Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:02 am
On Saturday Michael Chopra – not surprisingly – made a goal scoring return to Cardiff with his new team Ipswich, and we were lucky to get a draw thanks to a dubious penalty decision after having fallen behind 1-2 in the second half. Two seasons ago we surrendered a 4-0 half time lead to let Peterborough back into the game and score four goals in the second half to make it 4-4. On Tuesday we twice had the lead at London Road, and went 3-2 up with just eleven minutes remaining, but we still couldn’t hang on to it. Devastating.
The controversial penalty given in our favor versus Ipswich seemed a bit harsh but still correct from the highlights on Cardiff City Player. The camera angle wasn’t the best to judge from, but Carlos Edwards looking towards the referee in the guilty the way that he did immideately after the ball hit his hand says it all for me. Hand ball.
Having taken the lead through a fine Rudy Gestede header it was disappointing to let Ipswich get back into the match when ex-Jack Jason Scotland pounced from long range and then when former Bluebird Michael Chopra showed he’s sadly taken his goal scoring abilities with him to East Anglia by heading home from close range.
Malky Mackay said after the game that a draw was a fair result and after the horrible surrender towards the end of the match against Peterborough it’s of course easy to say that a point is better than none.
Watching the highlights from the Peterborough game at Cardiff City Player I was expecting to get confirmation that Peterborough’s penalty shouldn’t have been given. That was the clear impression I got from listening to BBC’s commentators via Cardiff City Player. I therefore needed to see situation a few times before sadly having to conclude that it did look like a correct call from the referee. My six year old son, who’s also a Cardiff City fan, watched as well, and he immediately said it was a penalty!
I noticed that Mackay after the match didn’t criticize that the penalty was given, but rather pointed out that since it was given, the ref should have awarded City one as well in an incident in the first half.
It was sad to see the linesman getting it completely wrong when he flagged for off side as Peter Whittingham put the ball into the back of the net with Cardiff 1-0 up in the first half. No way he was off side! Had we gone 2-0 up at that stage I’m sure we wouldn’t have ended up losing. I suppose not losing Gestede through injury early on also would have helped.
For Peterborough’s fourth goal I question why our defensive line was set almost at midfield with the score at 3-3 and the home side having scored the last goal. It’s admirable if Mackay and the players weren’t satisfied with a draw and were intent on trying to win he game, but as it turned out it was rather foolhardy. City should have been sitting a lot deeper so that the pacey Paul Taylor hadn’t been able to race clear on the rigth hand side and then cut inside to score. It was a good goal by the substitute, but a devestaing blow for us.
Finally just a brief mention of Anthony Gerrard. I feel a bit sad for Gez. Player of the year at Hull City last season after having been frozen out by Dave Jones, then given a fresh start at Cardiff under Malky Mackay and first choice alongside Mark Hudson turning in some man of the match performances. Then newcomer Ben Turner, who Mackay has great belief in, returns to fitness and then all of a sudden Gerrard finds himself dropped. Harsh, and you can easily understand that he must be bitterly disappointed to be out of the side. I expect a lot of other Championship managers to be monitoring his situation closely.
Mon Oct 24, 2011 2:12 pm
20 stitches, out for the Burnley game