' Southampton 0 -1 Cardiff City ' Match Report

Saturday 12th April 2014.

Southampton 0 Cardiff City 1

Long after the final whistle had sounded they were still singing loud and lustily. Deep down, the Cardiff supporters must know that the challenge over avoiding relegation from the top flight remains formidable, but three vital points had just been banked and for another week at least they will believe that the miracle demanded by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might just be taking shape.
When you are down and almost out it helps to come up against a team with little to play for.

It took Cardiff well past the hour to realise that this was a game Southampton were trying hard not to win, and when the penny dropped the result was decisive as central defender Juan Cala grabbed the initiative to plot an unlikely route towards survival.

It still needed a couple of outstanding saves from David Marshall to protect the lead, but Solskjaer insists this was a result that had long been coming and, moreover, one that was fully deserved in the context of previous disappointments.

Last week’s tame surrender against Crystal Palace had been followed by revelations that two club employees had been disciplined after their team line-up had been leaked to their opponents. Solskjaer said the issue had “galvanised” the squad and helped concentrate minds on the task in hand.

“We have dealt with it as a club and ended the week on a high,” said the manager, who was enjoying only his third victory in 14 League games. “The pressure was on more than ever but the players focused really well and now we need more of this. Now we are only three points behind the teams above us.” 

The pattern was set from the outset: the home side building attacks with poise and precision while Cardiff back-pedalled to form a blue wall of defiance. So deep were the visitors that Southampton could advance almost to the edge of the 18-yard line before coming under serious pressure.

The goalscoring chances began to stack up: Rickie Lambert headed over; Adam Lallana cleverly found Gaston Ramirez in space but Steven Caulker just got his body in the way in time to divert the shot on to the crossbar and away to safety.

More obvious opportunities came and went after Cardiff’s goal. Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino admitted they lacked a clinical edge. “It was a steep learning curve for us because all that possession means nothing if you can’t convert it into goals,” he said.
According to Solskjaer the memory of the Palace debacle was a factor in Cardiff’s inability to show nothing more than defensive resolution in the opening 45 minutes. They improved after the interval and signalled their intent when Jordon Mutch went close.
Five minutes later and , following Peter Whittingham’s free-kick, Cala seized on a poor clearance from Calum, veered left to shake off a couple of defenders before planting a firm drive beyond Gazzaniga.

Now Cardiff really did have something to defend. The best chance on a frustrating afternoon for the Saints arrived for young Sam Gallagher after Morgan Schneiderlin adroitly lofted the ball forward. The substitute shot first time but Marshall had advanced off his line to smother the shot, and shortly after he got down well to deny Nathaniel Clyne.

Southampton (4-3-2-1): Gazzaniga; Chambers (Clyne, 67), Fonte, Lovren, Shaw; Davis, Cork (Prado, 79), Schneiderlin; Ramirez (Gallagher, 66), Lallana; Lambert
Cardiff (4-1-3-1-1): Marshall; Theophile-Catherine, Caulker, Cala, Fabio (McNaughton, 78); Medel (Zaha, 61); Kim, Whittingham, Daehli (Bellamy 87); Mutch; Campbell.
Referee: Jonathan Moss.
Man of the match: Marshall (Cardiff)
Match rating: 5/10

When we lose the media slag us off but when we win its because our opponents didn't want to
Load of bollocks

I didn't read all of the above, i'm very disappointed in the way we played today, I know a win is a win but we had no drive to stay in the premier league they were all over us in the first half, second half we were a bit better but the win was down to luck of the day.

Cardiffcitymad - Cannot agree with that.

I had written us off before today - still think it is a big ask, but give us a glimmer of hope. What I don't think anybody could do, based on today's performance, is accuse our players of not caring/trying.

Against Palace they were absolute guff and deserved all the criticism they got.

Today I saw 14 players who all put everything on the line to get a result. Yes we were a bit lucky, and had to rely on yet more miracles from Marshall, but over 90 minutes every one of them dug in to grind out a result.

It is difficult to lose sight of the fact that, on paper and in reality, Southampton have much better players than us. They were always going to create chances against us.

I felt our unity, team spirit and cohesiveness as a unit was oustanding today. Whether we follow it up with a similar performance against Stoke can only be speculated on however...

Cardiffcitymad - Cannot agree with that.

I had written us off before today - still think it is a big ask, but give us a glimmer of hope. What I don't think anybody could do, based on today's performance, is accuse our players of not caring/trying.

Against Palace they were absolute guff and deserved all the criticism they got.

Today I saw 14 players who all put everything on the line to get a result. Yes we were a bit lucky, and had to rely on yet more miracles from Marshall, but over 90 minutes every one of them dug in to grind out a result.

It is difficult to lose sight of the fact that, on paper and in reality, Southampton have much better players than us. They were always going to create chances against us.

I felt our unity, team spirit and cohesiveness as a unit was oustanding today. Whether we follow it up with a similar performance against Stoke can only be speculated on however...

You must have been watching a different game to me then... 61% possession the opposition had!!
Many bad passes which went to the opposition, caulker made a very poor back pass to marshall (lack of communication) which almost cost us, for me if it wasn't for Marshall we would have been out of this game...

I didn't read all of the above, i'm very disappointed in the way we played today, I know a win is a win but we had no drive to stay in the premier league they were all over us in the first half, second half we were a bit better but the win was down to luck of the day.

We have been like that since the day malky took over where you been?

I didn't read all of the above, i'm very disappointed in the way we played today, I know a win is a win but we had no drive to stay in the premier league they were all over us in the first half, second half we were a bit better but the win was down to luck of the day.

We have been like that since the day malky took over where you been?

I have been there... It's just everyone is so positive about staying up after yesterdays result my gut feeling is, if we play against stoke/sunderland/newcastle/chelsea like we played yesterday NO CHANCE!

Cardiffcitymad - Cannot agree with that.

I had written us off before today - still think it is a big ask, but give us a glimmer of hope. What I don't think anybody could do, based on today's performance, is accuse our players of not caring/trying.

Against Palace they were absolute guff and deserved all the criticism they got.

Today I saw 14 players who all put everything on the line to get a result. Yes we were a bit lucky, and had to rely on yet more miracles from Marshall, but over 90 minutes every one of them dug in to grind out a result.

It is difficult to lose sight of the fact that, on paper and in reality, Southampton have much better players than us. They were always going to create chances against us.

I felt our unity, team spirit and cohesiveness as a unit was oustanding today. Whether we follow it up with a similar performance against Stoke can only be speculated on however...

You must have been watching a different game to me then... 61% possession the opposition had!!
Many bad passes which went to the opposition, caulker made a very poor back pass to marshall (lack of communication) which almost cost us, for me if it wasn't for Marshall we would have been out of this game...

No, watched the same game and I agree - Fabio was a particularly poor offender when it came to wayward passes and at one point in the first half I was beginning to wonder whether somebody in the stand over to our right was pulling faces at Theo, the amount of passes he was kicking into them.

My point, admittedly, is based primarily on the second half and also on the fact that my expectations have been progressively lowered to the point that I am impressed if they look like they care and are trying. That could not be said about the Palace game, but IMO could definitely be said about yesterday. Yes Marshall needed to make a few amazing saves, but he always has to. Irrespective of Marshall's saves, we often fold like a newspaper when the going gets tough - yesterday everybody, from 1 to 11, for that last half hour when everybody at our end of the ground was secretly bricking it, dug down and fought for the points. It was a true relegation dogfight 3 points - and whilst I do not disagree with your overall assessment of the fact that, on paper, southampton should have won, I think we should largely view our team's (mainly second half) performance as a huge improvement on what we have seen recently and a very positive sign that the miracle, whilst still unlikely, is a darn sight more possible than it was this time last week!!

Cardiffcitymad - Cannot agree with that.

I had written us off before today - still think it is a big ask, but give us a glimmer of hope. What I don't think anybody could do, based on today's performance, is accuse our players of not caring/trying.

Against Palace they were absolute guff and deserved all the criticism they got.

Today I saw 14 players who all put everything on the line to get a result. Yes we were a bit lucky, and had to rely on yet more miracles from Marshall, but over 90 minutes every one of them dug in to grind out a result.

It is difficult to lose sight of the fact that, on paper and in reality, Southampton have much better players than us. They were always going to create chances against us.

I felt our unity, team spirit and cohesiveness as a unit was oustanding today. Whether we follow it up with a similar performance against Stoke can only be speculated on however...

You must have been watching a different game to me then... 61% possession the opposition had!!
Many bad passes which went to the opposition, caulker made a very poor back pass to marshall (lack of communication) which almost cost us, for me if it wasn't for Marshall we would have been out of this game...

No, watched the same game and I agree - Fabio was a particularly poor offender when it came to wayward passes and at one point in the first half I was beginning to wonder whether somebody in the stand over to our right was pulling faces at Theo, the amount of passes he was kicking into them.

My point, admittedly, is based primarily on the second half and also on the fact that my expectations have been progressively lowered to the point that I am impressed if they look like they care and are trying. That could not be said about the Palace game, but IMO could definitely be said about yesterday. Yes Marshall needed to make a few amazing saves, but he always has to. Irrespective of Marshall's saves, we often fold like a newspaper when the going gets tough - yesterday everybody, from 1 to 11, for that last half hour when everybody at our end of the ground was secretly bricking it, dug down and fought for the points. It was a true relegation dogfight 3 points - and whilst I do not disagree with your overall assessment of the fact that, on paper, southampton should have won, I think we should largely view our team's (mainly second half) performance as a huge improvement on what we have seen recently and a very positive sign that the miracle, whilst still unlikely, is a darn sight more possible than it was this time last week!!

My thoughts are we are missing pace in the game, I think we missed Noone yesterday KTC was beaten nearly every time and fabio well say no more... Fingers and toes crossed though, I really would love to see us stay up for another season... Bring on stoke...

Cardiffcitymad - Cannot agree with that.

I had written us off before today - still think it is a big ask, but give us a glimmer of hope. What I don't think anybody could do, based on today's performance, is accuse our players of not caring/trying.

Against Palace they were absolute guff and deserved all the criticism they got.

Today I saw 14 players who all put everything on the line to get a result. Yes we were a bit lucky, and had to rely on yet more miracles from Marshall, but over 90 minutes every one of them dug in to grind out a result.

It is difficult to lose sight of the fact that, on paper and in reality, Southampton have much better players than us. They were always going to create chances against us.


I felt our unity, team spirit and cohesiveness as a unit was oustanding today. Whether we follow it up with a similar performance against Stoke can only be speculated on however...

You must have been watching a different game to me then... 61% possession the opposition had!!
Many bad passes which went to the opposition, caulker made a very poor back pass to marshall (lack of communication) which almost cost us, for me if it wasn't for Marshall we would have been out of this game...

No, watched the same game and I agree - Fabio was a particularly poor offender when it came to wayward passes and at one point in the first half I was beginning to wonder whether somebody in the stand over to our right was pulling faces at Theo, the amount of passes he was kicking into them.

My point, admittedly, is based primarily on the second half and also on the fact that my expectations have been progressively lowered to the point that I am impressed if they look like they care and are trying. That could not be said about the Palace game, but IMO could definitely be said about yesterday. Yes Marshall needed to make a few amazing saves, but he always has to. Irrespective of Marshall's saves, we often fold like a newspaper when the going gets tough - yesterday everybody, from 1 to 11, for that last half hour when everybody at our end of the ground was secretly bricking it, dug down and fought for the points. It was a true relegation dogfight 3 points - and whilst I do not disagree with your overall assessment of the fact that, on paper, southampton should have won, I think we should largely view our team's (mainly second half) performance as a huge improvement on what we have seen recently and a very positive sign that the miracle, whilst still unlikely, is a darn sight more possible than it was this time last week!!

My thoughts are we are missing pace in the game, I think we missed Noone yesterday KTC was beaten nearly every time and fabio well say no more... Fingers and toes crossed though, I really would love to see us stay up for another season... Bring on stoke...

Both medel and whitts lack pace, there was a marked difference when Zaha came on.