At that point City had Robert Page, Daniel Gabbidon, James Collins, Tony Vidmar and Rhys Weston in defence. None of them touched the ball when a cross came over to the far post and it was headed back across goal for Higdon to volley in unchallenged.
City have brought their defensive frailties from pre season into the new campaign. We are still shipping goals at an average of two per game.
City should have won the game yesterday, Crewe just plodded, they showed no real urgency and took their chances when they came. City's defence were hardly troubled and looked to have done enough but the addition of Collins into the back line for the last 9 minutes made it a case of too many cooks and City threw away two points.
Crewe opened the scoring from a penalty on 5 mins. Vidmar was penalised by the linesman but I think the referee was uncertain as to who had blocked the ball so no cards were issued when a red would have been the only option.
Ashton easily beat Margetson who was Neil Alexanderesqe as he dived the wrong way.
The equaliser came just before half time when Kav's low effort pinged around the Crewe defenders and fell to the grateful Robinson who could not miss from 4 yards.
Cardiff dominated after that, Lee scored a cracker from 20 yards. Langley passed to Lee who still had work to do, from 25 yards out Lee edged forward and settled himself for a screamer past Williams, the keeper was still trying to react when the ball had already past him like a rocket.
The sucker punch came after Lennie decided to bring on James Collins in addition to the back 4 already on the pitch. Crewe had possession wide left, a cross came over and no one challenged the ball, it came back from the far post for Higson volleyed home from 8 yards with 4 City players close by not challenging.
Critisism will be levelled at Lennie for trying to fix something that wasn't broken. Before the game a draw would have been seen as an acceptable result but with victory was so close the draw was little consolation and City's voiciferous support left feeling deflated.
Next up is Coventry on Tuesday, they beat Sunderland 2 - 0 yesterday. Peter Reid's team won't be a pushover. Already after game one the pressure is on. City cannot afford to freeze at home.