The weather today was awful in Cardiff. Persistent rain and it was freezing. The weather and the Tsunami concert in the Millennium Stadium meant the crowd was under 12,000.
I was concerned ahead of the game of the threat of Richard Chaplow. The guy with the hairstyle that resembles mine was a key figure against Liverpool in midweek but today he was only on the bench. He came on for the latter stages but by then the game had been lost by Burnley. I wonder if Burnley fans will be critical of Steve Cotterill for leaving him out.
City's 1st goal came from Richard Langley. Inamoto played a ball over the top for Alan Lee to chase. Lee put enough pressure on the keeper to force him to block rather than smother and the loose ball was gleefully put away by Richard Langley.
City defended well with James Collins again immense. I notice the stats say Burnley had 9 efforts on goal but I would have that you could have used one hand to count their goal threats.
They did command the second half but that was in terms of possession, in front of goal they were lacking big time.
City wrapped up the win when Graham Kavanagh took the ball in advanced midfield, he progressed on goal before smashing a shot that deflected past the helpless keeper. Then it was game over. As a pessimistic fan I always worry unless we are at least 4 goals in front and to see 4 mins added time caused a flutter but apart from a free kick Neil Alexander had little to do. He saved well from the strike and was fortunate to collect the ball after his initial parry.
Andy Campbell started and had some good runs but it wasn't his game. Inamoto worked hard again and produced some great skills, none more than his tricks in front of the grandstand where he stopped the ball from going out of play and did an intricate move to see him beat his man and still retain possession.
With Coventry and Plymouth both losing we have jumped two places. With none of the bottom three winning we now have a 5 point gap above the drop zone.
With 3 league wins from 4 games and an FA Cup replay against a Premiership club could Lennie be in with a shout for manager of the month? I hope not, those managers tend to lose their next games. City have a 15 day gap before the trip to West Ham. We will be huge underdogs at Upton Park so any result will be a bonus. I feel there will be more pressure on Alan Pardew as the Hammers will not tolerate anything less than promotion this season.
Anyway back to today. Well done City, difficult conditions against a team who last conceded a goal on Dec 18th. It was a huge victory.