FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED FROM CARDIFF’S DEFEAT AGAINST BARNSLEY

CARDIFF City fell to a remarkable 4-3 defeat as Ryan Williams delivered a hammer blow in the closing moments of the game for Barnsley.

A late Anthony Pilkington goal looked to have salvaged a point after he bundled home Sean Morrison’s forceful header.

Ultimately they couldn’t quite repair the damage of a disappointing first half, as Sam Winnall scored twice and Josh Scowen added the third as the visitors emphatically overturned Morrison’s early header.

It was a dream start for Cardiff, with Peter Whittingham’s set-pieces wreaking havoc.

However, that strength became a weakness as Barnsley punished them on the break. Cardiff had no answer to the pace, even though Junior Hoilett missed two excellent opportunities to haul them back into the game.

The Bluebirds were also left irate after the referee failed to award them a penalty for handball with the score at 2-1.

Whittingham pulled one back with a gorgeous strike from the edge of the area, and it was his corner, flicked on by Morrison, that made the difference. They almost won it, too, Rickie Lambert stroking just wide at the death.

Williams slid home moments later in a galling end to 2016 at the Cardiff City Stadium. Cardiff caught in their own Catch 22 Set-pieces are Cardiff’s best chance of a goal, and it could have put them out of sight in the opening 20 minutes. Whittingham’s delivery was superb, bringing one goal and almost two or three more.

Yet the Bluebirds do not appear to have the pace they need to contain teams when they win it back and launch a counter.

This was not an isolated incident, it has cost them goals before this season and it was noticeable that Brighton targeted those situations so obviously a few weeks back, even if they couldn’t quite convert.

For the third goal, Cardiff had Whittingham, Peltier and Connolly in defence. All excellent players, but none quick enough to match Barnsley’s attackers in a foot race.

It’s become a Catch 22 for Cardiff. They have to commit bodies in these situations, but it makes them vulnerable. Take nothing away from Barnsley – Hourihane is a gem Cardiff has a hatful of chances but Barnsley’s gameplan was excellent and they deserve credit.

They lined up in a 4-4-2 but it never seemed like they were short in midfield.

That was largely because of the excellence of Conor Hourihane, a traditional deep-lying playmaker who showed superb composure and poise on the ball.

His distribution was second to none, and the cross for Winnall’s equaliser was inch perfect. He looks like he could stride the Championship turf as Whittingham has done for many years.

Cardiff will be disappointed but Barnsley were excellent in many departments. Amos punished for his rush of blood... Davies gets away with his Ben Amos was caught in no-man’sland for Barnsley’s third goal, not getting anywhere near the ball and leaving Scowen with an open goal.

It looked hapless and was a shame for the stopper, who had done really well to turn Sam Morsy’s driving effort away early on in the game.

He wasn’t helped by his defence but days after his error against Wolves, it raises question marks.

From Adam Davies, his Welsh opposite number, his moment of madness cost his team nothing but a yellow card.

Flying out of his goal, he missed the ball but got there in time to clean out Kenneth Zohore.

In fairness to Davies, two superb saves from Bruno Manga and Zohore gave his side the platform for the win. Zohore makes a fist of it again Zohore backed up his sparkling cameo on Tuesday night with a decent, if not spectacular showing.

He competed far better than he has done in many of his Cardiff appearances and some of his link-up play was very promising indeed.

He could have had a goal, denied only by the excellence of Davies.

His header, from a standing start, in which had to stoop and lean backwards, was terrific and deserved a goal.

He has shown he can be an option going forward, at the very least. Four key moments for Cardiff... spurned by Hoilett and the referee Barnsley deserved their point but it could so easily have been three for the hosts.

There were some key moments here that went against Cardiff at vital times.

The first was with the score at 2-1. Anthony Pilkington, who started well in the No 10 role but faded, released Hoilett and the winger was one-onone on his stronger foot.

He came under pressure from the back-pedalling defence but ought to have hit the target. Just moments into the second half, he hit the post from close range when a goal might well have revived his flagging team.

At 2-1 to Barnsley, the referee turned down what looked to be a stonewall penalty when a Barnsley player’s arms were raised extraordinarily high in the box.

On such moments games truly turn. And had Lambert scored at the death with the score 3-3, they’d have sealed a memorable win.