More of the Same this Christmas?

More of the Same this Christmas?

A mixed December so far as we hit one of the busiest times of the season - 4 games in 11 days! I think it is a bit much to expect 4 wins out of 4 as we did last Christmas, with the current top 2 Premier League teams to come away from home! However, despite one or two off-field distractions, Malky does seem to have the team in the right frame of mind, and lets hope for the very best. As a realist, the best we can hope for is 2 home wins and nothing from the away games. But the fan inside me keeps thinking that both Liverpool and Arsenal are due to mess up at home, and why shouldn’t we get a point at least at either of those games?

It is only a few short weeks since Arsenal comprehensively beat us at the Cardiff City Stadium, and the sight of Liverpool putting 5 past Spurs last sunday makes things a bit scary! Added to the fact the Luis Suarez is easily the best player in the Premier League at the moment and scoring goals for fun. Still, we can hope that either of those teams has an off day!

Our home games are more important, with 2 in 3 days against Southampton and Sunderland. Southampton have been struggling a little bit recently, after their excellent start to the season. They are a good footballing side, and I hope they will give us a chance to play too. Sunderland have been struggling so far, after sacking their manager early in the season. Gus Poyet is doing his best to sort them out, and their performances have been a little better recently, but this is a game that we really ought to win.

3 games since my last blog post - 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw.

Stoke City 0 Cardiff 0

Crystal Palace 2 Cardiff 0

Cardiff 1 West Bromwich Albion 0

Stoke City 0 Cardiff 0

Always a difficult place to play, Stoke have found themselves near the bottom of the table since Mark Hughes took over as manager. Reports suggest that the game was by no means a classsic, but that we did not really deserve to lose.

Young full back Declan John and Peter Whittingham challenge England star Peter Crouch.

Crystal Palace 2 Cardiff 0

Reports suggest that this was easily our worst performance of the season, allowing Palace to win their second game in a row to ease some of their own relegation worries. Even former Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh scored, after former Bluebirds star Cameron Jerome had opened the scoring for Palace. A poor performance and a game worth forgetting.

Peter Whittingham challenges with Chamakh at the Palace.

Cardiff 1 West Bromwich Albion 0

5 games without a win had seen us drift in the table to one place above the relegation zone. A win against another struggling team like West Brom was therefore essential. Since Malky Mackay took over as manager 2 and a half years ago, the rare bad performances by the Bluebirds have always been followed by a good one. This proved to be the case in this game.

Goal celebrations against West Brom - goal scorer Peter Whittingham is horizontal after a rare headed goal! (Pic by Jon Candy)

For the first time this season, Malky arranged the team into a more attacking 4-4-2 formation, with Peter Noone making his first Premier League start out wide on the right. I feared that this might result in more defensive worries, but in truth West Brom offered little attacking threat despite a number of star names in their line-up.

The only goal of the game was a rare header from Peter Whittingham, but in many ways it was a more comfortable win than the scoreline suggests. David Marshall pulled off an excellent save from a Shane Long header with 2 minutes remaining, but a goal there would have been an injustice to the Bluebirds. The result for West Brom was considered so bad that manager Steve Clarke was relieved of his duties later that evening.

And so on to Christmas - Seasons Greetings to all my readers!