THE suspicion that Mark Hudson might be Cardiff City’s most important player in the Championship run-in gained further credence at the Riverside.
In a week when name-change and re-branding exercises were buzz phrases surrounding Cardiff, Hudson’s absence with a damaged ankle slipped under the radar.
Yet supporters of a nervous disposition might have cast their minds back to the last time Hudson, suspended on that occasion, last failed to turn out for league combat.
It was Peterborough at home on December 15. Same scoreline, same misery for Cardiff.
Hudson’s absence sent an invitation that a marauding Middlesbrough forward line were only too happy to accept.
Scott McDonald ducked and darted here and there, the muscular Ishmael Miller bullied anyone who came near him and Sammy Ameobi enjoyed a debut that will be long remembered in these parts.
It wasn’t until young Ben Nugent – later described by Bluebirds boss Malky Mackay as “a real man at 20” – arrived to add second-half composure that some of the wind was taken out of Boro sails.
But the damage had been done by then, most notably to Kevin McNaughton who was once more betrayed by his lack of game-time and Matthew Connolly, who only marginally convinced more at right-back than he had done at centre-half in the opening 45 minutes.
How Mackay must have wished that he could have turned the clock back to 2.45pm and handed in a team sheet which had Nugent alongside Ben Turner in central defence. Now that would have been a positive name change.
Both McNaughton and Connolly were culpable as Cardiff were breached after 13 minutes, Miller, running out of pace, but still beating the former to cut the ball back and the latter allowing it to trickle to the lurking Kieron Dyer.
Incredibly, it was Dyer’s first league goal for six years – the last one being for Newcastle against Arsenal – though he did manage an FA Cup strike for Queens Park Rangers two months ago.
If that was a Premier League blast from the past, a more recent member of that gathering stuck the knife into Cardiff four minutes later – and what a beauty it was.
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