' CAN WE STILL GO UP? '

Thursday 20th November 2014

' CAN WE STILL GO UP? '.

Can Cardiff City still go up? Three of Russell Slade's stars draw on their Reading experience for belief

Sean Morrison, Adam Le Fondre and Matt Connolly were all in the Reading squad which came from nowhere to win blaze to the Championship title in 2012. Terry Phillips looks at whether they can do it again.

So you reckon Cardiff City can’t go up?

Don’t try saying that with Sean Morrison, Adam Le Fondre and Matt Connolly inside the Bluebirds dressing room.

Appropriate those three should be getting ready to tangle with their old club Reading at Cardiff City Stadium.

Because it was while on the books of the Royals three seasons ago that the Bluebirds trio saw first hand just how you can come from nowhere in the Championship to suddenly clinch promotion to the Premier League.

Morrison, Le Fondre and Connolly were each Reading players as the team managed by Brian McDermott charged up from a lowly 23rd in the table at one point, just above bottom place, to emerge as title winners in 2011-12.

After 17 matches, which is the stage this current season has reached, Reading were 14th on 21 points, still fully 18 points adrift of leaders Southampton.

Today, they are again 14th on 21 points, two points behind Cardiff, 11 away from current leaders Derby - and seven outside the play-offs.

So Russell Slade’s side, in a way, are actually better off... and having seen it happen before, Morrison reckons Cardiff can produce a Reading-style charge to earn promotion back to the Premier League themselves next May.

Morrison, 23, was a young defender signed for the future in 2011 and did not make an appearance for Reading in their title-winning season.

But he watched from close up as they swept to success and is adamant Cardiff can follow his former club’s lead.

“Of course we can still be promoted this season,” said Morrison. “Not much has changed since I came to the club three months ago. We have a new manager in Russell Slade and the same goal of regaining Premier League status.

“We should be higher in the table, but we are working hard to put that right. If we can put together a good run, and there is no reason we can’t, we will be up there. There is not a massive gap - I have seen bigger gaps closed.”

Indeed he did, three years ago when Le Fondre scored 12 goals in the title triumph and Connolly played an important role at the back.

Reading put together an astonishing sequence of wins in the new year and Morrison reckons Cardiff can do the same this time around, hauling in a nine points gap with top club Derby.

The key factor for City is to improve their away form. They have yet to win away from the Welsh capital, have earned only one point from a possible nine since Slade took over and haven’t scored a single goal.

Home results have been far more impressive with four wins from their last four matches in front of the Bluebirds’ own fans, but Morrison is at a loss to explain why there is such a big difference.

“Your guess is good as mine,” he said. “Our performances haven’t been bad away and we had chances to score at Birmingham.

“At home we believe we are going to win, but when we travel it just hasn’t worked yet. We will come good away and there is a strong belief among the players about that.

“Maybe need a bit of luck. It’s been frustrating. We all know how important away points are. They can propel you up the table and we need a good run to put us in a good position going into the new year.”

Thats the big/main question Mason?

Yes without a doubt we still can, we have the team/squad, but for me the jury is still out on Slade, I will tell you if Slade can take us up after his 12th game,same as I would with any other manager

It's no god having good wins at home against the likes of LEDs and forest then you you go to places like Bolton who are down the bottom and then we get shafted three nil he's got got to put a run together of seven or eight wins so we can get at least into the playoff spots let's see where we are after Christmas

I think we will just fall short of the Playoffs this year as our away form is terrible, if we can sort the away performances out with this squad we should be challenging at least playoffs , also depends on Slade (jury still out on him)

No! Not being negative but I cannot see us putting a run of games together. There is a long way to go but with a third of the season gone we are inconsistent. To get near the top you need to either have a team with quality players or an out an out team who gel and play as a team.

Unfortunately we have neither. RS is isolating too many of our better players.

I do think we will win the play offs .

Not with Slade & his management team in charge! Anyone who picks 3 Centre Backs for an away match when you have Guerra and Daehli available needs to take a good look at themselves!!!

Little chance of automatic promotion in my opinion because what Terry Phillips doesn't say in that article is that Reading are the ONLY team in the last 10 seasons to win automatic promotion from such a lowly position. In fact if we lose tomorrow evening then NO team in the last 10 years would have won automatic promotion having won only 23 points from 18 games.

Over the last 10 years you need, on average, 34 points after 23 games to make the playoffs which leave us needing to win 4 of the next 6 games. How does it go Hmmmmm.

That's the size of the challange facing RS and in fairness to him none of this is his fault. Look no further than OGS because he spent a fortune destroying what was basically a Championship winning squad leaving us with a squad which looks good on paper and pretty much ineffective on the pitch.

In my opinion write this season off.

Never say never.

But I don't think so. It will be impressive if we make the play-offs IMO.

I agree with Slade, Solskjaer has messed up big time.

I think we'll finish 8th/9th.

We going down not up

I don't think we will get promoted this season.

Best we will do is reach the play offs

Little chance of automatic promotion in my opinion because what Terry Phillips doesn't say in that article is that Reading are the ONLY team in the last 10 seasons to win automatic promotion from such a lowly position. In fact if we lose tomorrow evening then NO team in the last 10 years would have won automatic promotion having won only 23 points from 18 games.

Over the last 10 years you need, on average, 34 points after 23 games to make the playoffs which leave us needing to win 4 of the next 6 games. How does it go Hmmmmm.

That's the size of the challange facing RS and in fairness to him none of this is his fault. Look no further than OGS because he spent a fortune destroying what was basically a Championship winning squad leaving us with a squad which looks good on paper and pretty much ineffective on the pitch.

In my opinion write this season off.

You can't blame Ole for everything. First of all he didn't spend a fortune, that was Malky. In fact Ole got most of his players pretty cheaply. Also he didn't dismantle a Championship winning side, he tried to save a doomed to relegation Premier League team who were pretty much dead when he took over.

I do think we will win the play offs .

If I'm honest can't see us getting promotion this season it been a strange season so far stop and start then the internationals getting in the way Been quiet flat up until know

Anything is possible Dowie managed to take up Palace when they were struggling near the bottom at xmas.

I dont think we have the manager or the players in "slades squad" sadly. I think we will be a solid midtable team.

Little chance of automatic promotion in my opinion because what Terry Phillips doesn't say in that article is that Reading are the ONLY team in the last 10 seasons to win automatic promotion from such a lowly position. In fact if we lose tomorrow evening then NO team in the last 10 years would have won automatic promotion having won only 23 points from 18 games.

Over the last 10 years you need, on average, 34 points after 23 games to make the playoffs which leave us needing to win 4 of the next 6 games. How does it go Hmmmmm.

That's the size of the challange facing RS and in fairness to him none of this is his fault. Look no further than OGS because he spent a fortune destroying what was basically a Championship winning squad leaving us with a squad which looks good on paper and pretty much ineffective on the pitch.

In my opinion write this season off.

You can't blame Ole for everything. First of all he didn't spend a fortune, that was Malky. In fact Ole got most of his players pretty cheaply. Also he didn't dismantle a Championship winning side, he tried to save a doomed to relegation Premier League team who were pretty much dead when he took over.

OGS spent over £15m in his 9 months in charge which in my book is a fortune and he also got rid of 11 members of our Championship winning squad, either on loan or sold, so again I think he did pretty much dismantle that squad.

Yes of course we can but it will be decided on our away form. While we won't continue to win every game at home, it will be decent enough at home in my opinion.

It's not impossible in this league, but not if we don't improve our away form!

It's not impossible in this league, but not if we don't improve our away form!

Correct and Slade will have had 80% of the season in charge as manager

Yes, of course we can still go up as there seems to be no consistent teams in this league what so ever. Nottingham up, then down. Same with Norwich and pretty much every other team in this leave (the only consistent one, seems to be Blackpool). There´s a new team leading the league after every round, for god´s sake. It´s up and downs for every teams. And during their down period, the managers get sacked. For all we know, Cardiff could have been on a real up now with Ole still being in charge. And probable a happier and less silent squad as well.

Theory says we can win every game and finish as champions.
Reality says we aren't anywhere near good enough, team or coaching staff, to be even close.
Mid table at best.

Theory says we can win every game and finish as champions.
Reality says we aren't anywhere near good enough, team or coaching staff, to be even close.
Mid table at best.

A few weeks ago, we were one point behind Derby. I watched Ipswich home against Norwich, and Ipswich was absolutely crap. Later they have been doing well. No reason to dismiss the possibility that things will change. A couple of lucky wins away is all that might be needed.

Best we will do is reach the play offs

Agree - that is the best we can do - if that.

It's not impossible in this league, but not if we don't improve our away form!

Correct and Slade will have had 80% of the season in charge as manager

Interesting. January will be a key month & opportunity for him to get who he wants in and out!

It's not impossible in this league, but not if we don't improve our away form!

Correct and Slade will have had 80% of the season in charge as manager

Interesting. January will be a key month & opportunity for him to get who he wants in and out!

For me there is No excuses, Slade at the very worst play offs. Another season in the Championship and thousands more will desert, imagine the stadium then.
Yes Slade will have had plenty of time to find who he wants and the Championship is wide open.

2 years ago around about this week in this league - Our club went top and stayed there to the last game of the season....

How times have changed

NO

No
Mid table management team
Developing a mid table squad
Sacked by Christmas 2015 and the management merry go round goes round again

Off course we "can" go up. But the question is do we have anything to do there? Looks more like we are building for a life in Championship and Tan is looking to recoup some of his money.

No , not good enough and even if the unlikely happens what happens to the squad , buy more , more debt more misery