Cardiff City [R]

man mark

Got to man mark the little welsh demon. I think he may cause us loads of trouble with his pace. We should stick razor on him. No worries, he should be able to keep up with him

Dan

 

Earnshaw currently isnt in the team. It is Campbell, Thorne and the very impressive Fortune West in attack. They are currently keeping Earnshaw out, expect Earnshaw on after about 65 mins. The way Fortune West is playing he will eat Ruddock up and spit him out. He really has been excellent him Legg and Croft have been the outstanding players.

 

swindon-cardiff

Dont be to sure of yourself. Things are looking up for swindon. We have just come out of administration and the team for the first time in years are playing well together. We had a hard battled out draw against blackpool and the other results? well what can you say. Outstanding. Parkin, the lad from chelsea looks a class act. He has some great touches and you can see he has trained at a top premiership club. His hat trick was an unbelievable. Is he the next shearer (scoring a hat trick on all his first games?) I am looking forward to this match. If we can get a good result to you boys i will be chuffed! a draw would do me. We have started well, now i want us to keep in going for a while. Hopefully we will still be singing we are top of the league come May?

Laters Dan

 

We deserved to win. Although we didnt play fantastic football we looked more dangerous. Our goal came against the run of play. Even though we hit the post as well as Whalley having a good shot tipped around the post before that. A very nice touch from Fortune West just vollying home from 8 yards. Swindon didnt work the keeper although had a decent shot from a free kick and dangerous cross in the 2nd half. Kavanagh should have increased the lead but his shot was tame.
Then Barry Knight failed to see one of the most obvious penalties Earnshaw was by the post knocked the ball past the defender who just jumped in for no reason has crashed into Earnshaw. I though there was going to be a riot. The the ref failed to see another incident when Fortune West who looked clear to add a 2nd was brought down, however the ref thought he dived and booked the big man.
Not a great peformance but we looked alright at the back after Gbbidon settled down. Not to optimistic about Luton as you cant go to long without winning.

 

Cariff 0 V Luton 0
Another dissapointing display City only created a handful of chances. The best coming in the dying minutes from substitute Earnshaw who struck the post from close range. Neail Alexander saved City again in the last few minutes with a super save in a 1 on 1 situation. A lot of Cardiff players were dissapointing throughout and really need to improve if they are to look for promotion. Its a good thing we are usually better away because on the basis of this pefromance it is going to be tough to break the better teams down at Ninian Park.

 

Neil Alexander has been called up into the Scotland squad to start the euro 2004 qualifiers. he comes in for Neil Sullivan who is out for 2 months.

 

Cheltenham 1 Cardiff 1

Cardiff made a good start and looked the better team and it was no surprise when Andy Campbell assisted by Thorne and Kavangh places a 1 on 1 shot into the net. However Cheltenham scored against the run of play with a scrappy goal which Cardiff should have cleared. From then on Cardiff didnt creat many chances and were forced to poor crosses and long throws. In the 2nd half Cardiff dominated but could not break down Cheltnhams 11 men behind the ball. Cardiff really need to find away to play effectivly because it is not working at the moment.

 

Promotion favourites Cardiff City were held to a draw in a fascinating match at Whaddon Road.

http://www.cardiffcity-mad.co.uk/news/loadrprt.asp?cid=MTCH&id=60244


Lennie Lawrence will feel that it was two points lost rather than one gained. City dominated the match and took the lead after 10 minutes through Andy Campbell. However, Cheltenham's Neil Howarth equalised for the Robins after 32 minutes.

http://cardiffcity.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=927&p=2&stid=8273745

 

The last few days there has been strong rumours on web sites, newspapers and on the radio linking Joe Max Moore with a move to Cardiff, innitialy on loan. This would be a long shot as the player currently requires an operation. Other rumours ahve linked Earnshaw with a move to West Ham and Everton.

 

The reported news of the transfer was onTalk Sport. I havent heard anything new about the transfer. I dont know what is happening with the transfer window, I read today that the rules were changing again.

In other news Cardiffs shirt sponsors Ken Thorne have gone Bust. They did have a deal of £300,000 a year. It said Cardiff have seen about £100,000 of that. As well as this they recently had 8000 replica shirts made with the ken Thorne Logo on. Which are ultimaelty going to be worthless as Cariff City are now looking for a new sponorship deal with someone and quickly.

 

Tottenham will fall just as Leeds did. We cant make the same mistake as last season as I think the Leeds match cost us promotion.
Cardiff 2- Stockport 1
This was easily the best we have played all year. Earnshaw was electric and earned a corner in the opening minutes. A neat set piece resulted him rising above the defense and neatly heading into the top corner. However the show had not finished, he ripped his shirt off, summersaulted towards the corner falg and finished it off with a nice litle dance.
Peter Thorne could ahve made it 2-0 minutes later but missed a chance from a cross after breaking the offside trap. Earnshaw came close with an overhead kick and struck the bar. That was before a ball over the defense set of Luke Becket, Prior sliped and he was left one on one with the keeper. He cooly finished he nor any of the oher Stockport player wouldnt get another chance on goal for the whole match.
Just before half time, a ball from the left fell to Earnshaws feet, he laid it off to Kavanagh and with the help of a slight deflection finished of from about 16 yards.
Peter Thorne hit the bar in the second half and Cardiff had a penalty appeal turned down Cardiff dominated this game from start to finish.

 

No point going if you dont think you are going to lose. On our day I belive we are capable of beating anyone in England with the exception of Arsenal. We have about 10 players with Premiership experience as well as that we have some exciting youngsters and the long throw specialist Andy legg. It only takes 1 goal to win a match and I am sure we will be able to score. The problem is at the other end.

 

Just move the Cardiff back up to the top, To look at the last 4 games.
Cardiff 2-0 Brentford
To tell the truth I cant really remember this game, I can remember Andy Legg scroing from a Rob Earnshaw cross in the first half. Earnshaw got the second after a good long ball from Weston put him onto a chase for the loose ball, as Earnshaw got to the ball he noticed the keeper off his line and chipped it in from just outside the edge of the box.

Notts County 0-1 Cardiff
Not a great game, we dominated throughout though and should ahve scored another. He goal was a stunning 30 yard drive from gary Croft which went in of the post.

Plymouth 2-2 Cardiff
We were a bit sloppy in this game, although took the lead inside 2 minutes a Thorne head down left Earnshaw to score past the Plymouth goalie. Conceded a sloppy goal long free kick which the keeper did not judge well enough. Alexander made 2 great stops also int he first half. We were ahead in the 2nd half a great cross from Legg was met by Earnshaws head to fire city ahead. However the referee wanted the final say, after 3 extra minutes were signaled the ref obviously hadnt allowed enough time for Plymouth to score. The 3 minuites were up however after this he allowed Plymouth to takeas many corners as they wanted so they scored. The equaliser came in the 95th minute almost double the extra time that was supposed to be added on.

Cardiff 2- 1 Crewe
A good football game played by both halfs. However the best moment came at half time when the contracts were exchanged between the Cardiff mayor and Sam which meant planning permission could start for a new 30,000 seater stadium. Rob Hulse managed to sneak behingd the city defense to get Crewe 1-0 up. However Earnshaw struck twice in the final 6 minutes after being set up by Weston and Fortune West.

Tottenham game tonight, around 4,000 Cardiff supporters making the journey. The game will be closer than most think (Dont make me eat my words). Fortune West could come in for Thorne.

More detailed match reports on:http://www.cardiffcity-mad.co.uk/news/loadsngl.asp?CID=ED61

 

Good luck for tonight. I think you've got a good chance of pulling off a shock as Premiership teams don't seem that motivated in the Worthington cup any more. It was only 5 years ago that the Reading team which came last in Division 2 won at Leeds to put us into the quarter-finals. If they want to play though, they will cut you to shreds. Luckily they probably won't. If premiership managers realised that all they have to do against lower division sides is run at their defences with pace then there'd almost never be a cup shock again.

Does Paul Brayson still play for you? His name will make "worst Reading player you ever saw" lists for years to come. 1 goal in 50 games is not great for a striker.

 

We didnt deserve to get anything yesterday, Spurs played very well and created lost of chances and Sheringham was exceptional.
As for Brayson he was released in the summer and is now at Cheltenham. Brayson always did OK for us but he was to far away from 1st team football at Ninian Park and it wasnt fair keeping him at the club.