On the last visit to Cardiff,nearly 20 years ago,the Queens Hotel
was our sanctuary from the danny dyer style war zone which was cardiff city centre after Nathan Blake had dumped us out of the FA cup.
My girlfriend at the time and now wife of 17 years took some persuading to return to the place but a weekend away in Beirut and she'd generally be up for it
What a pleasant surprise to find such a changed city
Gone is the quite frankly nasty intimidating and unwelcoming atmosphere of 2 decades ago and the replacement is a charming vibrant and friendly city,the bars down by the bay make for a great night out and there was plenty of friendly banter between Cardiff and Man City fans making a weekend of it.
After contrasting first games where from all accounts cardiff just didn't turn up at upton park and a convincing victory against a poor Newcastle side at the Etihad,on paper a convincing away win seemed to be the expected outcome from bookmakers & the media alike
Life is never that easy and having been on the receiving end of our fair share of upsets and hidings over the years,taking things for granted is not something a man city fan is fond of doing
So a first visit to the Cardiff city stadium which at first glance suggested a lack of the character the old ninian park had and I wondered whether the intimidating atmosphere of the old place would be replicated by the modern stadia.
The wall of noise greeting the teams put payed to that theory as the Cardiff fans got right behind their side on the first home premier league game and I hoped Pellegrini had an inkling for the battle I just knew was coming.
Malky Mackay certainly had them fired up and his game plan,almost a replica of how Southampton played against us the season before,was put into effect as the Cardiff players fought for everything and stopped the supply through the lines that we enjoyed against the lethargic Geordies the week before.With the system cardiff employed it made them play like the tight tactical away sides do,sit deep ,break up in front of the back four and look to play on the counter
Man City's pair at the back of the ponderous Lescott and the painfully slow Garcia were always a worry and Campbell was troubling them every time he ran at them and I felt yaya and Fernandinho weren't putting the hard yards in that the Cardiff players like the excellent Kim were doing to protect the back four and going into the break on level terms felt a bit like a victory in itself
Second half started and it was disappointing to see no change in system or attitude as we dominated possession but still looked the more likely to concede
Then City scored
For me it came out of the blue and was the only real bit of quality in the game up until then as Dzeko rifled home latching onto a classy touch from Sergio
So that should've been that,Cardiff were now supposed to roll over,concede a couple more and get a pat on the back for being spirited
They hadnt read the script and took the game to city and drew level from our Achilles heel,the set piece. Sensing blood cardiff came again and picked us off again twice as the dreadful defending and marking from Mancinis time reared its ugly head again and although Negredo nodded in a late consolation,the points deservedly belonged to Cardiff
You can have all the money in the world but If the commitment and desire of the opposition isn't matched on the field it really counts for nothing
Be interesting to see pellegrinis reaction to such a poor performance and also to see if cardiff can replicate the same level of passion and commitment week in week out. If they can then they will stay up comfortably
So the same ****ty performance and result from 2 decades ago but at least this time it wasn't with the memory of being extras in the film The Warriors
was our sanctuary from the danny dyer style war zone which was cardiff city centre after Nathan Blake had dumped us out of the FA cup.
My girlfriend at the time and now wife of 17 years took some persuading to return to the place but a weekend away in Beirut and she'd generally be up for it
What a pleasant surprise to find such a changed city
Gone is the quite frankly nasty intimidating and unwelcoming atmosphere of 2 decades ago and the replacement is a charming vibrant and friendly city,the bars down by the bay make for a great night out and there was plenty of friendly banter between Cardiff and Man City fans making a weekend of it.
After contrasting first games where from all accounts cardiff just didn't turn up at upton park and a convincing victory against a poor Newcastle side at the Etihad,on paper a convincing away win seemed to be the expected outcome from bookmakers & the media alike
Life is never that easy and having been on the receiving end of our fair share of upsets and hidings over the years,taking things for granted is not something a man city fan is fond of doing
So a first visit to the Cardiff city stadium which at first glance suggested a lack of the character the old ninian park had and I wondered whether the intimidating atmosphere of the old place would be replicated by the modern stadia.
The wall of noise greeting the teams put payed to that theory as the Cardiff fans got right behind their side on the first home premier league game and I hoped Pellegrini had an inkling for the battle I just knew was coming.
Malky Mackay certainly had them fired up and his game plan,almost a replica of how Southampton played against us the season before,was put into effect as the Cardiff players fought for everything and stopped the supply through the lines that we enjoyed against the lethargic Geordies the week before.With the system cardiff employed it made them play like the tight tactical away sides do,sit deep ,break up in front of the back four and look to play on the counter
Man City's pair at the back of the ponderous Lescott and the painfully slow Garcia were always a worry and Campbell was troubling them every time he ran at them and I felt yaya and Fernandinho weren't putting the hard yards in that the Cardiff players like the excellent Kim were doing to protect the back four and going into the break on level terms felt a bit like a victory in itself
Second half started and it was disappointing to see no change in system or attitude as we dominated possession but still looked the more likely to concede
Then City scored
For me it came out of the blue and was the only real bit of quality in the game up until then as Dzeko rifled home latching onto a classy touch from Sergio
So that should've been that,Cardiff were now supposed to roll over,concede a couple more and get a pat on the back for being spirited
They hadnt read the script and took the game to city and drew level from our Achilles heel,the set piece. Sensing blood cardiff came again and picked us off again twice as the dreadful defending and marking from Mancinis time reared its ugly head again and although Negredo nodded in a late consolation,the points deservedly belonged to Cardiff
You can have all the money in the world but If the commitment and desire of the opposition isn't matched on the field it really counts for nothing
Be interesting to see pellegrinis reaction to such a poor performance and also to see if cardiff can replicate the same level of passion and commitment week in week out. If they can then they will stay up comfortably
So the same ****ty performance and result from 2 decades ago but at least this time it wasn't with the memory of being extras in the film The Warriors
