From the kick off Cardiff City showed their intent against a struggling Sunderland. The Bluebirds were dominant as they heaped the pressure on a Sunderland side that haven’t won at home in almost ten months.
It took less than seven minutes for City to score, Craig Bryson finishing with a volley after Neil Etheridge’s goal kick was headed on by Kenneth Zohore to Nathaniel Mendez-Laing who volleyed forward to the on-running Bryson who made no mistake as he burst into the box and finished past keeper Robbin Ruiter.
The game should have been out of sight in the opening half of the first half, but a failure to score more gave Sunderland hope that they may grab something. While for the most part they never looked like doing so they did hit the post just before half time and were eventually rewarded when Sean Morrison brought down Lynden Gooch in the box seven minutes into the second half.
Gooch got up and scored from the spot to give the home support some hope of a comeback. But rather than push on Sunderland allowed themselves to be dominated and there was no surprise that Cardiff went on to score again and win the game. City’s winner was also a penalty. Finally, after weeks and weeks of being denied obvious penalty shouts, Morrison was given the benefit of the doubt in the oppositions box and he won a spot kick after being manhandled by Lamine Kone.
Joe Ralls stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way. There was little danger of Cardiff not seeing the game out and after three matches without a win it was back to winning ways ahead of Tuesday’s huge live TV game v Leeds Utd at CCS. City, Leeds and Wolves are all on 20 points at the top of the table after all three won on Saturday.
Ralls’ winning penalty. FT Sunderland 1-2 Cardiff City. pic.twitter.com/JEdSt6Gk3s
— Cardiff City Mad (@cardiffcitymad) September 23, 2017
What happens to Sunderland I don’t know. If they are not careful they could find themselves slipping into League One, they need to find some fighting spirit or they are only going in one direction.