Cardiff City were beaten 1-0 by a Newcastle side that knew exactly what they had to do, and did it showing as little style or attacking flair as they could. The Magpies had a wealth of talent in their side and on the bench and after carrying out their gameplan to absolute perfection – they look well equipped for a swift return to the top flight.
Newcastle started brightly and worked tirelessly to deny the Bluebirds any possession, playing 1 striker – a lone Ranger upfront, he competed superbly in the air and the likes of Smith, Barton and Guthrie bossed midfield. The only meaningful passes we strung together were across the back four and we had no idea how to break down Newcastle.
They had a few corners, but basically one real effort on goal when Marshall missed his punch and Coloccini nodded home Ryan Taylor’s swirling cross.
Cardiff City created very little in attack but a well worked move saw Gavin Rae shoot over while Whittingham and Chopra hit free-kicks into the wall. Another show of commitment saw Alan Smith fling himself infront of Ledley’s 20 yard effort.
The second half saw more of the same and our best chance looked a set-piece or penalty. As it happened we had three excellent shouts for a penalty, one very clear handball in particular really should have been given. However, you cant bemoan your luck when you create as little as we did over 90 minutes.
Bothroyd took advantage of a slip late on before being scythed down by Alan Smith – the former Leeds United man was dismissed but there was no Kavanagh to take the free-kick and Chopra saw another effort hit the wall.
Kelvin Etuhu looked bright when he came on but in short, we had no answer to the well drilled 5-man midfield of Newcastle United. They looked comfortable for long periods and while they showed next to no ambition, 3 points are what were on offer – they got them and Cardiff City could do with learning that lesson.
Back to back defeats and without a goal too, City back in action on Wednesday as we face a struggling Reading.
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You’ve got it absolutely right .. they did what they had to perfectly .. stop Chopra getting the ball and having closed off midfield there was nothing for Chopra to feed off – Roy Keene called him a ‘fox in the box’ when taking him to Sunderland .. on Saturday nothing reached him in the box and he had to go looking for the ball all over the pitch .. but trying to crash the ball THROUGH a defensive wall wasn’t going to get us anywhere so set-piece free kicks were wasted .. and am I the ony one who thinks that Jay Bothroyd is just a trifle slow?
he might be slow but he is intregal to the way we play our football!
and shroom’s verdict was spot on in my opinion. we couldnt string anything together newcastle came to shut up shop as i expected them to and i also knew if they scored we would not get back on level terms easily as a 4-5-1 formation was always going to be what they played with both carroll and ameobi out