SLADE SEEKS TO COPY CHERRIES
CARDIFF boss Russell Slade told his players to follow Bournemouth’s example after his side were taught a harsh lesson by the new Championship leaders.
Goals from Matt Ritchie, Harry Arter, Marc Pugh, Yann Kermorgant and Callum Wilson fired the rampant Cherries back to the summit as they extended their unbeaten run to 12 games.
A Kenwyne Jones tap-in and a double from centre-back Sean Morrison gave Cardiff hope, but the hosts were simply too good for the team relegated from the Premier League last season.
Slade, whose side fell behind after just 39 seconds, said: “I am bitterly disappointed with the goals we’ve conceded and we need to work harder to reach Bournemouth’s level.
“I will be using them as a yardstick because they should be going up this season, whereas we were off the pace and behind them for much of it.
“I was most disappointed with the start because we were losing within a minute away from home, which is a disaster.
“But what is worse is that we do it at the home of the league leaders. It feels like we kept shooting ourselves in the foot throughout the game.
“We started the second half much better than the first and scored. I thought we were back in it but yet again it just didn’t happen.
“Then we started pushing to score again and Callum Wilson took advantage of us being a little more open at the back then we should have been.”
Bournemouth face Liverpool in the quarter finals of the Capital One Cup on Wednesday and took less than a minute to send a message to Brendan Rodgers’ team.
Midfielder Ritchie side footed home a Wilson cross after the former Coventry striker had made a mockery of Kim BoKyung’s ability to defend.
Kim was hauled off at half-time, but not before the South Korean international again made a mistake for Arter to capitalise on and double the home side’s lead from the edge of the box in the 43rd minute.
The travelling Bluebirds fans thought they had a route back into the game when Jones steered an Adam Le Fondre cross beyond Artur Boruc.
But the impressive Pugh was in no mood to see the Cherries’ twogoal lead vanish as he looped a wonderful curling effort over David Marshall straight from the restart to cap a frantic end to the first period.
Cardiff were a different side at the start of the second-half and cut the deficit yet again via a bullet header from defender Morrison after Peter Whittingham had crossed.
Super sub Kermorgant made it 4-2 with a brilliant 25-yard freekick before Morrison buried another header from a Whittingham corner to set up a grandstand finish.
But Wilson had the last word a minute from time after rounding goalkeeper Marshall, who could have been sent off for an early handball, to seal the points.
Bournemouth assistant manager Jason Tindall said:“For us to be top of the Championship before Christmas is a great achievement and our aim now is to build on that and extend our lead at the top.
“We were aware of the Middleborough result against Derby and we knew we had to win by a twogoal margin to go top and we are glad we managed to do that.
“I’m not sure we really anticipated winning it 5-3 but we will take it because top is the position we want to be in.
“Cardiff threw everything at us and there were goals flying in everywhere. We pride ourselves on attacking football but maybe that was the reason we conceded some poor goals. But the fact that we are top and all five goals were scored by different players shows just how good this squad can be.”