We are NOT down..............

[Oldsparkey]

..........not yet anyway.

Arguably ours was the easiest game on paper, but Sunderland, Stoke, and Palace also lost yesterday - Fulham got just point and are still behind us.

The common factor shared by those four? they all have to play us, three of them at the CCS.

As far as I'm concerned, Brom's draw at home to Fulham cost them 2 points they needed and should have got. Norwich have a tough game today as well against Tottenham, and even though Swansea seem to have a new lease of life under Monk, they've got another tough game at Liverpool.

There's still only 7 points between the bottom 9 clubs and although after yesterday it seems like it, it ain't over yet.

I can understand the feelings of negativity after yesterday, I had them too at the time, but I've had time to reflect.

I thought we were worth at least a couple of goals lead at least at half time but we never really opened them up like they did to us. If one or two of those had gone in, we'd be singing from a different hymnsheet right now.

We paid the price and chasing the game cost us the scoreline - defensively, we were a shambles.

 

[aberdude]

this is refreshing sparkey...........yep we aint far off climbing out(results still going our way when we lose) and it may go down 2 the Chelsea game at home 2 decide it>>>>>could you imagine a title and relegation decider in the ccs...............who knows what will happen....we need our luck 2 change firstly and then we may start getting the goals needed 2 win games.

 

[john hughs]

Would love us to stay up Sparkey can anyone see where the goals are coming from , any flair in the midfield anyone who can score even from 3 yards ?

True we have those teams in the same boat as us to play but at least they know how to pass to each other and defend never mind putting the ball in the net .

Fans left early yesterday as the football was an insult to their patience with the way this club is being run .

I will keep on supporting my team Cardiff City as always home and away but how many games are we going to say ..........This is the one we must win?

 

[rovertiger]

Even after the performance we put on yesterday i'm still not sure we're safe yet. There's a hell of a lot of points still to play for yet and i'll only feel a little safer after two more wins.
I hope you stay up fellas, sooner you than the sad Mackems. That last game of the season at our place will be remembered by a lot of us in the way you lads helped make it special.

Best of luck for the rest of the season.

 

[hampshire Blue]

Sparkey you are right. We're not down..............yet.

Luckily for us there are other teams as inept as we are. But at some point we need to win to take advantage of the situation.

We won't do things the easy way, we are Cardiff City.

 

[Oldsparkey]

Well both Swansea and Villa lost so there's no comfort zone position for either of them yet. All we need now is for Norwich to get the treatment from Spurs later this afternoon to mitigate yesterday's disaster.

The more teams held down there and under threat, the better. Comfort zone clubs can take their foot off the gas when the play scrappers for points. If that bottom 10 clubs can stay within about half a dozen points of each other as long as possible, this could still turn out to be a classic run in.

One thing I agree with as absolutely essential - no matter what anyone else does, Ole and the lads had better sort out our game between them, otherwise what others do will have no impact at all. We'll kill ourselves off without anyone elses help.

 

[SBFF]

With the lack of gaols I would fear being in the championship, or any league for that matter, no goals = no wins.
Can it still be done? yes, can we do it, I don't think so, it would be a hell of a turnaround to get us above the safety line and I'm not seeing a team that is capable of that.
Our best chance is that Ole is working this out the same way he did for Molde when he started there, if he can do here what he done there we have a fair shot at staying up.
The fat lady has stopped singing, we have to hope she gets an encore.

 

[DragonPhilljack]

Us Jacks are looking forward to March with 3 home games against Crystal Palace, Albion, Norwich City, and an away game against Everton, where I think we will pick up at least 9 points to put us out of sight of the dogfight at the bottom, our form is now well and truly on the up since Monk has taken over, we gave Liverpool a scare today too, not bad for a Rookie manager aye!.......








Why don't you sack Ole and put Bellamy in charge!............

 

[ValleyGraduate12]

Would love us to stay up Sparkey can anyone see where the goals are coming from , any flair in the midfield anyone who can score even from 3 yards ?

True we have those teams in the same boat as us to play but at least they know how to pass to each other and defend never mind putting the ball in the net .

Fans left early yesterday as the football was an insult to their patience with the way this club is being run .

I will keep on supporting my team Cardiff City as always home and away but how many games are we going to say ..........This is the one we must win?

Probably every game until it's mathematically impossible to go down/stay up.

 

[DaiJones]

Drag on phill jack,

Hope you pick up 9 points against Crystal Palace, Albion & Norwich City. It will help us no end.

Take no notice of Jonny bach, just wants us to go down so he can slate Cardiff Fans, while he's in his bedroom listening to the radio.

 

[DaiJones]

What happened to Jonny boy's post and my reply?

 

[suprimir]

What happened to Jonny boy's post and my reply?

They were probably deleted because most of us are tired with your public bickering.

I do not think I am being pessimistic by saying we look a shoe in to go down. Nearly everyone would have us in their 3 to go at the moment. I have said the PL has been disappointing for me this season as a whole, but that as well does not mean I am praying we get relegated. The reason I can't see us staying up is that we can't score goals. How do we get the points needed?? To say we will get out of this implies we will start scoring 2 to 3 goals a match; I just don't see that happening.

 

[Stevoldinho]

They were probably deleted because most of us are tired with your public bickering.

I do not think I am being pessimistic by saying we look a shoe in to go down. Nearly everyone would have us in their 3 to go at the moment. I have said the PL has been disappointing for me this season as a whole, but that as well does not mean I am praying we get relegated. The reason I can't see us staying up is that we can't score goals. How do we get the points needed?? To say we will get out of this implies we will start scoring 2 to 3 goals a match; I just don't see that happening.

It's why I said on a thread the other day we MUST restrict the other team to 0 or 1 absolute max. Our selections should start reflecting this simple fact. I'm pretty sure the last league game we won by more than a single goal was against Burnley at the CCS at the start of last season. How Ole can set us up to out score the opposition is pretty ****ing mental tbh and makes me really worried about whether he has any idea at all about what it will take to either stay up or get back into to this league.

I will add that but for an absolute horror show from Taylor we would not have conceded 3 of those goals v Hull. It could have been a very different game had our left back not looked Sunday league. The 3rd goal was possibly the worst decision I've ever seen a PL player make. He was stood within 2 yards of Jelavic but tells Caulker who's 15 yards away to mark him as (the superb) Roseignor was about to cross the ball! I had to rewind it 5 or 6 times on MOTD to believe what I was watching.

 

[Oldsparkey]

I do not think I am being pessimistic by saying we look a shoe in to go down. Nearly everyone would have us in their 3 to go at the moment. I have said the PL has been disappointing for me this season as a whole, but that as well does not mean I am praying we get relegated. The reason I can't see us staying up is that we can't score goals. How do we get the points needed?? To say we will get out of this implies we will start scoring 2 to 3 goals a match; I just don't see that happening.

I don't think many on here will disagree with that Temple - seems a general feeling to me. Being pessimistic is often a self defence mechanism to avoid dissappointment, whereas the habitual optimist is wide open to a big fall. Expecting the worse can cushion the blow when (if) it happens.

If we do survive, it will be against the mathematical odds given our present table position, let alone our ineffective striking ability to win games.

Having said that, if the manager, players and supporters think throwing in the towel at this point with eleven games still to go is the answer, then I'll not bother to use the rest of my season ticket and watch the top 4 fight it out for the title on the box.

For whatever reason, ludicrous as it may seem having witnessed the West Ham, Villa and Hull games recently, I still think this is going to go down to the wire. I agree we must turn it around quicly though. If we become detached from the pack during March, those last half dozen games will just be for pride and not survival.

 

[SBFF]

Our team is set up to outscore the other side, unfortunately, not being able to score is a rather big drawback in these tactics.
But should we start putting away chances then the face of things change.
Being a goal up with the other side chasing puts a completely different outlook on any game.
I think Ole's approach is so vastly different from what we were doing under Malky, that we are reaping the cost of change and running out of time.
Eventually he will get it right, but it's looking very late in the day.
It's a brave call to say we will stay up at this point in time, but I haven't given up hope entirely, we keep on till we can't do any more.
It might help if the fans weren't so split, we need a bigger sounding 12th man more than ever now.

 

[BluefromBridgend]

I'm not throwing in the towel and will be there supporting the team to the bitter end.

BUT - I've watched the game for 50 years, mostly Cardiff and Newport, so recognise the traits of clubs destined for relegation and we have all of them. In particular no luck and most crucial decisions going against us, all of which drains the confidence of the guys on the park and saps the energy from the supporters in the sands. All of that happened again on Saturday.

What if anything can be done to turn it around? I can't see that the new players, with the possible exception of Daehli, are any better than those replaced. Does OGS have motivational skills because he's going to bloody well need them now.

BUT - I'm renewing my st today and as I am 60 next month get the age related discount for next season as well as the 5 year price promise. If we do go down then Championship at £10 per home game is pretty good value.

 

[whoops]

Sorry but optimism is not on my agenda. If we were playing with any kind of plan then there are grounds to think we have a chance. But in reality we are so soft in the middle of the park, the defence a shambles and goal scoring prowess non existent that it is only a matter of time before we are down and out. The manager makes so many changes that there is no chance of a settled side and few would disagree that we are far worse now than we were before OGS was appointed.

Playing kids in midfield means they are getting out - muscled by physically stronger opposition and let's face it Fabio can't defend, Zaha is ineffective and somewhat of a luxury, and Kenwyn Jones is enigmatic and doesn't look any better than players we have transferred or loaned to other clubs.

On top of this we have a manager who is totally inexperienced, not only in the Premier League but also in fighting relegation battles. If things were beginning to improve then I would think there was an iota of hope but unfortunately OGS's tenure has only got us 4 points - a very lucky win against Norwich and a lucky draw against Villa which could easily have been a loss if it hadn't been for Marshall's wonder save at the end of the game.

Does anyone really believe we can survive.

 

[Oldsparkey]

More hope than belief whoops, but then that's all we can do, and far it's better rather than wringing our hands in the tumbril on the way to the chop.

Whether Ole is up for the job is something that's out of our hands. He's in the hot seat and I agree, we could go down as much for his inexperience in the job as for the lack of sheer quality in our squad. The players he's brought in in January smack of comfort zone signings as players he knows personally, although it's as well to remember that he had very little money to spend and nothing remotely like the £25M pot the media was advocating.

Shuffling the pack to find the right combo on the pitch is an art that comes with experience as a manager, and because of his lack of it, I think Ole is going to have to get lucky. Let's hope that he is and we are.

 

[GLAMorgan]

My head says absolutely now way by now. As for my heart... well, we've got more than a theoretical chance, but I simply can't see us getting together in time. I will, like most people, shout until it's impossible (and beyond) and one quick win could change everything. Strangely, I think our best hope of a win might come away from home, where there's less pressure on the players from the crowd and less tension in the ground. If, for example (and by some miracle, I know I'm clutching at straws) we managed to nick a draw at Spurs, that would be a massive boost for the following home game against our fellow strugglers, Fulham. I think we'll have a better perspective once that game is out of the way. If we gain no points from those tow, we're down for sure.

 

[ninian opinion]

..........not yet anyway.

Arguably ours was the easiest game on paper, but Sunderland, Stoke, and Palace also lost yesterday - Fulham got just point and are still behind us.

The common factor shared by those four? they all have to play us, three of them at the CCS.

.

That is a worrying thought. The 3 teams coming to CCS are better organised, have arguably better and fitter and more focussed players and managers and will be able without too much difficulty know how to beat us.

I will say though that missing Medel, Bellamy & Mutch makes a huge difference. But 23 shots on goal, and only 1 decent save had to be made by McGregor.

Defensively as you say it was chaotic. No closing down, no marking. The 3rd goal was as bad as seen since Charlton away last season.

City are shot. 5 points out of 33. 7 goals (SEVEN) in 11 games.26 (TWENTY SIX) conceded in 11 games. ONE clean sheet in 11 games.

5 wins all season. To expect 5 more in remaining fixtures is fanciful.

What a total waste of an opportunity. This season has been awful.

Cardiff City 2013-14 is a classic example of how NOT to do an inaugural season in the PL.