Malky Mackay must wish his Bluebirds could play Blackburn every single week.
This was Cardiff City’s biggest victory since battering the fallen Premier League aces 4-1 up at Ewood Park back in December and their most resounding home triumph since a 4-0 thumping of Burnley in October. Who said nerves were starting to get frayed in the Welsh capital following a mediocre March in which the Bluebirds only won one match out of five and saw their lead at the top of the table cut back significantly? If the promotion bandwagon stuttered just a little, it was very much back in full throttle yesterday as goals from Fraizer Campbell, Joe Mason and Peter Whittingham from the penalty spot blitzed Blackburn and earned Mackay’s men a standing ovation from their ecstatic fans.
It was a swashbuckling performance far more in keeping with champions elect from this division than the type of lacklustre and even nervous performances which Mackay’s side have produced too often recently. From start to finish this time the Bluebirds were right on top. In many ways it was close to the perfect team performance. The back four were resolute and kept a clean sheet, the midfield dominant and on the front foot throughout and up front first Campbell, then Mason, displayed the goal poaching instincts of the finest strikers.
Mackay shook up his team, even taking the unprecedented step of dropping midfield playmaker and team talisman Peter Whittingham. But everything he did yesterday turned to gold and the newcomers to the side, Jordon Mutch and Kim Bo-Kyung, offered an energy, endeavour and fresh legs which have been sorely lacking in previous matches. With Craig Bellamy also returning to provide his pace, purpose and direct running, it was a lethal cocktail which left Blackburn punch-drunk, helpless to find the answers to the new-found creativity the Bluebirds provided.
As a bonus, Crystal Palace lost away to Blackpool, meaning Mackay’s men are 13 points clear of Ian Holloway’s side and have pulled 11 ahead of Watford in third spot.
The Hornets travel to second-placed Hull tonight before hosting the Bluebirds on Saturday. Two defeats for Gianfranco Zola’s side in those huge back-to-back games would give Cardiff one foot in the Premier League.
After this splendid showing, it really is looking more a case of when, rather than if, they secure that promotion dream.
The Bluebirds may have gone into this game still flying high at the top of the Championship, but their recent form of just one win in the last five, and only one triumph at Cardiff City Stadium thus far in 2013, belied that of a team roaring away clear as title pretenders.
Thus Mackay deemed it was time for that shake-up. In for a penny, in for a pound, out from the team who lost to Peterborough went Whittingham, as well as Don Cowie and Heidar Helguson, and in came Mutch, Bellamy and Kim Bo, old-fashioned 4-4-2 being replaced by a more fluid 4-5-1 formation.
The manager’s call in axing Whittingham was as big as it gets. He had appeared undroppable, the midfield artisan who moulded the Bluebirds’ whole game together, but in truth Whittingham has been so below par in recent months the decision should probably have been made much earlier. While Whittingham was picked irrespective of performance, Kim and Mutch, two high profile summer signings, had been forced to kick their heels in frustration on the sidelines, their talents overlooked as Mackay stuck loyally with the players he knew best.
Well they each started yesterday’s showdown determined to make up for lost time, Mutch putting the Bluebirds on the front foot from the first whistle with his surging forays forward from the midfield, while Kim flitted dangerously in and around the Blackburn penalty area with his darting runs and clever touches. Even though the pair of them understandably tired near the end, they were the Bluebirds’ best players on the day. With Bellamy pushed back to the wing position which suits him best these days, Cardiff threw off their conservative shackles and laid siege to the Blackburn goal right from the beginning, their free-flowing football carving out a string of first-half opportunities.
Early on Kim cleverly got behind Josh Morris and pulled the ball perfectly back into the path of the onrushing Matt Connolly, whose goalbound effort was blocked by a Blackburn defender. Kim then almost scored direct with a curling effort from a corner, Rovers keeper Jake Kean desperately flapping the ball away from right under his crossbar just as it appeared to be going over the line. In quick succession Campbell then hit an effort on the turn against the Blackburn bar, Mutch had a driving effort beaten out by Kean and Connolly badly blazed the rebound over the bar when he had time and space to thunder his shot into the net.
But the Bluebirds were so much on top, an opening goal was inevitable and it duly arrived in the 39th minute after Bellamy had first forced a brilliant stop from Kean, then saw his follow-up effort scrambled off the line by a backpedalling David Jones. For a split second you feared it was going to be one of those deeply frustrating and unfortunate days when by hook or by crook Blackburn somehow kept the ball out of their net. But Jones’ goal-line clearance resulted in a corner which Bellamy, having just been denied twice, walked across calmly to take. His deep cross to the far post eluded everyone except an unmarked Campbell, who stooped low from three yards out to gleefully head Cardiff into a fully merited lead.
The Bluebirds went in at half-time to a standing ovation and with a spring in their step, knowing that having broken the stalemate there were more goals in this game if they carried on playing in this manner. In the end it took a while for them to come, Mason and Whittingham each finding the target in the closing minutes, but the eventual 3-0 scoreline underlined Cardiff’s clear superiority throughout. Mason, sent into the fray as a 58th minute substitute for Campbell, grabbed his goal in the 87th minute, taking Gunnarsson’s clever pass in his stride, throwing a Blackburn defender off balance and calmly slotting the ball home to make it 2-0.
Mason is a brilliant finisher and this was another example of his coolness in front of goal and how he can make the most difficult task in football – putting that ball in the old onion bag – sometimes look ridiculously easy. In injury time Mason was causing problems again, upended in the box for what was a definite penalty. Up stepped Whittingham, himself sent on for Mutch in the last 10 minutes, to calmly slot home from 12 yards.
It is some substitutes bench at this level when you can send on talents like Mason and Whittingham. Cardiff have that luxury and it is a squad strength which sets them apart from any other team in the league.
The Bluebirds bandwagon is well and truly rolling again. Bring on Watford.
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