Cardiff City Made To Pay By Ref & Blades

Cardiff City were made to pay yesterday by a Sheffield United side who barely needed to reach second gear. The match was decided as a contest early on when a Blades long ball caught out the City defence, Henderson`s touch was excellent but his momentum saw him over-run the ball slightly and the covering Gyepes nicked the ball away – however referee Mr Taylor ( a full 40-50 yards away from play) needed no consultation with his linesman to award a penalty and send off the Hungarian – a truly terrible decision.

One nil down and with a man deficit Cardiff City were bound to struggle but minutes later, Ross McCormack was given another straight red card, this time for an apparent use of the elbow. I had a much worse view of this incident, but I certainly didn`t expect a red card. Apparently replays suggest this too was a terrible decision.

The rest of the game was a bit of a farce, Sheffield United were playing a training game, we were already beaten. The opening minutes of the second half saw a disappointing goal conceded, headed in at the near post from a corner. Ledley had a stunning shot fly just over from 35 yards while Gavin Rae`s header was cleared off the lines. The Blades were not immune from Taylor`s ineptitude and picked up a couple of ridiculous booking themselves as the ref lost his head. On one such occasion, Ledley skipped away from two challenges but lost control and fell over a standing leg, the referee was there in a flash showing a yellow card for a foul that never was. He was just guessing. On another pitiful occasion, a diagonal ball to Comminges was cut out by a defender, linesman gave a throw only for Mr Referee to overturn to the shock of 18000 fans, Comminges and the Sheffield defender. Simply farcical.

The killer blow came late on when a flowing move in acres of space saw the little ginger fella Stephen Quinn finish neatly in the corner – he looked simply delighted with himself but it couldn`t have been easier, not the 3 efforts he screwed over the bar!

All in all, a horrible horrible game – you can`t deny Sheffield the three points, but also Cardiff City`s effort was superb. There was only one villain, and I`ve never seen such an awful performance from an official. This was the Taylor show, but if there was a reviewer present from the F.A. he ought to be extremely nervous about his future.