One of the best things has been the Norwich fans reaction. The Pinkun forum was comedy gold. Really self entitled delusional fans. Its all there - how **** we are , the refs fault , we are Millwall , before reverting to kick us out of the EFL.
Just watched the game on the city website. Good to see the players to be able to identify them by name. Much has been said of individual performances so I'll stick to general observations, other than to say Allsop needs to stop kicking the ball long. When he kicks it more than 10 yards it ends up in touch. That aside, great feet though. Firstly, a refreshing change of style. A bit disjointed at times but that will improve with time together. City swarmed around Norwich out of possession and many times when we got the ball back it wasnt from a clean tackle it was either an interception after pressure was put on their player or it was a second or even third ball after we got a toe in. Us getting a second ball wasnt lucky, it was by design. Good pressing, and working collectively. Scramble defence was good limiting their crosses / chances with good blocks. When we got a lose ball, 2 or 3 one touch passes put a player in space with time on the ball. No doubt a lot of hard work has gone into that. Players look comfortable with the ball at their feet, calm, generally no panic. Usually looking to get forward with a sideways or backwards pass only when necessary. No passing for the sake of it. We made 5 substitutions and we didnt see a drop in standards. Everyone coming off the bench slotted in and did their job. Not to get carried away, work is still needed in attack. A few wrong decisions and some hesitency in getting the ball in the box. We rode our luck at times and during the season we will get punished. A promising start. Made Norwich look average and frustrated them. Will be interesting to see how we go against teams we expect to beat.
Just watching the EFL highlights, and as much as I hate to stick up for Cardiff, but I thought the second yellow for NG was very, very weak! The Hanley second yellow for Norwich was the opposite, it was crystal clear.
Cheers Supcon. To be fair to Hanley, he was the nearest player to NG in the melee, but it was a player behind Hanley that pushed NG and should have been booked when Hanley got his first card. The second was a definite card. Still dont understand how 3 Cardiff players got booked in the melee when the Norwich players were the agressors.
I didn’t think Hanley’s 2nd yellow was worth a caution. Harris ‘bought the foul’ and the ref took the chance to even up Ng’s red.
Having seen very brief highlights Saturday night it could be argued that Hanley's first yellow was wrong. It was the other centre back who snaked his arm around Hanley and pushed Ng. Also why was Ng booked when he got pushed over? Hanley's second yellow? Yes, Harris milked it but surely Hanley should have known better than to put in a rash challenge in a meaningless part of the pitch. Nevertheless the ref was dreadful for both sides so it all evened up. I have it in my head that Hanley has seen red at CCS before but can't find any reference to it.
To be fair. Ralls was a yellow for the initial take one for the team foul. Ng for knocking Pukki over.
Wasn't it Hanley that scored 2 own goals for Blackburn against us? Did he get sent off too??? Can't recall TBH. I do remember he was our top scorer for 2 or 3 weeks though EDIT - I was wrong, it was Duffy that had that honour not Hanley.
I might have confused Hanley with Harley Dean who got sent off at CCS in 2019 when we beat Brum 4.2 courtesy of a Joe Ralls hat trick.
City and Norwich to be charged for the melee which saw Ralls and Hanley booked and Ng sent off. Perhaps my memory fails me but wasn't it the Norwich players who charged in mob handed after Ralls foul. Were Cardiff players supposed to do nothing and let the opposition trample all over Ralls or protect their colleague? Yes our guys responded in kind especially as the ref stood back until it cooled down. As usual both sides will be fined and warned as to their future contact but it is about time such incidents were looked at in finer detail to identify where the problem lies. Will they look at the ref's incompetence at the same time? I still can't understand why Ng got carded for being pushed to the ground. Did he smile at the Norwich players in an ironic manner, was he wearing a loud shirt in a public place or did he have possession of an offensive wife?
Still find it crazy that you can't appeal against a second yellow. Wouldn't have thought it would cause too much extra work for the powers that be.
They seem to have the principle that officials are always right in giving yellows. Pathetic. If clubs could appeal perhaps refs would give more consideration before dishing out.
To be honest I think it was probably for the way he barged into Pukki as he started to square up to Ralls after being tugged back. Side note, unless anyone else wants to do it, I'll release a Reading Matchday Thread tomorrow.
Give the man time. The creative juices can't be rushed. (I think that also answers a question that Frankfurter asked me a few weeks back).
