Draws keep mounting up for unconvincing Cardiff.

1 Response to Draws keep mounting up for unconvincing Cardiff.

1. Blue Bayou says:

   April 6, 2025 at 9:48 am

   “Literally the worst game of football I’ve ever seen”
   Not my words on this occasion.
   I still have occasional painful flashbacks to watching City in the mid to late 1980’s in front of 2,500 fans at Ninian Park.
   It was the only time when one of the people I used to regularly watch the games with turned to me and said – “I don’t know if I can take much more of this. How about we make a monthly trip to Villa Park and start supporting them for a while instead?”
   It wasn’t only the football that was pretty dreadful at that time, but from memory our pitch was pretty awful too.
   This also came to mind as I was sitting in the away stand at Loftus Rd/Prince Kiyan/Matrade before and during the game, when I noticed that the sprinklers on the pitch were only being turned on for the half of the pitch that City would be attacking in.
   Was this an attempt to slow down any possible quick counter attacks from us?
   If so, it worked a treat……
   Back to those opening words. They were actually spoken by a young QPR fan who was being met by someone after the game, in response to the question ‘How did it go?’
   To be fair I thought we started the game really well and for the first 10 minutes were on the front foot, and QPR looked wobbly.
   However after then, QPR came back into it, and we seemed to become more cautious and defensive, probably mindful of our need to stop conceding early goals in away games. This resulted in QPR winning more of the first and second balls in midfield.
   Part way through the first half I got a text saying that our very young and seemingly attacking starting 11 was partly due to Calum Chambers being a late withdrawal due to injury, and so Rubin starting instead.
   Salech had our best chance in the second half and really should have done better with his left foot shot from the edge of the area, which beat the keeper but was just too high.
   I agree that the ref was a ‘homer’ and certainly seemed content to see Salech manhandled all afternoon.
   One other disappointing aspect of the game from our viewpoint was the quality of our set-piece delivery. Without Rambo, Ralls and Robertson, and with Rubin having wasted too many previous, it’s fallen to O’Dowda to take corners and free-kicks.
   This time he either over hit our free-kicks, missing everyone, or when we had an attacking free kick at the death with everyone in their box, he just floated a ball too close to their keeper, making it easy for him to collect.
   Finally back to that opening comment again. I think that fan and others may feel similar emotions again for the final part of the season.
   I see the BBC report for the Swansea v Derby game described it as ‘dire’.
   I don’t have much hope for a high quality game away to Preston this Tuesday either, although a horrible scruffy mid 1980’s style win will do for me this time.