After tonight’s match with Peterborough, City remain in twentieth position with just the four sides below them, but, suddenly, relegation looks like something we should be able to forget about. City are twelve points clear of tonight’s opponents now with a far better goal difference and, with Reading having lost their sixth straight game at Bristol City tonight, we now have a buffer of ten points over them with our superior goal difference being worth another point.
Of course, thirty two points won’t keep us up and another eight game losing streak to match the one that did for Mick McCarthy in the autumn would resurrect all of the relegation demons and then some. However, such was the manner of tonight’s 4-0 demolition of one of the four other teams we seemed to be locked in a battle with to avoid being one of the trio to drop out of the division in May that the notion that we will be worrying about the drop in the final throes of the season seems daft tonight.
There was a huge gap between the two teams – Peterborough looked as poor as you would expect a team averaging less than a goal a game scored and two a game conceded to be, but I was quite impressed by them back in August when they were a lot better than us for eighty minutes only for Aden Flint to rescue a point with a couple of headers.
That was the old set piece orientated Cardiff though. Watching us that night, the notion that we would soon be going on a run which broke club records for the wrong reasons looked plausible even if you never really think like that at the time as a fan. Tonight we closed to within fourteen points of the Play Off places and, although I’m certainly not expecting a Whitsun Wembley appearance, top six looks a more realistic prospect than bottom three if we could carry on the sort of form seen in our last two home matches.
Everywhere you looked there were strong performances, Cody Drameh had been okay before tonight, but here he was immense as he capped what would probably have been a man of the match performance anyway with his amazing assist for the third goal. Joel Bagan may not have been as eye catching as his fellow wing back on the right, but there was quality in nearly everything he did and he’s clearly taken a lot of confidence from his polished showing at Anfield on Sunday.
The three man midfield of Tommy Doyle, Ryan Wintle and Joe Ralls dovetailed really well with the first named looking more like a complete performer with every game, Wintle just makes us a better team, it’s as simple as that, and Ralls was on the way to becomIng the team’s heartbeat even before Sean Morrison’s injury – the team captain may not be playing currently, but he’s not forgotten as Ralls unveiled a Morrison four shirt after scoring the first goal with a finish that was almost Whittinghamesque.
Isaak Davies, of the one man press, played his first full ninety minutes for the team and Peterborough just couldn’t cope with his pace and non stop harassment of their back line in the first half especially, while Jordan Hugill helped himself to another goal and could easily have ended up with the match ball as there were three other near things from him as City we’re creating the impression that they had been saving up a season’s worth of goal threat for the one game!
I’ve not mentioned Alex Smithies and the back three, but that’s only because they had as comfortable a ninety minutes as they will have had all season. Having spent so long giving the impression that they found it impossible to achieve a shut out, they’ve now got two in two league games and tonight there was only a free kick from sub Jonson Clarke Harris from thirty yards which rippled the side netting that threatened to deny them their clean sheet.
A week ago, we played a relegation six pointer at Barnsley and it was as grim as many predicted it would be – our performance as we picked up three fortunate points offers a counterpoint to tonight and should serve as a reminder not to get too carried away by tonight, but, having watched so much dross in home matches especially this season, I’m finding it hard not to be!
After scoring in six minutes in our last home match, City we’re even quicker out of the blocks this time. Doyle with a well struck effort from twenty yards struck the far post with less than four minutes on the clock and within thirty seconds we had a goal to celebrate. Peterborough didn’t help themselves with some sloppy work out on their left hand side and Davies punished them by bursting clear, looking up and delivering a low cross to Ralls who finished crisply with a first time shot from twenty yards to record his first goal of the season.
Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson has declared himself “devastated” by the manner of his side’s defeat in such an important game, declaring that they could have been four or five goals down after twenty minutes.
Ferguson isn’t exaggerating there either – another testing dead ball delivery by Doyle saw Hugill head on to a post and then the same player nodded over from point blank range as a corner by the Man City loanee caused havoc in the visiting defence. Davies almost picked out the centre forward as well after harrying the Peterborough back line into another error, but, eventually, they began to stem the flow somewhat and start to dominate possession.
If Peterborough could have got to half time just the one goal down, there may have been a way back into the game, but they couldn’t as they fell foul to a set piece goal. Again, it was Doyle who provided the ammunition with a corner that was awkwardly punched away by Swansea loanee Steven Benda to Flint standing some fifteen yards out who showed excellent technique to take a touch and thne bury his shot low into the net past the five or six defenders stood between him and the goal.
As their manager alluded, Peterborough must have been grateful to get to half time just the two goals down, but two half time changes didn’t really alter the general direction of the game. While it was true that the visitors ended up dominating possession 69/31, this was an occasion where such figures didn’t tell the true story. Steve Morison was definitely right to say that we dominated when not in possession after the match – it’s a concept I would have struggled with beforehand, but having seen that ninety minutes, I know exactly what he meant.
There weren’t as many moments of danger for Peterborough after the break, but there were enough of them as the visitors still couldn’t live with our intensity and pace (when’s the last time anyone has been able to say that about the pace of our players and how we move the ball?).
Drameh, so impressive already, applied the coup de gras midway through the second period with Cafu like lung bursting run down the right from well inside his own half which left a couple of defenders in his wake and then, having travelled about sixty yards with the ball, he still had the calmness and quality to pick out Hugill who applied the finish Drameh’s work deserved as he got in front of his marker to turn the ball in from eight yards at the near post.
Incredibly, Drameh was at it again within minutes as he powered down the wing and crossed in similar fashion to Hugill, but this time, one of the better bits of Peterborough defending of the night saw the striker’s effort diverted over the bar.
Davies was about a yard away with a shot from twenty yards after his pace had proved too much for his opponents yet again and Doyle was not too far away with another effort similar to the one where he’d struck the woodwork earlier, but it was left to a couple of substitutes to combine for the fourth goal late on when Ng played Colwill in down the visitor’s decimated left side and his Drameh like cross was turned in once again on the near post by Uche Ikpeazu from inside the six yard box.
So, having given what I described as our best performance of the season in our previous home game, was this an improvement on the Forest showing? Well, Steve Cooper’s side won tonight at ailing Blackburn and have clearly shown their quality since our comfortable victory over them, so part of me says that putting an inferior team to the sword is not as good, but, on balance, I think better sides than Peterborough would have left Cardiff City Stadium heavily beaten tonight so, yes, it was another best of the season for me.
The trick now is to maintain the standards seen in the last three games now (yes, even the dismal game at Barnsley showed some qualities we lacked earlier in the season) – it’s not always going to be as eye catching as tonight, but if that attitude and intensity is repeated often enough, we’ll definitely finish closer to the middle of the table than the bottom of it and, if we do, then that will reflect greatly on Steve Morison and his coaching colleagues while leaving supporters enthused about what the inevitable summer rebuild will hold.