BLUEBIRDS BACK ON TRACK AS COLEMAN FEELS PAIN
THERE are returns and then there are returns. Cardiff City’s was emphatic, Chris Coleman’s was agonising. The former Wales boss would have hoped a scene of so many happy memories would have sparked a familiar feeling for his first game back in the land of his fathers, now he represents the red of Sunderland rather than that of his country.
Instead, the homecoming was a humbling one, almost humiliating even, as the Bluebirds were the ones who wound the clock back to a few months ago and reminded of better days.
And reminded that there could be even better days to come. A bit more history at Cardiff City Stadium, perhaps, this time with Neil Warnock at the helm rather than Coleman.
Had the Bluebirds blown this, allowed the anxiety still obvious in the first half to continue, opened the door for the Black Cats to claw an unlikely victory, it would have represented the club’s worst run of form for 20 years; not since the spring of 1998 – when Cardiff finished 21st in the bottom tier – had they lost five league games on the trot.
By the end of this, such statistics were banished to irrelevance with the more pertinent piece of trivia being this was Cardiff’s biggest win of the campaign to date. The bleak midwinter may well be breaking – and hope springs eternal.
It was far from perfect and it will take a few more games before anyone can be totally convinced this injury-hit squad has truly turned a corner and gone back to the performances – perhaps more than results – that gave everyone such excitement.
But it was hard to ignore the belief flowing back into blue shirts from the moment Callum Paterson opened the scoring within 60 seconds of the second-half.
From there it was as if lightbulbs went off in Cardiff heads, the old routine found and the return to the know-how of how to win games.
Granted, there was the leg-up from Didier Ndong’s sending-off soon after Paterson’s headed opener, leaving the beleaguered Black Cats to fight on with 10 men for 41 minutes.
But if this was about Cardiff getting back on the bike, there’s nothing wrong with making the most of some stabilisers to start with.
And you very much doubt Cardiff will have spurned the chance to seize a first win since the success over Hull a month ago even if Ndong had not gone when he caught Junior Hoilett with his studs.
It was the opener that made more of a difference, injecting Cardiff with confidence and the ability to stretch the game as they like it.
Coleman knew it, hit out at the “poor, poor mistake” that he struggled to get his head around at such vital moment. He knew Cardiff would be free of doubt and flying from that moment on.
Indeed, watching the second goal – finished superbly by the excellent Joe Ralls – was the welcome return of the counter-attack that serves this side so well. From defending a Sunderland free- kick, to powering forward via Kenneth Zohore and then being swept home.
Warnock said that Zohore needs someone to tee him up as he did for Ralls, and it’s true the big Dane needs his own bit of belief to come back if Cardiff are to be really back to their old selves.
But the way they were able to go at Sunderland and throw off recent worries did impress and did encourage. They deserved their third 10 minutes from time, when Paterson was left free and easy to fire home Zohore’s deflected free-kick.
There was also the bonus of Yanic Wildschut having a run-out, one he made the most of as he provided Anthony Pilkington with an injury-time tap-in. It ensured a biggest win of the season for the Bluebirds, and a biggest beating for Coleman since taking on the Sunderland challenge.
Not that Coleman would have need reminding of what he faces before this, but being stood on the same touchline of so many highs will have made this defeat seem all the more worse.
He had marched out before the game, ignored the good-natured stick for his Swansea roots and stood purposefully. You could be mistaken for thinking he was waiting for the anthems.
“I would have needed more than an
anthem to get us going,” he said with a bit of gallows humour.
Warnock admitted his sympathy, but only once the battle was done, admitting he’d had his own concerns over his own side.
And it was clear he had placed a real importance on this test. Players conceded training had been solely geared to getting a win here and working on what Sunderland would do.
It’s why, for example, he shuffled his pack again, playing with three centrebacks and deploying Jazz Richards to man-mark Lyndon Gooch after the American caused problems at the Stadium of Light earlier this season.
With Paterson in midfield, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing as wing-back, defeat would have seen some claim desperation over trying to find a solution to the recent worrying form.
Yet, with three points earned, deserved and added to the tally to take the side to 50 (in 11 games fewer than last season), it looked like a plan that came together.
And all of a sudden, with the hope of more being added to the Wildschut capture, Warnock can again tinker and tweak on the front foot, knowing his side have the confidence back to pull it off.
As he acknowledged the relief and the relishing of next tests, there was a return of the glint in the eye of the veteran manager.
On his own return of a very different kind, Coleman couldn’t say the same.