Malky Mackay adopted a 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 formation with Filip Kiss and Aron Gunnarsson the holding midfielders allowing Conway, Whittingham and Cowie to express themselves with Kenny Miller the lone striker.
From the start Cardiff were attacking and dominating midfield. Blackpool were nullifield all over the field. If they got the ball Cardiff won it back. When in possession City were rampant. The flanks were well used and City fashioned out chance after chance.
The first half saw Peter Whittingham's strike deflected into the keepers arms. Hudson's header tipped wide, Gerrard power a header over, Miller find the side netting rather than the goal, several crosses into the box just elude the attacking City players and a couple of efforts fly over. It was a demolition bar the goals.
Blackpool managed two chances during the half. Kevin Phillips appeared offside as he forced Marshall to tip over a header and another Blackpool shot looked to be edging in before Marshall dived at full stretch to tip wide.
I must go back to pre match. Cardiff wore black armbands to show their respect for the four miners who lost their lives in the Swansea Valley on Friday. A round of appluase from all fans in the stadium was followed by an impeccable minutes silence. Thank you Blackpool.
The half time entertainment was more light-hearted. A Cardiff fan raced a Blackpool fan in large inflated globes. It was a fix in my eyes as the City fan was prepped ready to go with the inflatable lined up in such a way that the entry hole was going to come into play. And so it happened, less than one revolution of the globe and our fella had fallen out of the hole. Blackpool won that race.
The second half was just a few mins old when City scored. Peter Whittingham's cross was met by Don Cowie whose downward header bounced off the deck past Gilks in the Blackpoool goal. Cue delirium in the City section. The whole stand was bouncing.
It was more than deserved. Cardiff were really that good.
When you get so many chances (City had over 20 in the game) and you only take one of them you run the risk of a sucker punch. And it came. Kevin Phillips 'crossed' only to see his effort fly inch perfect into Marshall's top right corner.
Just before that Ian Holloway made a triple substitution. He took a gamble that, I guess, paid off.
Blackpool barely deserved it. Now my fear was that we'd fall apart. Far from it. Cardiff carried on in the manner they had played all game and continued to rip Blackpool apart. Craig Conway had so much space down the left that he must have been knackered as City produced wave after wave of attack down that side of the pitch.
Where we let ourselves down with the execution. Conway came inside 8 times out of 10 and then just once or twice he let fly with a shot but mostly he looked for the next pass and City overplayed leading to losing the ball. We always won it back but time after time blew the great chances we were creating.
Malky left Robert Earnshaw out of the side and never brought him on. A man who has scored three in six games didn't get a chance in a match where we made so many oportunities?
Gestede and Mason did come on and they helped keep up the City flow of dominance towards the Blackpool goal. The three minutes of injury time were all spent with Cardiff attacking.
So City avoid defeat again away from home (that's about eleven games now) and while not losing on your travels is a fine habit to get into I did come away more than a tad frustrated that we didn't win the match.
It'll be interesting to see if we adopt this formation at home?
The image below was taken with a panoramic app on my iphone.
