WHAT WE LEARNED AS CARDIFF STING THE BEES
MAUPAY’S MOMENT OF MADNESS CARDIFF would probably have considered themselves fortunate to lead 1-0 after half an hour, thanks to Joe Ralls’ strike.
Brentford had looked fairly impressive going forward, enjoying lots of the ball, inspired by the craft of Ollie Watkins in the No.10 role and the movement of Neal Maupay, Romaine Sawyers and Florian Jozefzoon.
Because it really should have been 1-1 on 32 minutes.
The whole of Cardiff City Stadium waited for the net to ripple following a misunderstanding between Neil Etheridge and Sean Morrison, which allowed Watkins to square for Maupauy, who had an empty net to aim at.
The striker paused, looked at the target and made his decision. A cool, slotted finish to the left of the goal would suffice?
Apparently not. Under pressure - minimal pressure it must be said - from the recovering Sol Bamba and Craig Bryson, Maupay somehow skewed his effort wide and Cardiff knew they had been let off the hook. Big time.
Dean Smith couldn’t hide his frustration after the final whistle, claiming “99 times out of 100” Maupay would score.
And Maupay himself must have wanted the earth to swallow him home when, barely two minutes later, Cardiff went down the other end and scored. Bruno Manga battled through the challenges to square for Danny Ward and the Bees had a mountain to climb.
In fairness to Maupay, he spent the next 30 minutes peppering Etheridge’s goal, but couldn’t find a way through. Two second half strikes within a minute of each other whistled just off target.
It wasn’t his, or Brentford’s day. Even Maupay’s replacement Sergi Canos had a fair share of bad luck in front of goal.
But that is not to denigrate Cardiff’s defensive effort. A clean sheet against a side of Brentford’s calibre is a feather in Cardiff’s cap, but it could have been entirely different. GUNNARSSON AND GOUNONGBE MAKE WELCOME RETURNS MOST Cardiff fans would have expected to see Aron Gunnarsson back at some point during this game, either from the start or as a substitute, after featuring for his beloved Iceland during the international break.
In the end, he came off the bench to add steel to Cardiff’s midfield and was greeted with a great reception from the 15,000 or so hardy Bluebirds fans in attendance.
What those gathering crowds might not have expected, however, was the surprise return of Freddie Gounongbe. The Benin international has been the missing man for most of the past 12 months, but came off the bench late on to replace Danny Ward amid boisterous cheers from the home faithful.
“If Freddie scores, we’re on the pitch,” they chanted. And the lesserspotted frontman almost served up the magical moment they were craving, spinning in behind the Bees back line but shooting across the face of goal.
Neil Warnock said there was no reason why Gounongbe, who he likened to legendary Bolton striker Nat Lofthouse, couldn’t follow in the footsteps of Kenneth Zohore and go on an astonishing goal-scoring streak for Cardiff.
On this limited evidence, there’s no reason why the forward cannot force his way back into contention. Freddie could be back. A STRANGE SORT OF GAME MAYBE it was the swirling rain, or the reduced attendance (a tick over 16,000) but the atmosphere appeared a little muted in Leckwith on this rainy Saturday.
Warnock and Ralls wanted a big noise from the home fans and, in fairness, the loyal supporters who turned up were loud enough.
They richly rewarded too with an eventful end-to-end game, as Brentford showed little fear in taking the game to Cardiff.
The Bees fans kept singing and willing their team on and in truth it could have been any score.
Cardiff were bailed out several times by some excellent Etheridge saves and some last-ditch tackles by Sol Bamba and the out-of-position Bruno Manga.
But as Warnock rightly asserted after the match, Cardiff offered a constant threat going forward and did their best to entertain their supporters. Nobody will be complaining at the outcome, that’s for sure.