" Match report Cardiff v Birmingham 4th Dec 2011 "

Birmingham is considered our banana split club. Our record against them is not healthy and you have to go back to 2006 for our last win against them. Actually that is the only one I can think of. So when it was rumoured that Lee Naylor was making the starting line up and he would be against the ex Cardiff favourite Chris Burke then you would forgive any Cardiff fan wanting to stay home and have a banana split than come to the game. I like banana splits but I am glad I gave it a miss.

Marshall took to the posts with the surprise selection of Naylor being his left side defender. The captaincy went to McNaughton on the right side with Turner and Gerrard in the middle of the defence. The familiar set up of 5 in the middle with Cowie, Whittingham, Conway, Kiss and Gunnarson was supported by the lone striker Miller up front.

A crowd of 22,000 settled down for the start of the game with 1,000 of them coming from the Midlands. The atmosphere was nothing special, Sundays never is, with the only noise coming form the away fans. The Canton stand made some effort but you could feel it was going to take a mighty effort from the team to get the home fans going.

Cardiff started the lively with some bright passing down their left side as they attacked the family end goal. Whittingham hugging the side line sent a tempting cross into the Birmingham area where Miller made good contact with the ball only to head wide. Moments later Birmingham replied with a £6 million tag striker failing to direct a head on goal.

After these two early chances both defences tightened their lines making it very difficult for either attack force to break them. Cardiff were winning the midfield battles and moved the ball around the Birmingham half with ease but could not break thorough. Eventually Cardiff would give the ball away for Birmingham to have a go. The visitors did this mainly down the Cardiff left hand side with Chris Burke being given all the space in the world to attack the out of practice Naylor. In the opening 20 minutes Burke was given a number of chances to take on Naylor and each time was nut megged by the defender. The only cross Burke managed to get into the area was from a corner where he was asked to do the Ayatollah from the Canton stand of which he obliged.

The crowd had to wait until the 30 minutes to finally see a clear shot on goal. Once again Cardiff were restricted to moving the ball around the Birmingham half but struggled to breach the defence line. Whittingham picked the ball up just outside the area and surrounded by three defenders managed a low shot that travelled to the bottom left of the goal. The away keeper, Welsh international Myhill, managed to get down to the shot and parried the ball away.

After this effort Cardiff could only managed to other attempts at goal and both were from distance resulting in shots flying high over the visiting team goal. Birmingham did have their own chance with five minutes left of the half. On a counter attack Burke had switched wings and found himself free with only Marshall to beat. As he composed himself for the finish Gerrard made up terrific ground to fling himself at the ball to prevent Burke even getting a shot in.

The referee brought the rather uneventful first half to a close with no score.

The second half started with the visitors stepping up in gears and their supporters responded. Within the first two minutes they should have taken the lead when their £6 million man only had Marshall to beat. However he decided to pass to his colleague who was surrounded by three home defenders. The chance was gone and it made you wonder where the money should have gone.

Five minutes later Cardiff were to make two substitutions with Ralls replacing Gunnarson who picked up an injury and Hudson replacing Gerrard for another injury. The introduction of the youngster Ralls made a sudden impact as the away side retrieved back to their plan A of coming for a draw. Ralls showed great composer as he seemed to have all the time in the world on the ball and his distribution caused the visitors problems.

The visitor problems were magnified on 62 minutes when they went down to 10 men. As Cardiff started to take the initiative again with Ralls controlling the midfield the Birmingham defence were being pinned back further into their half. Miller picked up a pass just outside the away area and finally got pass his man with only the keeper to beat. However he was brought down and the culprit was shown the red card and that was the last we heard form the supporters.

So Cardiff were now a man to the good and with a free kick on the edge of the area. With a wall of 5 men in front of him Whittingham sent a powerful shot low and around the obstacle to smash the ball against the post. The ball rebounded back across the area and everyone looked at the post to see if it was still standing.

Cardiff were forced to make their final substitution with Mason replacing an injured Kiss. Moments later the home side took their deserved lead. Mason found Conway on the right and the winger form 25 yards out sent a harmless cross into the area. A Birmingham defender on his six yard line with all the time in the world headed the cross right into Miller. Before the striker knew it he was in the open 6 yards out and only the keeper to beat. He reacted quickly to strike the ball into the net on 70 minutes.

From the restart Cardiff allowed the visitors to attack with the hope they would catch them on the break. This worked well and soon Cardiff were attacking. One such attack saw Whittingham pick up a pass just outside the visitors box. He sent a low shot across the area that saw the ball hit the post that should have not been standing.

Birmingham changed their tact and went looking for an equaliser. The Cardiff line just stood firm just waiting to counter attack. Birmingham failed to break into the Cardiff area and were they looked like they were just about to break through their attempts came to a sudden end by some breath taking tackles by Turner.

One of the tackles saw the ball and an away winger being put into touch. The other tackle made the stadium shake as Turner from a mix up had about 15 yards to make up to get to the ball before a Birmingham foot got there. The family stand held onto their seats, well I did, as they witnessed Turner eat up the ground and getting the perfect sliding tackle in to send the ball well into the Grandstand.

That tackle put off the visitors trying to make another attack and Cardiff saw out the game comfortable. The referee brought the game to an end with all three points staying in the capital.

Summing up. Seeing this team holding onto a lead and seeing the manager shouting his instructions from the sidelines I'm beginning to believe. At the start of each game I'm expecting the bubble to burst, at the end of the game I say to myself why do I think like that. Think it is time to start believing.

good report...

Once again Ian, great match report.

Love your lasts lines.


Summing up. Seeing this team holding onto a lead and seeing the manager shouting his instructions from the sidelines I'm beginning to believe. At the start of each game I'm expecting the bubble to burst, at the end of the game I say to myself why do I think like that. Think it is time to start believing.

Enjoyed reading that Ian

They are getting better each game lol

Excellent Report. Great read as per usual...I was a bit wary when we started to hoof the ball, especially with the size of some of the Brummies we played the ball on the floor and thought we were the better team. Your last paragraph sums it up. ....I thought Naylor had a cracking game and the team played for each other ...Not forgetting our superb manger Malkay

Very good report I enjoyed reading that. No doubt in my mind that Birmingham came to park the bus as both their CM players hardly ventured more than 30 yards in front of their back 4, in my opinion Birmingham feared us and that should tell us everything we need to know about our team.

Also the CB sent off was Curtis Davies once signed by Aston Villa for £10m and their squad has cost well over £20m to put together.

I bet MM would love a bit of that.

Top match report Ian,its a good job you do these reports cus the states i get in on match day i can't ever remember what the game was like other than the score!!!

Great report really love it.

Cheers Ian, Look forward to the Millwall report.