All change as Bluebirds have little in reserve

Making a late decision to go to the game might seen an insane thing to do. It was announced beforehand in the press that Jones was going to make changes but with the roads quiet on a Sunday morning it only took two and half hours to get to Derby and the chance to watch a match with no pressure on us whatsoever.

The hundreds in fancy dress made it entertaining and the cheer when Swansea's score came through was as if we'd scored a 90th minute winner.

When I say we used reserve players, most of those that started have played from the start before this season.

We lined up (figures in brackets indicate how many starts made this season prior to Derby match)

Enckelman (5), Capaldi (12), Quinn (19), Hudson (28), Gyepes (19), Taiwo (1), Wildig (6), Burke (41), Etuhu (7), Feeney (0) and McCormack (23). The bench saw David Marshall, Joe Ledley, Adam Matthews, Josh Magennis, Aaron Morris, Jon Meades and Nat Jarvis.

Magennis was returning after breaking his leg earlier in the season.

The City side were comfortable enough during the first half and going in level at half time was fair reward. This was no vintage performance and the double little man combination of Feeney and McCormack upfront struggled to get possession in the attacking third but Cardiff competed OK in a match that saw a lot of niggly challenges and 7 yellow cards.

After the break City were caught by a decent cross that McEveley headed in unmarked. A second goal for Derby followed and you feared they would go on and get more. City toiled though but it wasn't going right up front and Feeney was subbed and replaced by Josh Magennis.

Feeling a little blue?

Feeney just couldn't take on the Derby centre halves by himself and Magennis with his bigger physique made little impact either. With such a lack of action for both players it's understandable they will have found it tough. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see either feature for City again.

City got possesion and were able to run at Derby but Burke, getting frustrated with the lack of skill and support around him, started trying to take on the whole Derby team. As such we never got decent strikes on goal. The best effort came from McCormack as the game came to a close he scorched one from 25 yards that stung the keepers fingers and clipped the bar.

Ross felt he was constantly fouled with the refere giving him very little and in the end it seemed he would fall over every time a Derby player came near him.

The final whistle saw several thousand Derby fans on the pitch while Cardiff fans were kept in the stand. When the other results were confirmed we knew that it was Leicester in the play offs and Blackpool v Forest in the other match with Swansea falling short. Another home game without a goal the story of Swansea's season.

Another 2hr 30 min drive home and back in Cardiff well before 7pm. Quite what the motorway services made of the various assortment of Smurf's, oopmah lumpah's, kings, queens, disney charachters and various other City fans in fancy dress I'm not so sure.

Not a bad day out. Next week will follow a similar pattern but the level of stress will be going off the scale.

Leicester v Cardiff City
Play off semi final 1st leg.
Sunday May 9th, ko 1:15pm. Live on Sky.