Warnock’s woe as City hit wall...
NEIL Warnock believes that promotion-chasing Cardiff have hit a brick wall as they lost their third game on the bounce to Preston and slipped out of the top two.
Having lost at Bolton last weekend and surrendered their unbeaten home record to Fulham on Boxing Day, it was another miserable night in the Welsh capital for the Bluebirds as they lacked any sort of attacking threat and produced what was on the whole another underwhelming display.
It looked like they would hang on for a point, but with just seconds left the hosts failed to clear a Preston corner and skipper Tom Clarke nodded home from inside the six-yard box.
A draw would probably have been a fair result, but the visitors got their reward for a positive display as they moved closer to the Championship’s play-off spots.
Warnock said: “It’s disappointing again but I can’t fault the effort. I can’t criticise the players too much because we’re so short and they’re doing the best they can.
“We lost Craig Bryson and Joe Bennett before the game on top of the others we already have out and some of them have hit a brick wall now having given me everything.
“It’s a sloppy goal for us to concede and the goalkeeper should have done better. But it’s a cruel game sometimes.
“When you see the number of lads missing you realise what we’re without. It’s down to me now.
“I’ve got to smarten it up, change things and make sure we don’t feel sorry for ourselves. I have recommended to the board we sign two or three players and I hope they are supportive.
“We can’t sign five players in January, so we have to get guys fit and get on with it.”
The Bluebirds lacked the cut and thrust which has characterised their home form this season, a blocked shot from Kenneth Zohore their only moment of note in the first half.
In a half without a shot on target, Preston’s best opportunity came when Nathaniel Mendez-Laing came within a few inches of conceding a penalty after a foul right on the edge of the area, before the visitors saw another claim waved away after Lee Peltier looked to have handled the ball.
Cardiff’s Lee Tomlin angled a header towards goal shortly after the break, with Chris Maxwell finally saving the first effort on target in the match, but the second half continued like the first, with scarce incident and lots of long balls.
Preston looked more than comfortable but seemed to have squandered their best chance with 15 minutes remaining when Neil Etheridge palmed away Tom Barkhuizen’s low effort with Bruno Ecuele Manga tackling Jordan Hugill and preventing what would have been a tap-in.
However, Clarke had the final say as Cardiff’s miserable festive period continued when he bundled home the winner in stoppage time to deservedly extend the visitors’ unbeaten run to nine.
Preston manager Alex Neil said: “It wasn’t a game for the football purist; it was a rough, scrappy match. If anyone was going to win it, we deserved to.
“We’re nine games unbeaten, five wins and four draws, and in this division that’s extremely difficult to do.”