Don’t get me wrong…would rather be in play offs than not, but weren’t we in the play offs the first season we were relegated last time. Hairy times.
I saw a quote from the Cardiff manager saying that apart from the opening 15 minutes he was happy with his team’s performance. Have to say that I was happy with his team’s performance for the whole game because they were the easiest team to play against we have met all season. They didn’t even give us our customary mid game wobble.
It was a solid , professional performance yesterday. I agree that Manning played well. In my opinion the fact that Cardiff played well for 15 minutes after the break and looked like getting a toe-hold showed how well be played for the rest of the game. We were on total control in the first half but the substitutions in the second half snuffed out Cardiff's opposition and, if anything, I think we were even better in the last quarter of the match. The best home performance of the season. I think we will make the play-offs as I think Leicester and Ipwich will go up automatically.
Their commentators on Ifollow thought they played well as well and were a bit unlucky to have not scored at least 1
Were Cardiff poor or did Saints outclass them ? I thought that Cardiff looked effective in the first 15 mins of the second half. They started to look threatening yet Saints still managed to contain them. Cardiff lost the match in the first 20 minutes which would have surprised their fans given that they had come home from their last few away matches with three points. I don't feel Cardiff were a bad team but I do feel we outclassed them yesterday.
We were very good, but Cardiff were poor too. They could barely string 3 passes together for long periods of the game. They had a few moments where they moved it about well, but I never thought we were going to concede without it being a mistake from us rather than them carving us open. They tired badly second half too and the space opened up again in the middle like it did against Bristol City. Difference this time is we created chance after chance. That could easily have been a 4/5-0 had we been more clinical, and thats still allowing for misses. Cardiff had one good chance that I can remember.
At HT was was debating whether Cardiff were better or worse than Rotherham (who, until yesterday, I thought were the weakest side to play at SMS this season). At FT I decided it was an insult to Rotherham to even mention them in the same breath as Cardiff. Rotherham might have been very limited, but at least they had some sort of a game plan - I didn't see that at all with Cardiff. They neither sat back, nor pressed high. One minute they were passing it out from the back (incredibly badly), the next minute they were banging it long.
They started the game with a plan to stay organised and sit deep but with 2 early goals that went out of the window and they lost their way.
I think there are around 15 clubs in this league like Cardiff of around the same standard, and play in a very similar way. They could swap shirts and it would be difficult to distinguish one from the other. Or something like that.
