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)

East is East

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: A good performance but a result that did neither side any favours. Dave Jones said after the game that the Bluebirds need a minimum of 13 points from their last 15 to make the final playoff place. I would add a caveat to that in that a win and not a draw against Wolves is also a part of the equation. City held the lead for an hour against an Ipswich team which has only lost once at home this season. I have to rely on second hand information for this blog report but it suggests that a draw was a fair result although both teams had a chance to win it.

At least we have been able to keep up the effort despite the fatigue which must be setting in to such a small squad. Lets hope they can hold it for another couple of days and put together a winning performance against Blackpool on Saturday. At this time of the season you are better off playing against mid table teams, and Blackpool are the only team of Cardiff's last 5 fixtures who are safe from relegation but can't get into the playoffs. Lets hope for an open game and a Cardiff win, as they then have a week's break before the final run-in of the Championship season. I hope its not a game too far.

Wembley - Part 1 !

RAVE: Cardiff City are in the FA Cup Final. I never thought that I would be able to write that in my lifetime. The game was almost irrelevant - the result and the occasion paramount.

For the record, Joe Ledley's 9th minute goal turned out to be the winner. Its occasions like this which make you realise why you are a football fan. I feel proud to be among the 13,000 regulars who made the trip to Wembley along with the 20,000 occasionals. It didn't matter - we don't mind who was there to see it.

And now we have a trip to the F A Cup final.

Words fail me.

FANTASTIC!

No quarter given - no goals scored!

RAVE: As nil-nil draws go this was a pretty good one. both sides really went at it and West Brom looked one of the better teams to visit Ninian Park this season. The Bluebirds played their part too and arguably had the best chance of the game which fell to Steve Thompson early on. Unfortunately he muffed it. however, from my angle he looked at least 2 yards offside but the linesman didn't give it. All in all, a fair result where neither team deserved to lose and will give both sides good heart going in to the weekends FA Cup semi-finals.

All Cardiff players made some contribution, although I'm afraid to say that Steve Thompson had a shocker and was probably a strategic half time substitution and his hamstring strain was probably convenient in the circumstances. Man of the match went to Trevor Sinclair, who ran relentlessly and never gave up, despite being forced to play as a lone striker for much of the second half with all of the other 3 strikers substituted. Lets hope everyone is fit for Sunday.

It was nice to see Kevin McNaughton back at right back - his enthusiasm really seems to rub off on the rest of the team and they look a different side when he was there.

A good performance against a good team. Now - lets go to Wembley!

Good Result !

RAVE: the result. Lets face it, we have played better than this at times this season and come away from the game with nothing, so lets be grateful for this result if not the performance. Some of the players were a bit anonymous (McPhail and Whittingham to name but 2) but somehow the team pulled together and got the result. Southampton, however, were very poor and if I was a saints fan I would be getting rather anxious about now.

RANT: McPhail man of the match. This match? I could have sworn he was playing somewhere else as he went missing for long periods of the game, especially in the second half.

And so to the game with the Baggies on Tuesday. A win here would really set up the rest of the season, although the small number of players in the squad could yet cause problems. Mind you, it makes selection easy!

(Thanks to Eleri for the goal celebration picture)

Sweet!

RAVE: A good result and all the better for the revenge from the Boxing Day match. A good game with a good result against our nearest Championship neighbours.

We deserved to win although went to sleep for 5 minutes in the second half and nearly blew it. Then we missed a penalty , although Whitts kept his "Whitts" about him to put in the rebound!

RANT: How many penalties have we missed this season? I've seen 3 - have there been others? Lets hope the Wembley game doesn't go to penalties or we could be in trouble!

As usual, a team from the top of the table looked ordinary. It emphasises yet again that there are no outstanding teams in this division.

(Many thanks to Eleri David for the photograph, although it is not actually Roger Johnson's heade goal but an earlier similar move.)

Essex Boys.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Well - the third game in a week turned out to be one too far. Yet again we struggled against a poorer team who were up for the fight -and after taking the lead too! Mind you, after 3 consecutive clean sheets we should have realised that the statistics were stacking against us and someone would score - a fantastic strike by Johnnie Jackson (see pic) although nothing more than Colchester deserved according to most reports.

Yet again we have struggled against a team near the bottom of the table - recent struggles against Sheffield Wednesday (twice), Leicester, Coventry and now Colchester have shown some of the frailties of the team. However, as I have said previously this is such a competitive division and any team is capable of beating anyone else on their day. I now no longer feel that there are any outstanding teams in the division, unlike the Reading and Sunderland of recent years.

Well - our next 3 games are all at home - Bristol City, Southampton and West Brom, before the trip to Wembley. 3 wins would give us real confidence as well as move us up the table. however, at the moment the Southampton game is likely to give us most trouble!

Premiership - you're having a laugh!

RAVE: A great result for the boys who were obviously still up from the win over Mddlesbrough. Somehow we have become a difficult team to beat - as long as we have Loovens and Johnson playing together at the heart of the defence. The second biggest crowd of the season saw a rare goal from Stephen McPhail after one and a half minutes and watched aswe comfortably held on for the rest of the game.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Hull are occupying one of the playoff places at the moment but still look ill-equipped to think about moving to a higher level. The more this season progresses the less likely it is that any team can go up from this division and hold its own in the Premiership. Cardiff are not the only team in this division who are capable of following five consecutive wins with five consecutive defeats. Its a question of last man standing and the last team to have a good run could find themselves in the same position as Derby - and look what's happening to them! Amazingly, despite the recent league form even Cardiff could make the playoffs if they string together 4 or 5 wins.

The championship is undoubtedly the most exciting league at the moment but I'm not sure it prepares anyone for the Premiership.

Our Cup Runneth Over!

RAVE: Thats all I can say- Yes, I know I said that there is no way we could win the FA Cup, but I am going to say I've changed my mind. The odds are against us but who cares? At least one trip to Wembley. I take back all my criticism of the FA Cup and say well done boys!

This result is well documented everywhere and you all saw it on TV so you don't need me to say more than Boro wer rubbish and we were brilliant. Lets hope we can carry some of this enthusiasm into our league form.

RANT: The court case gets heard today (12/03/2008). Lets hopw we can get that out of the way aswell.

Drawn a blank.

Its really difficult to get the full flavour of a game via newspaper and radio reports. However, the quotes from Dave Jones do suggest that this was a much better performance - it could hardly be worse than the Leicester game.

RAVE: The report by South Wales Echo reporter Terry Phillips was also positive, although I'm not sure that any player can be worth 8 out of 10 in a nil-nil draw except perhaps a goalkeeper. I trust Terry Phillips' judgement more than any other local reporter - his opinions on a game usually are very close to my own, unlike certain writers for the Wales on Sunday who sound as if they have been to a different game. Terry gets a "RAVE" for his work throughout the season, not just for this game.

Today's Daily Mirror reports that Arsene Wenger is going to launch a bid for Aaron Ramsay - worrying but not surprising. The lad must have his price, and if he is to go lets hope its a good deal. Keeping on the good side of Arsenal may be useful if we want loan players in the future.

And so to the Cup match. We have nothing to fear from Middlesborough, although we must be underdogs. I wish the boys luck, despite my previous misgivings in this blog about cup football, and I will willingly swallow my pride and admit my hypocrisy to go to Wembley for the semi-final should they get through!

Toothless!

RANT: Dreadful.Awful. Incompetent. Useless. The only vaguely redeeming feature about this performance is that at least they appeared to be trying for some of the time. Of course, they were useless but at least they were trying. Even young Arron Ramsey (see pic) had a dreadful game. We couldn't have scored if we had played till Christmas and it was very much a reminder of our early season performances where we seemed unable to create anything.

RANT: Darren Purse. I know the goal was unlucky, but Dazza seems to have become very accident prone and it is difficult to know what he can do about it. Mistakes, penalties and now an own goal. I suspect we will need another central defender sooner or later.

Yet again, lets hope that this season doesn't drift away like the last 2 - we have as much chance of relegation as the playoffs, but surely we can't play that badly again?

(Thanks to Eleri David for the picture)

Remember that deja vu?

The report on the BBC site was as follows:-

" The visitors dominated the match with Aaron Ramsey hitting the post, Gavin Rae heading just over and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink keeping Lee Grant busy.
But Tudgay's eight-yard strike against the run of play four minutes from the break was enough for the three points.
Cardiff have now gone four games without a win in the Championship."

Sounds familiar to me - rather like the Stoke and coventry games last August. To think that Sheff Wed were so poor at Cardiff a few weeks ago but we have contrived to lose against them.

Lets hope the season doesn't peter out like the last two years. Apart from anything else we need at least another 4 points to be safe from relegation. Still, four of our next five league games are at home so lets be positve - 12 or 13 points from those games will shoot us up the table again.

Up For The Cup!

RAVE: As you know, I am not a big fan of Cup football. However, the enormity of this win suddenly hit me on Saturday night. The fact that this is the first time Cardiff have reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup since the famous year 0f 1927 is obviously momentous in its own right. This means that it is the first time it has happened in my lifetime. In fact, this is the first time this has happened in my parents' lifetime, which makes it even more amazing!

RAVE: A cracking goal from JFH!

It seems that a slow start by Wolves and a fast start by the City was enough to see us 2 up in 11 minutes and that was effectively that!

And OK, I admit it - I will be glued to the quarter final draw on monday lunchtime. Mind you, I'm not sure I would like us to have Bristol rovers or Barnsley away, never mind the Baggies. Or we could get Man Utd or Chelsea.

Perhaps this will give the whole club a lift we can take forward to our Championship form.

Bore Draw

A suppose a draw was inevitable in the circumstances - Cardiff struggling to find form and Coventry without a manager. According to the radio the game was pretty dire and it was only after the break that Cardiff managed to show a bit of form, although for the second time this season they were unable to break down the Coventry defence.

Only one point from the last 9 has put our playoff hopes in some disarray, although the same could be said for many teams at present, and we are as good (and no better) than many teams in this division. Two fairly good teams are likely to make it to the playoffs so it might as well be us as anybody.

However, we now have "the magic of the cup" with a 5th round game against Wolves on Saturday. Could this be the first time we reach the 6th round since 1927? Although I am not a fan of cup football a match like this where the pressure is off could be just what we need at the moment.

Welshman Stars!

RAVE: Unfortunately, he wasn't one of ours. I think this is the first time that I've given a "rave" to an opposition player, but in this case it goes to Ched Evans. The Wales under 21 international is on loan at Norwich from Manchester City, and what a player he looks! He was by far the best player on the field, scored both Norwich goals, including astunning winner 2 minutes from time. This boy could be really good and be a big star in the future.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: The Cardiff performance. It was reminiscent of some of the early season form when we were playing well without getting a result. A draw would have been a fair result, and it would have been if not for the late intervention of Mr Evans.

We created a number of chances at least, and I would say that Norwich are one of the better teams to visit Ninian Park this season. If they continue to play like this then they too could make their way into a playoff position.

Coventry tonight (Tuesday). You can never tell with teams who have just lost their manager - they could fall apart or they could rally the cause - lets hope it is the former as another defeat would be very deflating for the team.

Gavin Rae scored his first home goal on Saturday.

The Curse of the Manager of the Month strikes again!

Well - it had to happen - the unbeaten run came to an end, just as Dave Jones wins the January Manager of the Month award! There is now a lot of folklore concerning the bad luck which results from winning this award but it hasn't done any harm to Sir Alex Ferguson!

I don't know whether the same thing happens to players of the month but it was nice for Joe Ledley to win the Championship player of the month award - especially as the transfer window has close with Joe still at Ninian Park! Let's hope his good form continues.

Stoke have become a bit of a bogey team - it seems to have been so ever since beating us in the playoffs a number of years ago - they are the second team to do the 'double'over us this year. It seems that we only started to play well after we were 2-0 down and could have stolen a point but it wasn't to be.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Roger Johnson scores his second freak own goal in 2 Championship games - lets not go for the hat-trick Roger!

Doubling up!

RAVE: The way we played for the first hour of this game! It was reminiscent of the first few months of last season. We were quick, passing the ball all over the place and causing their defence to panic. Admittedly, the QPR defence looked very shaky from the start, but Cardiff just wouldn't let up and the goals were inevitable.

We created numerous chances and the QPR goalkeeper Lee Camp made at least five one-on-one saves from City attackers - without his input Cardiff could have had 5 or 6 by half time. Ironically, all three goals came as a result of poor QPR defending rather than flowing attacking moves but this was essentially as a result of the relentless pressure put on them.

Cardiff eased a little in the last 20 minutes - it was the second game in 3 days after all - but lets not take anything away from an excellent performance.

Our first double of the season!

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Michael Oakes in goal. Still not convinced about this. perhaps the knock he received last night will give Dave Jones an excuse to give Enklemann a try on Saturday.

No bull!

As you all know I am not a big fan of cup football, particularly when the team is trying to improve itself in the league. The 'romance' of the FA cup has laregely gone these days, as it is yet another competition dominated by the so-called 'Big 4'.

However, it is still nice to see your team live up to its league position and get through to the next round - especially as it is the first time into the 5th round draw since 1994.

A good performance by all accounts to overcome a decent Hereford side, and despite giving them heart with a late equaliser we managed to get through quite comfortably.

RAVE: at the moment we have become a difficult team to beat - an invaluable trait.

RANT: Wolves at home in the next round - I don't mind who wins as long as there are no replays!

Same score - different result!

What a difference a few months makes! After the Sheffield United match in September there was doom and gloom about drawing a game 3-3 after being 3-1 up. Well, in this game we were leading 2-0 and 3-1 before being pegged back, but none of the despondency this time. The performance is seen as taking the game to probably the best team in the Championship at present and getting a result - Dave Jones would have accepted the offer of a draw before the game started.

RAVE: 2000 fans made the trip to the Hawthorns - 10% of the gate. (I notice that despite their high goalscoring and being the best team in the division they don't sell out games). Also, the press seem to be developing a more positive attitude to the team.

RANT: the FA Cup match against Hereford now moved to Sunday. I'm not sure you can keep moving Cardiff kick off times for 'safety reasons'. This also means we have an important league game on Tuesday against QPR on 2 days rest. Time for a few of the youngsters again on Sunday, methinks.

Getting in to good habits.

A good performance - should have been all over by half time but it remained 1-0. Sheffield were very poor in the first half but a little more settled after the break. At times we looked good - very good. The West Brom game next week will be a good test of how far we have come and how far we are going to go.

RAVE: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. A good performance and the supporters are starting to warm to him. Nicely taken goal. Although his body is not as quick as it used to be his footballing brain is still active and is proving good value at Championship level.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Oakes is no Schmeickel - a satisfactory performance and no more. I think I would like to see Enckelmann have a go sooner rather than later.

Bring on the baggies!

What banana skin?

For a few minutes on Saturday I was a bit worried that we were going to make FA Cup history for the wrong reasons. However, sanity was restored after McNaughton's own goal was cancelled out by Peter Whittingham and the rest was fairly strightforward.

You could sense in the build up to the game that the press were itching for a fairytale ending. but we seem to rise above that nowadays. We also seem to have become quite adept at coming from behind !

As stated previously in this blog, I am not a big fan of cup football and it is becoming less relevant in days of Premier League/ Champions League etc. However, this was cup football at its best - the 'minnows' had their moment of glory, the better team had a good workout and won, and a few quid was made aswell.

Of course, Cardiff now have an away trip to Hereford or Tranmere to play.......but that's another day.

Now - let's see if we can pick up another 3 points back in the real world on Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday.

In with the New!

What a difference a few wins and a bit of confidence can make! Can you remember the despair after the Charlton game in November? Was it really only 7 games ago?

Lets not get carried away here - we were not playing the fantastic football that we were at the start of last season - far from it. But there was such an air of confidence about the team. Everyone was working hard but without the level of fear which we had seen earlier in the season.

OK - we rode our luck occasionally and things are only now starting to even themselves out after the happenings of the previous few months. This was particularly shown by the deflected shot where Kaspar Schmeickel was diving to the right post when the ball struck the outside of the left post - a couple of months ago those things were going against us.

Now only 3 points off the play-off places - just goes to show how tight this league is.

Nice goal from Joe Ledley again - I wish he wouldn't - he is attracting a lot of attention from Premiership clubs.