A VIEW FROM SOMEONE THERE Stoke 3 Cardiff 3

This was a game you dream of seeing.

I got there a bit early to ask others what they thought of our situation. Summing up most if not all are worried. No one was directly blaming Tan but would say the board need to be changed and replaced by a Director of Football. However, Tan will need to invest in January if we are to stand a chance of staying up. From the discussions we have had on this forum no one should be surprised with peoples views there today.

So onto the game. It felt to me no one expected anything from this game but were expecting some improvement. The supporters were in good voice in the Concourse and fair play to them carried into forward into the stands. As for the home support it looks to me their supporters have deserted them. I know our ground can look empty but the Bet 365 looks worse.

There was an apprehension in the away end as the game kick off where we defended the goal in front of the away support. The apprehension could have been put to bed when a ball over the Stoke defence saw Colwill in the clear. He chose to side pass instead of going for goal which results in the chance going a miss, the home fans cheering and us away supporters vibing disappointment. We have another small chance which squandered only for Stoke to score on their first attack which look like a simple goal to give away.

After that first goal by the home side the travelling support tried to get going again but that came to a sudden end on Stokes second goal. For me it look like a real fluke, a cruel deflection, and it felt amongst us it was going to be one of those games. Stoke took total control of the game after that where they dominated the midfield but fortunately did not trouble our keeper for the remainder of the half. To me it felt like we were making them look a lot better than they were.

I felt if we could get a goal back we could come away with something but at the time that look highly unlikely. We were trying to catch them on the break by playing the ball on the ground. We had our chance near the end of the first half when a through ball found Moore in space and only the keeper to Beat. Moore connected well with the ball and forced a good safe out of their keeper. We all look to the heavens in disbelief as if we really did need that to go in. The half came to an end with us still failing to score in those 45 minutes.

Feelings were high at half time as the supporters discussed who on the pitch should be blamed for it all. The second half started and their 3rd goal was the start of the abuse from us supporters. Looking at the big screen it did look like a delightful goal but it was not appreciated as the away end was anything but a happy place. The midfield were terrible and from what I recall just could not win any 50/50. What I did notice was Stoke were quite happy to keep possession instead of going for a 4th. Little did I know this was about to backfire on them.

I think it was Giles who collected the ball just outside the Stoke penalty area but at the far end of it from our fans. He nicely beat his marker only to be brought down. Bacuna, who was having a worse game than all his other worse games, went to take the free kick. We all wondered why. Anyway as expected he fluffed it, it hardly got of the floor, but it hit one of the walls leg and deflected it the other way to which their keeper was diving. As it look to be going in to the surprise of us supporters, it hit the post and went out for a corner. Most of us just burst out laughing, if we had not we would have all been crying.

It wasn't long after that we had a crazy 5 minutes. From where Bucana had his free kick Colwill found himself in space and tried his luck with his wrong foot. The Stoke keeper look to have it covered but he must have been feeling sorry for us because the ball hardly left the ground but ended up hitting the top of the net after finding its way under the keeper.

Before the goal banter from the away end was very much directed at the team. "We have the ball, we have the ball" when we had possession to "We lost the ball, we lost the ball" when we lost the ball. Easy to join in until we score when we started singing "How shit you are, we scored a goal". Well the team were about to shut us up.

One thing I noticed in this period is we had sort of reverted to huff ball over their midfield/defence. Not your up and unders but what look like clever chips. It work wonders for our second goal as Moore picked up one of these chips that just cleared the defence line. Moore was away and saw Harris making a run into the area. It was a clinical finish by Harris and all of a sudden us fans were wondering what on earth is happening. Yes we were loud celebrating but you could feel everyone was trying to work it out what is happening. A minute later we gave up trying to work it out and started to enjoy whatever it was.

Stoke had lost it and all of a sudden it was us who look like scoring with every kick. Giles found himself in space at the far end again and put in one of those delightful low crosses across the Stoke 6 yard box. It was on of those crosses that no defender dare stick a leg out incase of putting the ball in their net. No goalie would dare attempt to intercept the cross in case they got 6 pairs of football boots in their head. We watched the ball cross the 6 yard area with none of our attackers going for it, so we thought. When it look like the ball was heading for the near linesman Moore came out of nowhere and managed to put the ball in the net. It look like he had a narrow angle to aim for but the screen showed it a tap in. None of us really cared though because for once in a long time we had banter ammunition against the opposing support since the Forest game.

The banter was all aimed to our left which look like the Family stand. When we scored our first goal and started singing "How shit are you, we have scored a goal" some mother stood up and clapped at us as if well done you have scored a goal, now sit down and shut up. Well 5 minutes later she could not look at us. Fair play to some of their kids they put up with some banter back at us but most of them look like they have seen a ghost. Perhaps they saw the ghost of Gordon Banks drifting by saying "Its all been downhill since I lost my eye",

Anyway back to the game. They were 15 minutes to go when we got that 3rd. I would have taken full time then so was very nervous about this remaining quarter. I needn't worry because although Stoke kept most of the possession it was all desperate stuff from them. Where they managed to move the ball around nicely before our first goal they were now acting desperately and were rushing things. They didn't really threaten us. However, we only created one more chance which turned out to be the offside goal. The vide in our stand was if that is given then we are taking the piss. When it was given as offside the feeling were that would be too good to be true to be given.

At the end the Stoke players all fell to their knees. They knew they had blown it, their fans booed them off the pitch while we clapped ours. I'm sure it would have been the other way around if it was not for that crazy 5 minutes.

I'll finish by saying I was totally knackered after watch that.

Great report Ian, and great seeing you today! All the best, Steve

Great read. Keep um coining.

Great report, Ian

I intended to travel up today but ended up having to work (late, too) so couldn't

I didn't watch or listen to the game at all; just score updates via text and it certainly didn't make good reading up to and just after half-time...

Suddenly, it was 3 - 3 and according to others this evening, we might even have won it?

I won't comment on the game/style, etc. until I have watched it but going on what you have posted above, it was one of those (modernly rare) games that made you love the game in the beginning

Thanks for the report and glad you enjoyed an epic comeback!

Good read mate.. cheers

Brilliant report

Great review glad it worked our well for the travelling City fans they deserved some good cheer this year.

Was at the game too in the Stoke end at the side next to the Cardiff fans and their support was excellent.

Thought we started the match well but petered out after about 7 minutes and it was all Stoke for the next hour we were comprehensively outplayed and were lucky only to be 2-0 down at half time.
You could see we were trying to play more passing football but we were terrible at it. Agree Bacuna was probably the worst and Vaulks not much better, how we miss Tomlin. When we went 3-0 down I was expecting a 5 or 6 nil defeat.

The key to our change of fortune was Harris coming on he was superb. Brought a new level of energy and lifted those around him paticularly Moore. Took his goal well and the disallowed one and won a penalty which wasn't given. if he played like that every week premier league clubs will be sniffing around.

By accident or chance we identified Stoke's weakness which is defending on the flanks. Once we got the ball out wide we caused them all sorts of problems and almost won the game. Funnily enough when we tried the long diagonal ball in the first 7minutes it worked then we started to try to pass the ball and it didn't.

Big uptick for Morrison I have no doubt we would have lost the match under MM. He is going to have to find a happy medium between the passing game which quite frankly we are not very good at and a longer ball game which we made work well by getting the ball out wide.

Much more optimistic now and it was fun going back home with my Stoke season ticket holder mates.

Was at the game too in the Stoke end at the side next to the Cardiff fans and their support was excellent.

Thought we started the match well but petered out after about 7 minutes and it was all Stoke for the next hour we were comprehensively outplayed and were lucky only to be 2-0 down at half time.
You could see we were trying to play more passing football but we were terrible at it. Agree Bacuna was probably the worst and Vaulks not much better, how we miss Tomlin. When we went 3-0 down I was expecting a 5 or 6 nil defeat.

The key to our change of fortune was Harris coming on he was superb. Brought a new level of energy and lifted those around him paticularly Moore. Took his goal well and the disallowed one and won a penalty which wasn't given. if he played like that every week premier league clubs will be sniffing around.

By accident or chance we identified Stoke's weakness which is defending on the flanks. Once we got the ball out wide we caused them all sorts of problems and almost won the game. Funnily enough when we tried the long diagonal ball in the first 7minutes it worked then we started to try to pass the ball and it didn't.

Big uptick for Morrison I have no doubt we would have lost the match under MM. He is going to have to find a happy medium between the passing game which quite frankly we are not very good at and a longer ball game which we made work well by getting the ball out wide.

Much more optimistic now and it was fun going back home with my Stoke season ticket holder mates.

Interesting post and a good perspective on the game

A little confused over how anyone can say we 'missed' Lee Tomlin when the salary thief never turned up for day's work for the last 2 seasons at least...?

Was at the game too in the Stoke end at the side next to the Cardiff fans and their support was excellent.

Thought we started the match well but petered out after about 7 minutes and it was all Stoke for the next hour we were comprehensively outplayed and were lucky only to be 2-0 down at half time.
You could see we were trying to play more passing football but we were terrible at it. Agree Bacuna was probably the worst and Vaulks not much better, how we miss Tomlin. When we went 3-0 down I was expecting a 5 or 6 nil defeat.

The key to our change of fortune was Harris coming on he was superb. Brought a new level of energy and lifted those around him paticularly Moore. Took his goal well and the disallowed one and won a penalty which wasn't given. if he played like that every week premier league clubs will be sniffing around.

By accident or chance we identified Stoke's weakness which is defending on the flanks. Once we got the ball out wide we caused them all sorts of problems and almost won the game. Funnily enough when we tried the long diagonal ball in the first 7minutes it worked then we started to try to pass the ball and it didn't.

Big uptick for Morrison I have no doubt we would have lost the match under MM. He is going to have to find a happy medium between the passing game which quite frankly we are not very good at and a longer ball game which we made work well by getting the ball out wide.

Much more optimistic now and it was fun going back home with my Stoke season ticket holder mates.

Yep a good compliment to my report. From where we were the long ball were more chips over the defences heads than a good welly which we are all used to. Somewhere in there is our answer.

I enjoyed yesterday against all odds. Stoke stewards were tossers as usual, the traffic was dreadful and the first 60 minutes was dire.

City fans shouting ‘ off off off’ when Bacuna was getting a yellow card made me laugh more than it probably should have.