Hero Sol saves day for Bluebirds
NEIL WARNOCK branded Sol Bamba a ‘colossus’ after he salvaged a dramatic draw for Cardiff City against a dominant Sheffield Wednesday.
The Ivorian centre-half was in the right place at the right time to rescue a point for the Bluebirds with virtually the last kick of the game.
The goal came just when Carlos Carvalhal’s Owls looked to be cruising to a third straight victory after Gary Hooper scored for the fourth game in a row.
“Sol Bamba was ten out of ten, he was a colossus,” said Warnock.
“I’ve not seen a centre-half play like that for a long time he was absolutely unbelievable, he dragged us through.
“It’s like winning a game. I’ve been on the other end of games like that and you’re distraught that you can’t believe you’ve thrown points away.
“We were disappointing in the first half, we carried on where we left off at Preston. We were on the back foot. But we deserved it in the second half, we had 12 efforts to their two.”
The visitors dominated possession in the opening exchanges but Steven Fletcher’s long-range effort was all they had to show for it.
Kieran Lee’s curling corner found captain Tom Lees, but he failed to open the scoring as he flashed his header wide from six yards out.
But the reward for their firsthalf superiority finally came when Hooper scored for the fourth match running.
The 29-year-old rose highest to head Adam Reach’s cross past Neil Etheridge into the bottom corner for a 1-0 lead at half-time.
Cardiff’s answer to Wednesday’s fancy football was to launch an aerial bombardment of long throws from Aron Gunnarsson.
The tactic almost paid off when skipper Sean Morrison wrestled free to flick the ball on to the far post, but Junior Hoilett could not make solid enough contact to push the ball past the scrambling Keiren Westwood in the Owls goal.
The visitors should have put the result beyond any doubt when Steven Fletcher controlled a long ball, shrugged off the challenge of Bamba and shot on the half-volley, but he could only find the stands from ten yards out.
Cardiff staged a late fightback as the ball fell to the feet of leftback Joe Bennett, but he lashed a shot two yards over the bar.
But there was still time for an equaliser as the clock ticked past the allotted four minutes of added time.
Lee Tomlin’s free-kick was pushed out to Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, who poked the ball across goal where Bamba was waiting to rescue a point for Cardiff from a yard out.
Carvalhal said: “Before the game most of the teams in the Championship would say a draw in Cardiff is good and not a bad result. After this we are disappointed because we lost two points.
“We played a very high level, especially in the first half, and put a lot of problems on Cardiff.
“We scored one goal and thought we could get a second one.
“We had the best opportunity to kill the game with Fletcher, and at that moment we must finish the game.
“So far we have four draws, but the four draws we have achieved so far we have played better than the opponents in all of them.”