BLUEBIRDS LOOKING LIKE THE REAL DEAL
DON’T look now, but Cardiff City are starting to appear like genuine contenders. Because while Neil Warnock admitted he couldn’t watch the decisive moment at Middlesbrough, the Championship table – and the way the Bluebirds are remaining near the top of it – is compelling viewing.
Granted, this game at the Riverside might not have been much of a spectacle, not the kind of Bluebirds showing that made the rest of the division sit up and watch as it did against Leeds and Aston Villa.
But you don’t do that away from home in the Championship. You do what Cardiff are doing; making sure they are in games and making sure they grab their points when their efforts earn them that chance.
It has happened several times already this season. There have been five occasions away from home where the Bluebirds’ ability to keep dogging, keep going, keep looking for a way of snatching points, has earned them impressive results. From the opening day of the season at Burton, to upsetting current league leaders Wolves, pegging back Fulham and seeing off Sunderland, Cardiff have sought out a late say on away days and - got them.
You can add Boro to the list now, three Teesside points lapped up by Warnock as Ralls tucked home a penalty after 84 minutes.
Warnock didn’t watch as the midfielder repeated his trick from his last North East winner from 12 yards, Boro being beaten the same way Sunderland were from the spot. The veteran manager has admitted he struggles with superstition and preferred to watch the reaction of the home fans to know that the player making his 150th Cardiff appearance had done the job.
But Warnock’s insistence on averting his eyes could be considered illustrative of the faith he has in his side. He doesn’t have to see it to know he has a side that are willing to run that last yard, make that last tackle, take that late chance. Whether it always gets its rewards or not, he knows what he gets from this group he’s nurtured.
Here, he would have known they did a job on Middlesbrough that the hosts would have known was coming but still couldn’t stop. They would have taken a point, but gave themselves that platform to snatch all three – and without two key men in Aron Gunnarsson and Kenneth Zohore too, both missing the match through injury.
You’d like Cardiff to be a little more clinical with chances, you’d like them to be a bit more accurate. And, of course, it was only a week or so ago that the defeat to Birmingham made some question that. But while Warnock accepted the performance levels at St Andrew’s weren’t of the standard set by his side for far this season, he was far from despondent.
Cardiff and their high-energy style is demanding and will inevitably mean that the off days will come.
What they have proven to be good at is ensuring those days don’t happen too often. Here, unlike last Friday, it was Cardiff who were first out of the blocks, Cardiff who were snappier in the tackle, Cardiff who looked better drilled, more determined.
They kept Boro at arms’ length, kept going, and then Ralls kept his cool when Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was hacked down by Adama Traore in the final minutes.
Traore was dropped by Boro boss and former Swansea manager, Garry Monk, for turning up late for the team bus last weekend. Here he just turned up late for a challenge on Mendez-Laing in a wide area of the penalty box. Monk must have wished he’d been delayed this time.
It was a slice of fortune, perhaps, but one earned. Though MendezLaing has shown his need to still develop at this level in recent weeks and again showed with wrong options and losses of possession, he constantly looked to make things happen and was key to stretch things on the counter. Warnock would have watched on approvingly.
He knew he had set his side up well, spending all week perfecting the understanding in a three-mandefence you feel will become more of a regular sight – especially with the highly-rated attacking full-back Calum Paterson making a brief debut from the bench.
Sol Bamba was back to his best – anticipating, intercepting, protecting – but you could praise Sean Morrison and Bruno Manga too. Cardiff had wing backs who didn’t offer a great deal going forward, but they let little in behind them.
And while Ralls and Craig Bryson saw little of the ball – and didn’t make great use of it when they did – they never allowed Middlesbrough to play their way through. Boro had chances, but always from outside of the box.
Instead they had to be patient with possession, something their crowd clearly doesn’t want to be as they aired their groans and gave Cardiff more incentive to keep going.
That they did, the groans turning to boos at Monk who accepted that Cardiff came to do what they did and kept going enough to earn their chance. They would have been happy with 0-0, they took the chance to make it 1-0.
It’s what promotion teams do. It’s what Cardiff do.
Warnock won’t look at the table at start thinking too much of promotion – “I’m too long in the tooth,” he says – but it’s staring others in the face that Cardiff are not going away.
The view at top is pretty good, as far as Cardiff are concerned.