Match report Cardiff v Palace 29/09/10

As I took my seat in the family stand on a miserable Tuesday night the Palace players were out on the pitch doing their pre game warmup. My immediate thought looking at them was Tower Hamlets. Now I'm not sure if the Hamlets are anywhere near Palace but I know they are in London and Palace being a London team with players looking more like Hulk Hogans than footballers well thats the logic to why I thought of those flats. When I started watching football the players were never that huge. These guys looked like they could not play football and they could not as the game proved. However that did not come into the equation considering the way Cardiff City were about to perform.

As the players left the pitch to prepare for the start my mind wondered onto the supporters. The stadium was fairly empty but soon filled up. This reminded me of two things, one being how far Cardiff City has come from the dungeon days of 2,000 crowds and two it was getting close to kick off which always gets the adrenaline going. Sadly that is about as much use the crowd was last night, being outsung by 100 Palace fans all the way through the game. I hear people complain about our atmosphere these days which in my mind is justifed but last night I feel we were given a one of the reason why. The next 90 minutes that reason became obvious.

Cardiff fielded a side that saw the return of Oli. That brought a great cheer from the crowd. Heaton had kept his place in goal which in the end proved a master stroke. Koumas started in midfield which to me was evidence that DJ has realised our midfield has been dreadful and requires desperate action hence putting on an inconfident. Those were the differences from the starting line up against Millwall and the impression you got was everyone felt confident that team could do the job.

The game started and it soon became clear what each team was going to do. The Eagles after their 5-0 drubbing from Derby practically parked their bus in their area. The Cardiff had to break them down and they set about doing that by playing the ball along their back four. This tactic by Cardiff meant Palace changed their tactics very quickly. Cardiff struggled to get anywhere near the visitors goal resulting in Palace opening up and creating their own attacks. So from a team determined to defend all night ended up with them creating the best chances for a goal.

The pressure from Cardiff in the early stages looked promising, that is they had most of the possession. From this early pressure Cardiff had the best chance of getting the first goal when the Eagles Hulk Hogan defender made a mess of his ball control leaving Chris Burke with only the keeper to beat. His effort was blocked by the approaching Palace goalkeeper Speroni and little were we to know that was the only real chance we were to get all night.

As the first half progressed so did the Palace. After that miss by Burke Cardiff made little impact on the visitors goal and this encouraged the Eagles to open up. Like their fellow Londoners Millwall they attacked the Naylor side and also like the Bushwackers their had considerable success. The crosses started to come in with one producing a well times header that caused a low save from Heaton. Keeping to Heaton he looked good at these crosses and made some clean catches which was a change from flapable Marshall. I started to have a feeling that we are going to see alot more of Tom and the second half was I believe going to prove me right.

The first half fizzled out with very little else happening. Those of us supporters who felt we would win comfortable started changing their minds and were prepared to take a last minute winner again or something to bag the 3 points. That is we were all expecting a miracle because we looked like never breaking this defence down.

The second half started with Palace changing their game plan. Edgar Davids the ex Holland international changed from playing left back in the first half to now just in front of the back four. Just after the restart the visitors had a chance from a free kick just outside the Cardiff area. It was badly taken rebounding off the wall but the ball fell to an approaching Palace player 25 yards out who cleanly half volleyed causing a fantastic diving save from Heaton for a corner. This guy Heaton was proving to be a better Heaton from the time he was on loan here a couple of seasons ago.

After this incident the game opened up alot more. Cardiff best efforts came from Jay who worked hard and created our best chances from the left wing. One chance being scuppered by a guy not wearing black boots. Was it Keogh or Burke I really do need to make notes. Palace were making most of their success down the Naylor side again with perhaps the best chance of the night from a cross beating the whole Cardiff defence to find its way to a Palace head that was destined for a goal. A reflects save from the impressive Heaton once again saved Cardiff blushes.

As the game went into the final quarter the visitors looked more likely to score. They pushed forward and to be honest were allowed to due to the wastful ball passing of the Cardiff midfield. Our creative midfielders of Koumas and Whittingham produced very little for the running of Keogh. The passing was dreadful and frustrating to watch and in fairness to Keogh had no chance or getting to them. Even Linford Christie in his time would have struggled.

So as we were giving the ball away too much and this encouraged the visitor to attack They went for the Naylor option every time. This resulted in Naylor being substituted, Paul Quinn replacing him and super Kev going left back. This had the desired effect and mainly closed this avenue of attack. However due to the wasteful passing of our midfield there was always going to be one chance coming that way. As we approached full time Kevin was beating and a driving cross fortunately beat everyone as the ball flew through the 6 yard area. By now everyone wanted to settle for a draw.

The game came to an end with a chorus of boos from the home crowd. This to me was one performace too much to stomach and this showed in the support. The only time I heard of any significant support was during the bit of pressure Cardiff created. After that the support can be classed as absolute subdueness. This in my mind had resulted in five bad performances in a row. Even more worrying five out of nine. How can a club expect support from a crowd when it is performing like that?


Summin up tonight it was another dreadful performance. Too many guys going missing or in Koumas case not even arrived yet. What has happened to Whitts? His contribution to the games since Portsmouth has been shocking. Naylor is turning out to be a liability. Burke was tonight shown up by a 37 year old. There was no leadership and we just cant carry such low performers.

I felt Oli showed glimpes of class but that would have not shown amongst a group of none entities. Jay worked hard and Keogh made the runs but the service was poor. Hudson had a good game but were was his leadership? Super Kev was his usual and Heaton was exceptional. Some positives but simple not enough to carry on the way we are.

As mentioned above that was the fifth bad performance from nine. Under DJ we seem to go through these bad patches. Just look back over the last 3 seasons. These bad patches have cost us dearly and DJ has gone to press saying we need to be consistant. Well he has failed to produce that in my eyes and I honestly feel he has taken us as far as he can. Will the returning wounded make a difference? I'm starting to doubt.

good report as ever.
as for DJ theres and that ugly trend slowly appearing again

good report as ever.
as for DJ theres and that ugly trend slowly appearing again

I have decided to keep that sort of statement for my summing up. The match report is what I saw and the summing up it what I feel. Not feeling too good atm.

good report baked, much appreciated

As Usual Ian, An Excellent and Honest Report

good material again, baked

Thank you Ian I enjoyed that report and a very good one it is, I too am worried about these several game runs we have.

Last international break f'ed us. This one couldn't have come at a better time.

Thankyou Ian, I look forward to Todays v Barnsley