LATE STRIKE DENIES BLUEBIRDS
ALATE Adam Armstrong goal earned Blackburn Rovers a 2-2 draw against Cardiff City to all but end the Bluebirds’ play-off hopes. The Bluebirds started brightly and looked good for their lead after Will Vaulks hammered home from a free-kick, but an Alex Smithies gaffe opened the door for the visitors just before the break when Armstrong scored.
A late intervention from substitute Joe Ralls looked to have got City back on the winning trail, before an agonising, last-gasp equaliser from the Rovers striker ended all hope of City edging into the top six before the season’s end.
Cardiff needed to shoot out of the traps following their recent setbacks against Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday and, to their credit, they did.
The Bluebirds looked rejuvenated with the inclusion of Harry Wilson and Josh Murphy, who breathed some life into the City attack early on. Kieffer Moore looked spirited, too, and the hosts took the attack to the visitors.
Moore created the first chance of the match, squaring a lovely cross to Murphy but the winger just couldn’t get enough on it to turn it home.
The Wales striker then took matters into his own hands, slaloming through the Rovers defence to create a chance of his own, but a last-ditch tackle denied him a certain goal.
The Bluebirds forward was central to everything they created and just after quarter of an hour it looked as though he was going to put City ahead when Vaulks found him with a lovely cross, but he scuffed a golden chance wide of the upright.
There was a big flashpoint midway through the first half when Wilson nicked the ball around goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski, who in turn poleaxed he Welshman to deny what appeared to be a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Jeremy Simpson, the man in the middle, adjudged it to be only a yellow card offence, though, much to the
dismay of Cardiff’s furious defenders Aden Flint and Curtis Nelson.
Just minutes later, though, Cardiff made their dominance pay. They were awarded a free-kick just outside the box and Wilson laid the ball off to Vaulks, who smacked it low and hard and Kaminski could only tip it into the bottom corner of the net.
It was no less than Cardiff deserved, they had looked lively and comfortably the better of the two sides.
It’s just why Rovers’ goal on the stroke of half-time felt like a real body blow, especially given how it came.
Harvey Elliott slotted a ball down the flank and the dangerous Armstrong picked it up, turned Ciaron Brown and fired it low and hard at Smithies’ near post.
The goalkeeper made an almighty hash of it, though, and the ball fumbled out of his hands and into the bottom corner to allow the visitors to get back on terms.
Rovers came out hungry after the break and sent an early warning message to the hosts when they broke through Sam Gallagher.
The striker cut inside before rifling his shot from the edge of the box into the post, being denied by a matter of millimetres.
That gave Rovers a real lift and it wasn’t long before the woodwork rattled when Bradley Johnson was played through with a diagonal ball. He controlled it and looked to poke it past Smithies, but it clipped the outside of the upright.
Next it was Barry Douglas’ turn as the left-back clattered his free-kick into the crossbar. Cardiff were living dangerously and, all things considered, Rovers looked to be the only side likely to score next.
But, completely against the run of play, Ralls did brilliantly to intercept a pass and launch an attack of his own. The substitute laid it off to Wilson, who slid him in on goal before he coolly slotted home with his right foot.
Tony Mowbray rang the changes, making all five at once, as he looked to heap more pressure on the Bluebirds late on, but the hosts appeared to be holding firm.
But just seconds before the fulltime whistle blew, Armstrong jinked inside Flint and poked home underneath Flint to snatch a point at the last gasp.
While it is not mathematically impossible for Cardiff to break into the top six, that result looks to have sealed their status as a Championship side next term.