third a low Pritchard shot was palmed away by Alnwick and then a couple of long-distance Neil efforts were blocked too but a goal was in the air. Siopis got a yellow as we won another free-kick and Cardiff were living dangerously. Burstow got a yellow as well and I thought it may have been worse for him. We were also lucky to avoid going behind when we allowed too much space in the box for Meite but thankfully his strong shot went over. We made a triple switch just after the hour when we replaced Ba, Jobe and Burstow with Roberts, Hemir and Aouchiche (hereafter known as Adil). Cardiff made two changes too and I was glad to see Meite go off.
As we entered the last quarter of the match it definitely looked like one goal would win it and Cardiff weren't sitting back either. We were pummelling their goal and surely something had to give before long. Cardiff weren't giving us much space all over the pitch but with our attacking flair we were still creating chances with Adil having a powerful shot blocked by Alnwick. Ten minutes to go and we won another corner but it was cleared. With four minutes to go Cardiff took the lead from a corner on their left which was headed into the right of our net by McGuinness. We brought on Rusyn for his debut, coming on for Huggins, and maybe he would have a dream start? Five minutes of stoppage-time were announced and Cardiff really should have had a second but Tanner hit it over with only Patto to beat. It ended 0-1.
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