Once in a lifetime!

Well - I've been to the FA cup final to see Cardiff City play! The only thing that really spoiled the day was the result. There were thousands of Cardiff City fans wandering around before the game with that "I can't quite believe this" look on their faces.

As I write this blog, a week has gone past and I am now beginning to understand what a great day and achievement it was. It seems unlikely that you will get a Championship side there again for a long time - although, it is only 4 years since Milwall did it. I think we all enjoyed it, and the fact that the team acquitted themselves well was also a positive.

Lets hope that this is a springboard for a real go to get to the Premiership next year. The board and the manager are now saying that we are ready for it - presumably the finance will be there to back this up - so lets be positive and get behind the team.

Please note that the bluebirds Rants and Raves blog from next season will move to :-

http://bluebirdsrantsandraves.blogspot.com

Cardiff City are in the F A Cup Final

Now that's a sentence I never thought I would need to use!

I can't sleep - I'm so excited. And its "eat my words" time! I have written the phrase "As you know I'm not a fan of cup football" or something similar 7 times during the last season. Well, I,m telling you now that I WON'T EVER USE THAT PHRASE IN THIS BLOG AGAIN!

I never realised I could get so worked up over one match. No matter what the result - and I think we have a realistic chance of winning - the build up to the game has put a smile on my face for weeks and I am going to enjoy the game tomorrow no matter what.

BLUEBIRDS!

Nice finish!

RAVE: A great finish to the season. Although this wqas not a full strength Barnsley side it was strong enough to give us a bit of a workout without causing too much bother. I think that the team which started the game will probably be the one that starts at Wembley, injuries permitting. It was great to see Paul Parry back, and what a cracking opening goal from him! He gives the team another dimension to their passing game, and JFH also looked much happier playing alongside him.

Its hard to believe that this is not the last post of the season, with Wembley on the way on the 17th May. I suppose a final position of 10th in the table falls into the "NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE" category. However, there has generally been a consistent level of performance this year and I would say a good improvement on last season. I think now we can really say that we are in a position to push on towards the Premiership next year. This season's play-off place was lost in August and September last year, ans since October we have been one of the better teams around, apart from the odd blip against Charlton and Leicester!

And so to Wembley for the FA Cup Final - can you believe it!

Unsweet FA for Darren!

RANT: Darren Purse. He has become so accident prone as to be a liability. I can't make out whether the tackle for which he was sent off on Saturday was deliberate or not but it was certainly rash and leaves the team short of cover in central defence for Wembley. OK - he wouldn't have been ahead of Johnson and Loovens for selection but he was at least a credible back up. I think it is time for Darren to move on, providing an accepatble replacement can be found (and I'm sure there are many of those).

RANT: The club are appealing to the FAW to have his red card overturned. No chance. Even if he was innocent, or even if the referee admitted he had sent off the wrong player, or if Andy Cole said "It's a fair cop, he never touched me and I dived!", the FAW would still uphold his red card because they can't stand the fact that Cardiff have reached the FA cup final. The small minded old farts hate any Welsh club playing in the English system and will do all in their power to undermine Cardiff and all the others whenever possible. Lets leave the Welsh FA and join England. Leave the FAW to play with themselves while we move on with the rest of the world.

I'm not sure what sort of game we will have on Sunday against Barnsley - I hope Johnson and Loovens look after themselves. We have plenty of midfield cover at the moment and the strikers are all equally inept so I am not worried about injuries there, but these 2 are our only central defenders so lets keep our fingers crossed for them!

Thrown to the Wolves

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: The team seems to have suddenly run out of steam. If the FA Cup wasn't in their mind before this game then it certainly is now! The defeat at Scunthorpe appears to have knocked some of the stuffing out. This game showed yet again the urgent need for a top class striker - reports suggestthat we played well in the first half but couldn't turn those chances into goals and as a result went in 2-0 down. Dave Jones has made some very shrewd signings but we have not had a Michael Chopra or even a Cameron Jerome this year and that has probably cost us a play off place. Ironically, we are likely to inish lower in the division than last year but actually came closer to a play off place.

Lets hope for a good showing and a point or three at Burnley, although I fear that Burnley's physical appraoch is just the sort of team to cause us problems.

Fat lady warms up for Wembley.

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, and the 10 match unbeaten run came to an end on Saturday. The defence finally made some mistakes, which was bound to happen eventually after being the main strength of the side over the last few months. A goal from JFH just before half time made it look possible to win but it was not to be, and a late penalty finished it.

Although the playoffs are all but out of reach, lets hope the team give it one more go at Wolves tonight and pull off a win. I would hate to think that the team will just fold for the last 3 games with the cup final coming up - lets face it, you couldn't blame the players but a couple more wins will really give us some impetus in to the Cup final and for next season.

Tangerine Dream - at the double!

RAVE: Feels like I haven't had a rant for a while and why should I after the team have gone 10 games in all competitons undefeated! It was almost an anti-climax against Blackpool when we went 2-0 and then 3-0 up. I think I am right in saying that the last time we were 2 goals up in a league match was against QPR on the 29th Janaury. We don't do 'comfortable' league wins these days, we do 'lets try and hold on to a one goal lead'! (The only games with a 2 goal lead were the FA Cup matches against Wolves and Middlesbrough).The other thing in common with the QPR game was that it was the second time this season that we have done the 'double' over a team.

Blackpool semed to be lacking a bit in the passion department and never looked like recovering from the early spectacular goal from Stephen McPhail. They played like they thought safety was theirs, but other results have combined to drop them right back into the relegation battle and they will have to play better than this to get out of it.

A solid Cardiff performance for their 5th game in 15 days, and the chance of a playoff spot, although unlikely, still remains. We lost a little concentration in the last 20 minutes but that was only to be expected. A week's break to the next game at least gave Dave Jones the chance to let the players have a couple of days off - I hope they enjoyed the Player of the Year awards on Saturday night! The fact that we have to play away at Scunthorpe on Saturday to a team that are definitely relegated ought to help, although some of our worst performances recently have come against some of the weaker teams.

With Wolves losing to the Baggies this week, and Hull winning at Barnsley, West Brom and Hull are my favourites now for the automatic promotion slots. Lets hope we win on Saturday to set up a cracking match next week at Wolverhampton.

(Many Thanks to Eleri David for the pictures)