It’s a smash and grab as late Paterson strike puts Cardiff back in top two
Sometimes, the old football clichés exist for a reason. On a cold Tuesday night in the north, Cardiff City slugged out an unfashionable, ugly contest with Barnsley and claimed a classic smash and grab.
It was more than many could expect. Not least Neil Warnock.
In a parallel universe – one in which Warnock’s Bluebirds aren’t riding ridiculously high in the table – the manager might have feasibly been criticised for a perceived defensive starting line-up at Oakwell.
Goal hero Callum Paterson was playing his first game on the right wing. The unstoppable Bruno Manga was out of position at right-back. But none of that will matter to the jubilant 273 travelling Cardiff fans who will instead take great comfort in a hard-earned victory in the middle of a testing week.
Those are the clichés. The headline is a first Cardiff City goal for Paterson and a second successive win – and clean sheet – for the rampant Bluebirds. Who’d have thought it? After 75 minutes at Oakwell, not many.
In the context of this fractious game, even in the wider context of recent Cardiff displays on the road it really was an incredible three points.
Cardiff have had problems with night-time fixtures away from home this season.
It was a long slog up to Deepdale in September, where they suffered their first defeat of the campaign and trudged back with tails between legs, beaten 3-0 by Preston North End.
St Andrew’s in October wasn’t much better, where the Bluebirds registered arguably their worst display of the season in losing 1-0 to Birmingham City on an unfortunate Friday the 13th.
And, while away trips to Sunderland and Middlesbrough have been more fruitful, there was a sense before this one that Cardiff needed