WHAT A SEASON.....SO FAR !

SEASON 2009/2010

We start the new season with a record signing, Michael Chopra, and a brand new stadium at CCS.

After the disappointment of last season fresh in the minds, Dave Jones made wholesale changes to the defence but no new additions to the area we all felt needed freshing, centre midfield, and up top we are the same strike force as last year. Scunthorpe arrive for the first ever league game at CCS as a newly promoted side but are dispatched with relative ease, City winning 4-0. August proved to be a successful month with the following games against Blackpool, Plymouth and Bristol City providing a draw and 2 wins. But our reliance on Jay Bothroyd was clearly evident in the 2-0 reverse at Doncaster in the last game of the month, as Jay was taken off 9 mins in with an injury and City were devoid of ideas, but nonetheless a promising start to the campaign and no sign of a hangover from our end of season collapse.

September, however, started a trend that would keep going for six months, for one month City were successful,the following would be the complete opposite. Newcastle were welcomed to CCS as the first fixture of September and we were turned over 1-0 by the biggest club in the league, this month also gave us a dire performance at home to QPR, losing 2-0 and a 3-1 loss away to Sheffield Weds, but there were some positives with a 1-0 win at Reading and a 6-1 mauling at home of Derby, but overall a poor month.

October we played four games and went unbeaten, 3 wins and a draw, winning at Watford for the first time in 37 years, which included Adam Matthews 40 yard free kick and beating early pace setters Coventry and beating Sheff Utd in a 7 goal thriller at Bramall lane. The draw came against Palace in an ill tempered game, where City players accused the opposition of racial abuse.

November and a complete turnaround in fortunes, from unbeaten one month to winless the following. Yet it started with a game at home to Forest in which we could have topped the league with a win but Forest snatched a late equaliser to maintain their superb away record at that time and then there were 3 defeats on the bounce, including Swansea away, lowly Barnsley and at home to bottom of the table, Ipswich. Did the City players have the fight and dog in them to win ugly, the answer was no. In November, Peter Ridsdale met with a crowd of City fans and it led to concerns how the club was being run and more importantly, how Ridsdale was acting.

Fixtures for December looked ominous, with Preston home, who were play off contenders, away to Middlesbrough who had found form under Gordon Strachan and top of the table WBA away, but to continue our good and bad months we surprisingly succeeded in gaining all 9 points but the following game was Leicester home but it was postponed due to a frozen pitch, yet we had undersoil heating but it transpired that the boiler had not been connected and it emerged that our chairman had received a stadium completion bonus, Ridsdale's position was coming under serious scrutiny from both fans and media. We entered into the boxing day home fixture to Plymouth in confident mood but the players must have had other things on their mind as Plymouth, whho were struggling at the foot of the table revenged our early season win at Home park with a 1-0 win at CCS. The final game of the 2009 came at London Road against Peterborough, which looking back summed up our season so far, we raced into a 4-0 half time lead and looking like a championship winning side to end up drawing the game 4-4 after to capitulated in the second half and seemed to have no idea how to contain the opposition. Astonishing.

2010 started with us the fans helping the club out by buying premature season tickets, which would allow the club to compete in the January transfer window. Even though there were no signings, we managed to get through January unbeaten in 7 games, 4 wins and 3 draws, four of these games were league and the others were the FA Cup. Stand out result of the month would be the 6-0 drubbing we handed out to Bristol City at Ashton Gate, which also seen fans display banners calling for Peter Ridsdale to resign. Doncaster were beaten at home and there were 2 draws against Blackpool and Scunthorpe to cap an excellent month on the pitch.

February and no change to the regular on/off pattern, we were mauled in Newcastle, thumped in Preston, humiliated at home to Barnsley and disposed of in London by Chelsea in the FA cup. The bright spots were a home win against Peterborough and a draw to WBA. February also seen us have an adjournment of 28 days in the high court after the HMRC took us for a winding up petition for non payment of a tax bill, we were desperately in trouble.

March I remember commenting at the time would be a make or break month, we had 8 games in the month. We were clinging on to the last place in the play offs by a point and needed to turn results around if we were to remain there, but worse still we were struggling with injuries to key players and a transfer embargo stopped us from bringing in loan players. This month seen our supporters stand up and say no more, prior to the Middlesbrough game, 2500 of us marched from Canton to CCS demonstrating against Peter Ridsdale and the way he was taking our club under. Fans still say to me now,that on that day they feel like the march brought a togetherness amongst supporters and the atmosphere was special at that game and it can be argued that in the game the players showed fight, effort and determination that had previously been missing. City recorded a 1-0 win and I left that stadium with goosebumps on what had been achieved. But days later we were brought back to Earth with a bump when Ipswich turned over a City side that played like they didnt know each other and that was folowed by a defeat to Leicester away, but a 91st minute penalty at the Ricoh Arena set City on an unbeaten run that would finally shape our season, we beat Coventry with that winner and followede it up with wins against Watford, Palace and Leicester. A draw at home to Sheff Utd meant we had got 16pts from 24pts in March. This month seen us a get a further extension with the court and 'TG' saying he was delighted to see Malaysian flags at away grounds and CCS.

April brought us the biggest South Wales Derby ever against a Swansea side 3pts and a place behind us in the play offs, with 89mins gone and the score lockled 1-1, Marshall made a brilliant save from Kuqi and the Jacks were still chanting ' Never Beat The Jacks ' when City gained a throw in 25 yards from the Swansea by-line. Swansea born Adam Matthews throws long into the box, it's partially cleared, Aaron Wildig with his first touch, heads the ball into the path of Chopra who seems to have an eternity to smash the ball into the Swansea net. 2-1 City, cue ecstacy. 40 mins after the final whistle and whilst the players are warming down there are still over 7,000 inside the stadium celebrating this victory. Sweet. 2 draws and 2 wins guaranteed City's play off place and there was a further boost of ' TG 'and his Malaysian consortium had reached a deal to takeover the club and more importantly Peter Ridsdale would be leaving the club, finally.

And so to May, Dave Jones makes wholesale changes for the trip to Derby and we suffer our first defeat in 11 games but the result is irrelevant. We now face Leicester in the Semi-Final Play Offs and a possible Wembley date versus Forest or Blackpool for the chance of a shot at the Premiership.

Wether this Season ends in Promotion or progression, the one thing that is consistent is that we have had another rollercoaster ride following Cardiff City. Where will it stop ?

Great read Carl. Nice one.

Hopefully there'll be a final chapter to add to it after our Wembley victory!

I really enjoyed that Carl, I look forward to your summary of tomorrows match at Leicester

Excellent read, nice one Carl.

Now, let's get to Wembley!

Carl, your write ups getter better and better

thank you

Excellent read, nice one Carl.

Now, let's get to Wembley!

cheers Steve

Great read Carl. Nice one.

Hopefully there'll be a final chapter to add to it after our Wembley victory!

hopefully

I really enjoyed that Carl, I look forward to your summary of tomorrows match at Leicester

Great post Carl

Hopefully you will be summarising us in the top filght next season

Great post Carl, keep up the good work mate.