BLUEBIRDS FRUSTRATED BUT STILL TOP OF PILE

SO often this season, Cardiff City games have followed a particular pattern; they have been punctuated by a similar theme.

The opposition arrives in South Wales determined to play, strut their stuff and look to strangle the Bluebirds with a possession-based style of football. Most of the time it simply hasn’t worked. See Leeds United, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday for details. All massive clubs, who will have felt they deserved more from matches at Cardiff City Stadium, yet went home with a solitary point between them.

Even Derby County boss Gary Rowett admitted after the game he believed there would be opportunities to pass the ball against Cardiff, so long as his defenders dealt with the menace of the Bluebirds wide players, Junior Hoilett and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and kept Kenneth Zohore quiet.

And while the Rams knocked it about for a time, as other teams have done, this game followed an entirely different pattern. It was hardly a surprise it ended 0-0, both sides content with a handy point. Neither side did enough to earn two extra points.

Yet Derby’s more direct style and physicality presented Cardiff with a test which Neil Warnock admitted was unusual for this season. “Usually it’s my team being called physical,” he joked afterwards.

So, could Cardiff break down a team who wanted to counter-attack through the pace of Tom Lawrence and Johnny Russell? Could they control the game in the middle, a trait you would not normally associate with this Cardiff crop.

Although the answer was ultimately ‘no’, coming to the end of a physically draining week without players like Aron Gunnarsson and Craig Bryson, Warnock was justifiably satisfied. Seven points from matches against Sunderland, Leeds United and Derby means Cardiff can enjoy a second international break at the Championship’s summit this season. Who’d have bet on that at the start of the season?

The break now comes at an ideal time for the Bluebirds, who can regroup and re-ignite their engines for a third Former Bluebird spurt. Joe Ledley

Warno ck said he would be delighted if his troops remained in the top four come October. Well, much to the supporters’ delight, they are top and can look forward to mouthwatering fixtures against Bristol City, Birmingham City and Middlesbrough, which lie around the corner.

Gunnarsson’s absence from this encounter ensured another appearance in midfield from Sol Bamba, with an ‘unfit’ Joe Ralls risked alongside the Ivorian and Loic Damour in midfield.

And the solidity of both teams’ centres, with Tom Huddlestone and Joe Ledley a defensive midfield duo of some repute, typified a turgid first half. A few were concerned about a potentially flat atmosphere following the fever-pitch of that midweek Leeds win. They were right. The teams nullified each other.

Hoilett sparkled briefly with a couple of shots from distance, Mendez-Laing was all action down the right, but Derby coped well.

The Rams had enjoyed just 19 per cent possession in the first half at Brentford three days earlier and set out their stall with the totemic centre-backs Curtis Davies and Richard Keogh marshalling Zohore and keep- ing the rejuvenated Dane under wraps.

At the other end, Bruno Manga danced his way out of trouble with a horrifyingly composed piece of defending. Otherwise, the first half can be consigned to the history books with little or no fondness. The second offered more for the thrillseeker – just – namely, a bizarrely open passage of pace around the hour mark.

The harum-scarum minute begin when Craig Forsyth arced a crosscum-shot onto Neil Etheridge’s woodwork, before Russell’s scuffed shot was deflected into the path of Mendez-Laing; the winger made a beeline for the Derby goal but found a white shirt between his effort and Scott Carson’s goal. Corner. Back to normal.

The next period of note was in the final few minutes when, all of a sudden, Derby lay siege to the hosts’ goal and almost breached the blueshirted barricade. Only a starfish save from Etheridge denied substitute David Nugent; and a minute later the Philippines international was at it again, parrying around the post from the same striker.

There was time for a brief glimpse of the lesser-spotted Lee Tomlin, whose talents must be utilised more by the Bluebirds in such situations. A late couple of set-pieces from the exBristol City man almost swung the pendulum back towards Cardiff but in truth neither side could feel aggrieved, nor delighted, with this result.

It is a share of the spoils that may prove the difference between the Premier League and Championship for Cardiff come may. But for now it’s a point that keeps them top of the league and keeps smiles on supporters’ faces for the next fortnight.

Bigger challenges await Warnock’s warriors. Because if this game was an exam, it was a mid-term mock in which the Bluebirds scored a C+. Nobody worries, nobody over-exerts themselves in celebration.

Everyone just pockets the result and moves on to the next examination.

Could do better? Certainly, but there’s not much room for moaning at the top of the table.