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City though have learned since Bradford and when Gillingham actually played a bit of football it allowed the Bluebirds to play back and we were able to turn on the style with a first half display that came close to matching the Forest away performance but this time had more goals. I'm glad my head and my heart were hopelesly wrong.
Neil Alexander was there when called up (which was not often), James Collins and Tony Vidmar again played superbly well.
A crowd of 15,000, come on Bluebirds - 3,000 more spaces to fill, were entertained and then sent into raptures when Peter Thorne rose to score a superb header. It looked a lost cause as he competed with a defender at the back post but his looping header cleared Brown in the Gill's goal and went in off the post.
Then it was the Robert Earnshaw show. Earnie was on hand to hit home when a Kavanagh corner was not cleared, then a cheeky free kick taken by Rhys Weston enabled Earnie to turn it past Brown.
The kick by Rhys was taken quickly and Gillingham were trying to organise their defence as Earnie nipped in to score unchallenged. That was too much for manager Andy Hessenthaler. He was asked to leave the bench and sit in the stand. Hessenthaler is a player manager, he came back down the tunnel a couple of mins later in his kit and brought himself on. 5 mins later I bet he wished he'd carried on down the tunnel and gone for fish and chips down the Bay. As his Gills side attacked City, Alexander took a knock in a clash with Sidibe, the ball was played out to allow treatment. Both players needed attention. Alexander was clearly in trouble as he received the ball back from the Gills midfielder who was applauded for returning possession to City. Alexander was not able to kick upfield, instead he passed it to James Collins who hit a ball the length of the field, Peter Thorne chased and looked to get the ball and round the unfortunate Brown who brought him down.
Penalty, the ref pointed to the spot, Earnie was first to grab the ball and despite Kav having a word with him, it was only ever going to be Earnie who went for his hat trick. The little man made no mistake with a blast past the keeper.
City could not match the tempo of the first half, they didn't need to. Gillingham had to come at us, we broke and looked like we could score more, Brown was the Gills man of the match as he kept out shot after shot.
When the fifth goal came Brown was involved again. A ball into the box offered a 50 / 50 challenge between Earnshaw and the keeper, the ball broke loose and was sent goalwards, it hit the post and bounced nicely for Earnie to rifle it home. The poor keeper was pole axed and could do nothing about it. He struggled for the rest of the game.
The young lad in goal has had a rather strange week. Last Friday he saw the Italian U21's put 8 past him as he is the Welsh U21 keeper. He kept a clean sheet against Finland on Tuesday but his Welsh squad mate Robert Earnshaw showed him no respect as he scored 4 goals today.
At the end it was jubilation for City fans, despair for Gills fans who were less than impressed by their players, many Gills fans were pulling the badges on their shirts and questining the committment to the cause of their players.
5 - 0 was a harsh beating for Gillingham but it was a joy to watch. Cardiff City are not in Div 1 to make up the numbers.
Earnie has now scored 9 goals in 7 games inc cup goals and leads the Division 1 league goals scoring table with 6.
Cardiff have scored 9 goals in the last two home games and are unbeaten away from home. With the next two games at the Madjeski and at Bramall Lane then the away record will be put to the test.
So onto Reading, a team in managerial turmoil and a team with our old friend Scott Murray.
Can we make three out of three after winning their on our last two visits.
Congratulations Cardiff. After 1 point from the first 2 games we've picked up 10 from the last 12. We are 6th in the table and are up there with West Brom, Forest, Sunderland etc.