Its not over until the fat lady (or sam) sings, cardiff have no option than to go for it now as if you try to play football against west ham then there is not much chance of scoring, Chances will have to be taken from the very start and hope they dont get a break away goal, If MM plays the waiting game then he will play into big sam's hands as he has more better players than cardiff and will tighten his defence. not many teams score more than one goal at upton park so its going to be very hard....I would send on ernie to partner miller up front as ernie has a good track record of scoring important goals.....yes its highly unlikely that cardiff will go through but you do have a slim chance if MM gets his tactics right.....
earnie wont play, mason is far better dai. west hams home record reads: 11 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses, they've won less than 50% at home. they conceded 3 at home to birmingham, 4 reading,2 burnley leicester leeds, 3 pompey. 6 home clean sheets in 23 home matches... i'd be very surprised if we dont score there, and if they go 1-0 down their supporters will get on their back and it will be game on.....
Just disagree Dai. west Ham will come out knowing if they can get a third early they have it won. The longer we can hold it at the start the better. 0-0 at the half will be fine for us. Then WH will start to think about the finish line. That's when they may make mistakes. Liverpool 2-1 up anybody. As has been said we have to hold them early.
swamp you are talking about one of the better bigger clubs in the championship who done the hard bit in cardiff and kept a clean sheet.....can you honestly see sam blow his chance of getting back to the premiership now because there wont be anyone outside cardiff that will, and that will be the wishful thinkers......cardiffs best chance was at home and unfortunately sam out foxed MM with his tactics on the night, i cant see that being reversed tbh.....still its only half time but to me west ham will go through now....
Dai! I'm getting worried about you and your best wishes. Fair to say opposition goals are few and far between at the Boleyn,but Auto promoted Reading scored seven goals against the Hammers this season home and away. We beat Reading twice scoring five goals. Sometimes this league can turn up unusual results. Earnie and Miller would be a big mistake. What we need is a presence up front with either Mason,Miller or Earnie, and as he's the only viable choice it has to be Rudy. Macca to start and give Kiss another chance.
i know they are SS, but if we keep things tight and get a goal anything can happen, as i said their fans are discontented as they know they should be in the autos, it will be a nervy night for west ham if they opt to protect the lead
And the fact is it is football. The unexpected often happens. First game of the season we beat West Ham at their place. Wigan beat Newcastle, Arsenal, and United yet still are near the bottom. Swansea beat Man City FFS. Two goals is not much. Nobody knows what will happen because football is played by humans. Easy to say how West Ham should cruise in now. "Should have" would have made many people rich I will not be giving this one up until we have 15 minutes to go and we are 3 down. Any team can score 2 goals in 10 minutes!
Agree absolutely - Swansea were 4-1 up, at home, against Wolves just last weekend and look what happened. Get the first goal and the hammers will start to doubt themselves, get another and they will s**t themselves. As many, far more knowledgeable than me, have said 'it's a funny old game', and there is certainly no reason why you can't turn things around in the next leg. So get behind the team and believe!! And very best of luck!
Why not just throw the dice and see what happens team wise how about Marshall Blake. Gerrard. Hudson Taylour Whittingham Mc Phail. Gunnarson Earnshaw Mason Turner Nothing to lose and a bit odd ball I know , Turner starting up front to add some height and weight up front and providing knock downs for Earnie and Mason ( Millar as well could play also Mc Naughton ) thought West ham last night were very proffessional and ruthless as in committed fouls when needed and took there chances something we seem to lack - a killer attitude ?
Listening to TALKCRAP in the car on the way home, all of our fans bitterly disappointed, which was to be expected, also lots of them who couldnt understand MM's tictacs. Personally with Mcphail fit, for me he would have started as he is a very skillful player with a good football brain, which would have given Whitts more options and Lawrence. Marshall kept thumping high balls down the middle and in the end Reid was taking them on his chest unchallenged. Cundy did make a valid point that i have been harping on about all season. We have no width and no pace in the side. I am not one of the MM has done wonderful in his first season brigade, i question his choice of team and the way we play (boring most of the time) we do not get penalties, very few free kicks in dangeroo places and we dont create many chances actually in the 18 yard box. I still have an inkling that this tie is not yet done with but it is the proverbial mountain to climb, i have given my support to Cardiff City over 40 years of mainly Thin but lately a little bit of Thick which is encouraging for the future. But if MM employs the same Tactics next season we will be hard to beat but we will also be also rans. I will support Cardiff City whatever the team and whatever the standard we are playing at. But it is about time all this nonesence about give it time is firmly put to bed. I am 50 the last time we were in Division 1 was 1962, in fairness to our neighbours down west most of their fans have experienced Division 1 football twice in living memory. Its about time we had a bit of it, but i would give MM another year and then get an old head in charge if he doesnt deliver the goods.
you're all living in dreamland, it's all over and was as soon as collison's second went in. our best chance was to get a couple of goals to take to their place but we couldnt even muster that, we looked very tired, and utterly devoid of anything. of course west ham will attack, it is expected of them, this is a team who won the world cup in '66 remember... all they need is one which i expect them to get early in the first half and it will all be over for certain. we may as well not bother and send the youth team out for it, nice bit of experience for them. next season we need some pacy wingers and forwards so we can actually run at defences and break them down instead of having to rely on luck and oppo mistakes
when fans talk about come backs and win in the league then this is hard to do when there is a prize of a possible £90+million at stake. Of Course its not impossible but with what is at stake then very unlikely. West ham and big sam showed they wanted promotion more than cardiff and MM did and it showed... home advantage is massive and i think MM got it all wrong on the night and now he finds himself 2-0 down with a hell of a mountain to climb away from home against a team like west ham who are on fire.....i would like to see it but no way would i ever put money on it...
Isaw makes some very valid points which I have also mentioned to my friends in recent weeks. You win games by scoring goals and to do that you need the ball in and around the box. We simply don't do it enough hence the lack of penalties or free kicks in dangerous positions. However, Malky came to a club which was in a very poor state. He has built a team which made top 6 - beyond many fans expectations last August. He must now get rid of the deadwood - I listed my 13 to go 2 weeks ago - and construct a squad which will be all his and which he will be totally responsible for. Only those deep inside the club know the true reasons for not getting more players in the window although I suspect the pending Financial fair Play Rules had something to do with it. In attack it needs to be something between last years big names and our under performing forwards (Joe mason excepted) of the last 3 months. One other point, nearly 3,800 empty seats last night when ticket prices were deliberately held down. Okay some of those seats were in the away end where the full 2,200 were not put on sale for security reasons but that still leaves 3,000+ unsold home seats. Yes, times is hard but for god's sake this is the play offs, 3 games from the Prem. If we were to get up I bet those missing 3,000 wouild be falling over themselves to snap up seats to see Prem clubs. I don't hold out much hope for Monday with no plan B if Rudy doesn't play but this season has been a team bonding and learning experience and with the right signings we will do much better next season.
Lot of gloom on here. It is only half time and if you can score first on monday then it's game on, but I think you must score first. Do that and West Ham will be on edge, if you then get a second goal to level matters then the momentum will well and truly be in your favour. Keep the faith, far stranger things have happened.
We lost because West Ham are a much better side than us. Thats the only reason. They should have won this league. I would have picked the exact same line up with Kev Mac out. If Rudy was fit id play the same formation as the Carling Cup but hes out. West Ham will have to totally bottle it for us to turn it around. We will be going for it again next season with hopefully new signings with pace. Id give Ralls and Kiss a game and include Harris in the squad. Give our young players a taste of one of these games. Kiss will at least let Nolan and co something to think about. I hope West Ham win the final. We need them out of the league. The teams coming down will be little threat. Malky as laid the foundations of a good side. The right signings and I think we will make top 2. Dont understand this no plan b thing. We played various formations this season. But whatever system weve had we are always held back by no pace.
Hilts - You can only have a meaningful plan B,C,D etc if you've got the players available to make the difference. We don't. To say we've tried different formations this season is fair to some extent, but we're severley restricted. The lack of pace to inject out wide is a prime example. A hold-up target man other than Rudy who spends more time on the physio's couch, is another. The left hand side has been particularly pedestrian this season. Taylor is very slow, Whitts/Mcphail in front of him almost as bad, and Conway before his injury, despite being tagged a winger, is no Bellamy or Burke to take his full back on. Down the right, we seem to rely on Kev to work the touchline in the absence of any pace in front of him. In fact when you think of it, the only real plan B we've seen recently is whether to start McPhail or bring him on later. That really sums it up. Up front, Miller and Mason have become a fixture, along with the back four. Without those signings/loans in the respective windows for whatever reason is put forward, Malky has very few options to really change our style. That has cost us big time this season.
Your comments re West Ham are partially accurate, Hilts. No offence but they are a better team than you have right now but they still aren't great. Typical Allardyce side. The Championship is pretty rank right now imo. As for "The teams coming down will be little threat." You've said this before. All three, WILL be a threat to varying degrees. Of the possibles, Bolton are an established Prem team as are Blackburn. IF they can keep some of their better players they will be a match for anybody. From what I've seen of Cardiff this season you're not that good, sorry and all that. QPR have bags of money to throw at it if they go down and Wolves have been there and done it before. If the unthinkable happens and Villa go they'll do a Toon imo so that's one space already gone. I wouldn't be so dismissive if I was you. It'll be harder than ever next season.
wolves are the only team i think that could bounce back next season. bolton are £100m in debt so there will be a wholesale clearout there, you cant ask the owner to lose another £20m next season as they could quite easily drop down the divisions with that philosophy. blackburns owners arent investing any money and will probably look to sell off their few remaining high earners and assets. i said before west ham should have walked the league but leicester spent a load of money and are mid table, money isnt a guarantee of success... but i agree, that west ham team is the same apart from parker that should have stayed up last season. a direct, physical team with know how with the likes of nolan. they need promotion otherwise the owners will lose another £20-£30m next season. lawrence has no pace, but if he did he'd be twice the player he is, but a 2 goal deficit is not the end of the world......
