BLUEBIRDS NOT BEACH BOYS WITH WARNOCK
NEIL Warnock is all about integrity. And in 90 fairly dour minutes in Lancashire, his Cardiff City side upheld the integrity of English football’s most ruthless division in brutal fashion.
Wigan Athletic, moving the ball about with skill and vision, simply could not find a way to breach the impregnable barrier of red shirts, with Bruno Manga at the forefront of a defensive effort worthy of a point - even if the Bluebirds’ attacking adventure left a lot to be desired.
Warnock lauded his team’s spine after the game and was delighted to see on the TV screens his team had jumped into the Championship’s top half with the point, hard-earned as it was.
A top-12 finish would be just rewards for the impact Warnock has made, because it is very difficult to imagine the Bluebirds producing such a resolute backs-to-the-walls performance under Paul Trollope, or any another manager for that matter.
Fans could have rightly bemoaned the straight lines football on display at the DW Stadium, with Cardiff criminally lacking in forward threat.
Anthony Pilkington isn’t a centre forward, Craig Noone and Kadeem Harris cut isolated figures on the flank, and without Kenneth Zohore there was very little in the way of attacking thrust down the centre.
Warnock accepts Cardiff have room for improvement as an attacking force and will use the summer to bolster those options.
Zohore’s tired legs, as much as a viral bug, kept him out of contention for a trip to Wigan.
Teenage debutant Mark Harris tried in vain to offer a step here and a touch there, but with Joe Ralls and Aron Gunnarsson shuttling back and forth from defensive midfield, there was little creativity on display.
Not even at this late stage of the season was Warnock prepared to let his fledglings fly. It is that knowledge of attacking limitations that makes Warnock set out his team in such a disciplined, organised systen.
The manager knows his squad’s weaknesses and simply had no intention of dressing up his team for a party when a battle awaited.
Wigan were always going to throw everything at the Bluebirds in search of a goal to change their moribund relegation fortunes, but the lack of quality on both sides made the scoreless draw the early favourite.
By 80 minutes, such was the inevitability of the result, local bookmakers had surely stopped the betting on 0-0. Graham Barrow’s decision to take off striker Gabriel Obertan raised eyebrows when the Frenchman had looked as likely as anybody in blue and white.
Not even in-form former Manchester United youth product Nick Powell – five goals in his last three games – could conjure a moment of brilliance, not one good enough to sneak past stand-in Cardifff goalkeeper Ben Amos, anyway.
Warnock sounded a pre-match warning to fans and players that his Bluebirds side may well be hemmed in for 90 minutes, and so it proved. Wigan flung players forward in desperation, but man-of-the-match Manga was never really troubled.
Under another manager, perhaps one not scarred by previous defeats and made wiser by past glories, Cardiff could have been cut to ribbons.
Wigan weren’t short of quality, and as Warnock testified after the game that the Latics’ impending relegation hadn’t come on today’s performance.
Barrow has tried to instill his Latics troops with the belief they could pull of the impossible, but Warnock treated the home fans to a dose of reality with a performance straight out of the Championship stalwart’s copybook. Stranger things have happened, goes the old cliche. Not today, came Warnock’s reply.
Barrow must have been wishing Cardiff hadn’t made the decision to hire the former QPR and Sheffield United boss in October.
Even if the Bluebirds had risen to safety without their veteran 68-yearold manager, this could have been a game that slipped through their grasp. How often do we see teams “on the beach” at this stage of the season?
So, into the final two games and the season and those bookmakers should be preparing their markets for tight, nervy affairs.
Newcastle United and Huddersfield Town may both take on Cardiff with promotion in their dreams, but both like Wigan, will have to face the reality of 90 torrid minutes against a fiercely competitive outfit.
Forget mid-table, the Wigan game could have easily been an October encounter next season when a point would have been precious.
Integrity maintained, and a favour for Warnock’s former club Burton Albion club done.
And in a fortnight’s time, Cardiff players can jet off to the beach with their manager’s blessing.