|
It should never have needed such a dramatic finish. For the last 50 minutes of the game it was virtually one way traffic towards Andy Lonergan's goal but a few decent saves and a catalogue of stunning blocks and clearances meant City only managed to breach the defences once, and so late.
So why such a downbeat feeling? A late goal usually sees the fans buzzing when the whistle goes but not today. More boos on top of the boos at half time. This was a poor performance despite the stats. We registered something like 24 attempts on goal. But sat in the stand watching it was like we could have played for months and not scored.
The cause wasn't helped when Jay Bothroyd went off with a hamstring injury in the 5th minute. Andy Keogh came on to replace him. City continued to play the long ball to Keogh but he's no Bothroyd. He's not big enough for a start. No criticism of Keogh though, he actually won a few balls but up against the strangest looking pair of centre halves I've seen in a while he came off second best most times.
City again had trouble keeping the ball and either played tippy tappy non progressive football or lumped it towards Keogh. After losing the last two home games the sinking feeling was back before half an hour was played. Preston won a free kick centre of the field 20 yards out. Tonge's shot took a deflection and Marshall was helpless.
From that moment on Preston adopted time wasting tactics and ultimately it was a policy that cost them a victory.
City survived another free kick scare and from 40 mins on started to turn the screw. Bellamy scorched a shot at Lonergan who punched it away for a corner and another effort from Bellamy was blocked by the defence when a goal looked likely.
HT 0 - 1
The second half was all Cardiff. Marshall touched the ball once in the opening 10 mins of the half and City looked to get back into the game. The possession was great but the mistakes meant we didn't strike the killer blow. There was always the threat that man-mountain Parkin would strike on the counter and he was abley assisted by Iain Hulme. Both were a threat but thankfully neither had the chance to punish us further.
The efforts on goal were wracking up. A couple of super saves, some stunning blocks and woeful strikes kept the game to Preston's advantage.
15 mins to go and the crowd had started to leave. Preston's 100 or so fans were bouncing and City continued to press. The referee had to show his card a number of times, constant fouling, silly fouls, niggly fouls and some dissent. Michael Chopra through sheer frustration chased down a Preston player and went straight through him. An inch higher and he could have been off.
All the while Preston continued to add extra seconds to the clock. Corners were takng forever. Free kicks and goal kicks were in slow motion.
The gamesmanship from Darren Ferguson meant we had 5 mins of added time. He tried to close the game out with a 93rd min substitution. Paul Parry coming on to warm applause but I don't think he'd touched the ball when Andy Keogh finally found a clear sight of goal and stooped to head in the leveller.
There was still a minute to play but City didn't seem to quite realise they could have gone on the score again and the game ended 1 - 1.
So mixed emotions. Happy to get a point when all seemed lost. Frusrated we couldn't beat the bottom placed team in the Championship and annoyed that we are doing out best to destroy the great work done in October. We won 5 out of 5 then. Since then we've won one of of six.
We stay 2nd but the luxury of a buffer of points to the chasing pack has all but eroded.
We find ourselves under the sort of pressure we probably didn't need to be under.
Source: DSG