Cardiff City 2 - 1 Leeds United ... Costly Lapses at the Back... Again!

Can't say I'm a fan of seeing this man happy.

I must admit, monetary constraints mean I don't get to many away games so unless I state otherwise, I'll just write a subjective view of what I heard on the radio, or watched in highlights and round up the general sense I got from comments about the game from all over the place. So basically, I'll do the best with what's available....

Perhaps I should have hesitated to garner a new sense of optimism when writing my preview for the Cardiff game. I'm normally massively pessimistic when predicting scores - even with the recent good run we've had I can't usually convince myself all will end how I hope from the outset. The Cardiff game proves why pessimism is best! And also ends the optimism experiment. Being surprised when we do better than anticipated suits me much better, and to be honest is a wiser ploy being a Leeds fan. 

With my new found optimism, which has quickly reverted to good old fashioned pessimism,  came a Cardiff side as up for the game as you could imagine. The magnitude of the tie for them was evident from every angle. The raucous fans, the pressurized manager, and the team lacking in form all combined to create a must win attitude that was reflected before the game in comments I posted from a Cardiff forum, indicating the fans would be happy with nothing less than a win. 

From the first whistle, the game had echoes of the home tie - which worried me. Bellamy pretty much ran the show and as Eddie Gray said - "he was the difference between the two sides". In my preview, I stated he hadn't set the world alight with the goals scored in the league but the sheer amount of play that comes through him, and is created by him obviously means there's far more than goals to his game - which is pretty obvious really. Anyone with his pace and vision is going to cause a torrid time for a Championship defence, and particularly it seems, ours. 

His goal on 11 minutes was definitely coming - they'd bombarded us with 4 corners in the first 10 minutes. We failed horrendously to pick up Bellamy from a short corner, who then remained in an onside and annoyingly attacking position to retake the ball from the one two with Whittingham and slot the ball past Schmeichel - in a no mans land created by our back line - and with all the time in the world. How that player out of all on the pitch was left with such time and space by a simple one two mystifies and annoys me. Very sloppy.

We weren't at the races at all in the first half, and in all honesty could be thankful for Schmeichel keeping the tally down, despite some less than conventional stops. They did however do the trick nicely enough.

The game only started to turn towards us when Grayson decided to bring Lloyd Sam on along with Sanchez Watt. Both injected pace and running into the game and Sam instantly improved upon Gradel's overall contribution by forcing a save from Heaton, after a twisting run into the penalty area. The move was set off by Watt. Moments later Snodgrass was found by a yellow shirt. He promptly dived inside his marker onto his left and curled a trademark hit into the far corner from the angle of the box. Typical Snodgrass. How lucky I felt at this point that we were back in it. With Lloyd Sam going off injured very shortly after the goal, some of the new found spark was lost. Although Cardiff were hardly dominant as they were in the first half.

Annoyingly, their goal came from a massive hoick downfield, for Chopra to run onto and slot in. The words used on the BBC's highlights were "Leeds' Defence", "Long Ball", and "Caught Napping". Sums it up well. Schmeichel maybe made it a little easier than would have been liked as the narrow angle might have lended itself better to a nearpost block, had he stayed on his line.

I am not going to blame Parker for being slightly out of position, Collins could equally have come across, and Parker did amazingly well to last the full 90 in such a frantically paced game.

Their pace, tempo and passing prowess exposed our problems in dealing with the three of those when combined as a team unit. I'm not a defensive coach or a tactical expert but having an orthodox defensive midfielder would probably go some way to countering such tactics. We always struggle with the above. Unless we have a Gael Clichy paced back four, we can't play the football we do and not expect to concede as we are open when teams run at us and move the ball quickly - especially without a higher calibre holding pair/defensive midfielders.

The players, unfortunately rose to the expectations of all involved at the club and if we're honest - outplayed us again. When Snoddy struck an absolute peach to equalise - there was not a chance we deserved it and yes, it did turn out too good to be true. A point away to Cardiff would have been more than pleasing. But as it was, we lost and didn't lose significant ground....

Its not all doom and gloom though! Although back to my pessimism, looking at Scunny again for a post-Cardiff revival, does fill me with some optimism for the coming weeks.

I must reiterate. Bring back Bruce please if nothing else for the next run of games, Collins is beginning to wear thin unless the opponents play in a way Kevin Blackwell would be proud of, he worries me.

Simon said:

"We conceded from a short corner and a long ball over the top. They were both goals we could have eradicated... You can't give teams like this opportunities. In the end we switched off and it cost us a point and maybe even all three."

Hopefully he'll ensure they won't be switching off anymore.

Man of the Match: Kasper

Had the most to do, and kept it respectable. As an attacking force we were pretty quiet, as a defensive force we were pretty lax.