City’s great Ralls of fire
JOE RALLS’ hat-trick shook Cardiff City out of their slump, but Birmingham City will wonder how they ended up empty-handed.
Two penalties from Ralls helped the hosts clamber out of a rut with their first win in five matches.
Curtis Nelson also scored for Cardiff on his first Championship start in a frenetic and sometimes frenzied clash in which the home side’s Danny Ward and Birmingham’s Harlee Dean were both shown straight red cards.
But for all the incidents, what will stick in the visitors’ minds is the way they dominated the first 20 minutes after Kristian Pedersen’s opener.
But then they blew chances to be at least three goals clear before Cardiff made amends for their tepid derby defeat to Swansea last week.
“It’s one of the best wins since I’ve been at the club, in the circumstances,” said Cardiff boss Neil Warnock.
“You could see how nervous the players were, because they’re not daft, they knew how much we let the fans down last week. But I said to them, ‘It’s no good saying anything in the press. You’ve got to go and do it on Saturday and the game after’.”
Warnock had special praise for Ralls. The midfielder played through the pain of a foot injury and often takes the brickbats from the fans.
“The thing about Rallsy is he’s the easiest player to criticise from the fans, but he never hides, he always wants the ball even when he’s not having a good time,” said Warnock.
“It takes a lot of courage to play like he does.”
Pedersen scrambled home the early opener, before Dan Crowley and Jude Bellingham had chances to put Birmingham further ahead.
Ralls made it 1-1 from the spot after
Dean had pulled Aden Flint’s shirt at a corner and then Nelson put Cardiff ahead before half-time from another corner. Ward went for an ugly over-the-top lunge on
Kerim Mrabti in the 52nd minute. Down to 10 men, Cardiff actually improved and Ralls fired home to give them a 3-1 lead.
Even though a stunning strike from Ivan Sunjic threatened a grandstand finish, Ralls’ second spotkick sealed the win after Dean was dismissed for an elbow on the hat-trick hero.
Birmingham boss Pep Clotet said: “We are leaving without what we deserve.
“Cardiff had all the luck.”
CARDIFF BIRMINGHAM 6 ........ Shots on Target .........6 3 ........ Shots off Target .........8 8 ................Corners ............... 10 12 ................. Fouls .................. 18 0 ............... Offsides ................ 0 62.3.. Passing Success % .. 79.4 252....... Total Passes ........486 34.4 .... Possession % ..... 65.6 47 .....Territorial Adv % ..... 53