Two points dropped

A frustrated Ninian Park crowd of below 10,000 saw the Bluebirds fail to hold onto the lead after Brighton equalised with 14 minutes left to play.

Dave Jones made two changes from the side that lost at Preston on the weekend. Cameron Jerome came back from suspension replacing the injured Michael Ricketts, whilst Paul Parry was preferred to the experienced Neal Ardley.

Alan Lee put Cardiff in front on the 57th minute after a fine cross from Jason Koumas found the feet of the Irish International, duly scoring from close range.

Brighton?s equaliser came through substitute Colin Kazim-Richards, who had only been on the pitch 4 minutes when he riffled a spectacular shot from 35 yards, the ball beating Alexander to his bottom right-hand corner.

City failed to score in the first half, but it wasn?t through lack of trying. Koumas had a brilliant free kick denied by Blayney, with the ball eventually going out for a corner kick. Again Koumas, after bursting from his own half with the ball at his feet, he saw his effort hit the post. It wasn?t a teasing diagonal run that we so often see from the Welsh International ? he ran straight at goal.

Alan Lee got in on the ?nearly scoring? action. He almost fired City ahead but Paul Reid managed to clear the ball off the line.

Brighton also proved a threat in the first half ? their best chance falling to Leon Knight, who had been receiving chants of ?you?re only 4ft tall? from the Cardiff fans. The tiny striker could?ve upset them when his effort thumped off Alexander?s crossbar, resulting in chants of ?he?s only 4ft tall? from the Brighton fans.

City’s first attempt on goal after the break fell to Koumas, but his long-range blast curled well wide of Blayney’s goal.

There didn?t seem to be much movement upfront on the night. With a make shift Brighton defence, we should?ve run at them more, but our players were opting to launch the ball into an empty box all night.

In the end we were lucky to come away with a point. Leon Knight turned Chris Barker inside-out, but his shot was pushed away by Alexander.

With Darren Purse recently calling the attendances at Ninian Park an embarrassment, I think I?ll end by saying how embarrassing it was to watch us struggle against a team who will get relegated this season. It works both ways.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones: ‘It was a frustrating evening, but it is a credit to us that teams are now coming to Cardiff and immediately shutting up shop.

‘My players have all worked hard, but the last two home games have shown me that we need far more guile.

‘They scored a good equaliser but even I would have put that one in given that much time.’

Brighton manager Mark McGhee: ‘The early injuries to Jason Dodd and Paul McShane did cause a big disruption, but we coped well with those changes.

‘It was unfortunate that we had to put Alexandre Frutos at full-back because that restricted our chances of going forward.

‘We could have won it in the end but I am more than happy with the draw.’