BLUEBIRDS ARE SOARING BUT NEIL IS STAYING CALM
Welsh side have now won all five
CARDIFF City moved three points clear at the top of the Championship after coming from behind to seal victory over Queens Park Rangers.
Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds went into the game with a 100 per cent record and a fifth straight league win means the Welsh side can now rest during the international break with their confidence sky high. Veteran boss Warnock couldn’t have asked for more from his team so far.
They actually went 1-0 down here to a header from Matt Smith in the 15th minute, but rallied to turn things around before the interval.
Junior Hoilett got his team back into it by charging down Alex Smithies’ clearance and Sol Bamba, fresh from signing a new three-year Cardiff deal, came up with the game’s vital goal.
Fans of the Welsh side will now be thinking of promotion, but Warnock said: “Our supporters will be dreaming, but I know in this league your form can turn and you can quickly lose three or four games on the spin.
“I’m still delighted with the result and if we can be in and around the top four by the end of our September and October fixtures, then I think we’ll have a decent chance of the play-offs. We’ll have to wait and see, but I thought we started sluggish. We
showed character to get back into the game and scored two good goals.
“I don’t know what the supporters pay to get in here, but you can’t tell me it’s not value for money. This is a wonderful place to be right now and I'm enjoying it.”
Cardiff full-back Lee Peltier was lucky to escape a sanction for an elbow in his early collision with Josh Scowen, but QPR went on to take the lead in the 15th minute.
Home stopper Neil Etheridge came to collect Luke Freeman’s cross, but powerful striker Smith was there before him and headed into the back of the net.
Warnock’s men nonetheless regrouped, showing the sort of resilience any team managed by their boss seems to show. They were undoubtedly helped by QPR, though.
Under no pressure, Nedum Onuoha underhit his back passs to Smithies and Hoilett was the beneficiary as the ball rebounded off him and into the net.
The goal sent Rangers boss Ian Holloway mad and rightly so because it gifted Cardiff a way back into the game in what until then had been a tight encounter.
Smithies then saved smartly from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, but from the resulting corner Bamba headed home Hoilett’s swirling set-piece at the back post.
Cardiff dominated the second half, but couldn’t make further progress. Hoilett was denied a hat-trick by having further efforts ruled out either side of the interval.
Kenneth Zohore also went close, but there was no doubting which team deserved to win.
Since Cardiff's relegation from the Premier League in 2013-14, there has been a feeling the club has underachieved for too long. Warnock has changed all that and this could be the season they achieve something special by returning to the top flight in May.
And Rangers boss Holloway admitted he had been impressed by his team’s opposition.
He said: “On the balance of play it was a fair result. Cardiff created a lot of chances and I thought their front three were difficult to contain. But the game changed when we conceded the first goal. The manner of it was disappointing and we could have dealt with it a lot better. It knocked the stuffing out of us.
“The game was always going to be tough and then we go and do that.
“We could have snuck one at the end, but this is up there with the best Cardiff teams I've seen.
“The players are pretty downhearted about the result, but I told them not to be. It's onwards and upwards for us.
“As for Neil, congratulations to him. He has a good team at his disposal.”