The Bluebirds bristled with passion, commitment and no mean skill, every single player showed renewed focus and bottle. They really should have won more comfortably in a high tempo game as City missed a number of excellent chances but rode their luck a couple of times too.
Supporters travelled to Northampton's Sixfields Stadium with increased hopes after a very promising performance against Oldham last Friday despite dropping home points after conceding a late equaliser, there was a feeling that The Bluebirds had turned a corner but everyone going to the game had worries or doubts. City had lost their last 3 away games after all and collected a measly 8 points from their last 7 league matches, no wonder fans have been concerned and expressing it.
This fixture was postponed due to frost with Cardiff support already travelling to a Saturday lunchtime kick-off 3 weeks ago. It was hardly any warmer this time, some snow of the day of the game with the temperature at, or below, freezing at kick-off and a stiff breeze making it feel like minus 5. I cannot remember the last time I was so cold at a game, the collection of woolly hats on display in the City end had to be seen to be believed.
Sixfields is a decent lower division stadium. Built in a valley of a leisure park with cinema, restaurants, bars and fast food restaurants circling the ground (TGI Friday's decided to close for the night), it is all seater and functional. Small all seater stands behind each goal and to one side and al larger stand behind the dug outs which housed the bulk of the home support. City fans were mostly behind one goal but also had a number in a family area on one corner.
Northampton came into the game with worries and jitters themselves, the nickname is The Cobblers and they have fully lived up to the moniker having lost their last 5 consecutive home league and cup games, only 5 points from their last 10 fixtures. A recent change of manager, Terry Fenwick, has not really halted the slide, they had got 1 points in 3 games under his charge before this game.
The run has since them drop to within 2 points of a relegation place but they came into the game on the back of an excellent 3-3 draw at Crewe (thanks for the help Northampton!) and looking for a 'double' over City having won at Ninian Park last August (one of those results which will be very costly should we miss auto-promotion).
Cardiff unsurprisingly named an unchanged team who showed their new found confidence as they battered the home side from kick-off. In the first 5 minutes alone, Earnie missed an excellent 1st minute chance shooting wide in a good position, Mahon narrowly missed too and then Kav crashed the crossbar with a superb left side edge of area volley. The game could have been wrapped up that quickly.
Northampton breathed a sigh of relief and so nearly scored themselves as Marco Gabbiadini, scorer of both goals at Ninian Park including a memorable winner, showed he still has class. A dipping volley went straight at Alexander but he almost twisted and turned past City's defence then did breaking clear, got around Alexander too but was denied by an outstanding Rhys Weston challenge when a goal looked inevitable.
It was high intensity and end to end stuff. City came back, they looked dangerous every single time they came forward, Bowen and Mahon giving quality wide, Earnie and Thorne causing problems and superb midfield support from Kav as he turned in his best Bluebirds performance for a very long time showing the player that he used to be.
The final ball often let City down but Earnie and Kav were denied, Bowen on a Maradonna style run drifted past 4 or 5 defenders effortlessly but never got into position to shoot and Northampton's keeper, Thompson, made a couple of stops including one excellent save from Peter Thorne who was clear after a fortunate deflection and was very unlucky with his shot.
By this stage, City were also becoming frustrated with incompetent officials and, in particular, Mr Russell, with the yellow flag. The other linesman was called Deadman which would have been more appropriate for this one. Three times he flagged Earnie offside when he clearly wasn't, twice as he broke through, he did the same to Thorne and Bowen a couple of times and inexplicably gave throw-ins to the home side when their players had clearly put the ball out.
Players and fans were rattled, City supporters after chanting "you don't know what you're doing" berated him by shouting offside every time City broke forward, then Northampton in the 2nd half, for the rest of the game. He rarely let us down but when he decided not to flag against City, Earnie wasted another sitter as he latched onto a ball over the top, chested and then volleyed over the bar from 8 yards.
Northampton still created some danger, one effort flashed wide, a lob over the bar and Alexander saved a header. City bounced back, Young winning a far post header that was somehow cleared, the excellent Chris Barker looked set to score another time but robbed at the last moment, Earnie beater a marker several inches taller than him in the air but Thompson saved.
It was 0-0 half-time with fans worrying at the excellent openings that City failed to take and whether religious or not, we were praying it didn't haunt us yet again.
HALF-TIME: NORTHAMPTON 0 CITY 0
The second-half didn't match the number of first half chances, there were few, but it was still intense with City showing all the qualities needed for promotion including skill, fight and 110% effort from everybody.
It was an even game, both sides flying into tackles and giving their all, City always having the extra edge. Earnie made Thompson save again, moves broke down and there was an increasing feeling that it wasn't to be our night.
Then the referee, Ray Olivier, quite decent in City's recent FA Cup against Margate decided to become as big a nuisance and as incompetent as his linesman. Chris Barker was the first City player booked on 55 minutes and he came across a Northampton player who won a throw. Nothing wrong with it, a free-kick at worst, the yellow card was crazy but he had set a standard which saw him yellow card half the City team by the end of the match, half of them undeserved.
As City players protested as the woeful officiating, Oliver threw his toys out of the pram too and brought free-kicks forward 10 yards three times. Northampton were so average though that they failed to do anything. One very worrying moment saw a free-kick advance to the edge of the area, The Cobblers hit the roof of the stand.
City players were clearly rattled by the ineptness of Olivier and his linesman that they clapped every decision the officials made for the rest of the game, either in sarcasm at their bad calls or surprise when they made a correct judgement.
The goal City needed and we had awaited finally arrived on 58 minutes and it was a peach. City broke forward, Bowen switched the ball right to Alan Mahon who was quiet going forward but his workrate and ability to put a foot in helped the cause.
This time, he knew what to do and skinned a defender before hitting an outstanding far post cross. Peter Thorne ran in but hit the underside of the bar, as it came down EARNIE was first to react hooking the ball home with an overhead kick which he followed up with a somersault. The routine earned 9.6 for technical merit, 8.4 for degree of difficult and 10.0 for artistic impression.
City fans were delirious, hugging and celebrating in a way that we haven't really experienced for a long while during the jitters. The support was epic all night, Men of Harlech, Sam Hammam's Barmy Army, Peter Thorne's Magic Hat and even Oh Willie Willie Boland (updating the Willie Anderson classic) booming all night long. The Northampton fans were a subdued lot who rarely chanted much but their mocking of Men of Harlech by droning non-stop for 5 minutes was funny.
The rest of the game was a battle and a slog, Northampton trying to fight back, City determined not to allow it (despite the ref's and linesman's best attempts although the lino now gave a couple of wrong decisions against Northampton so became bad for both teams). This, to me, is where City showed they have found the intensity required to see them through the closing weeks of the season.
It wasn't pretty but every player put their bodies in the way, put a foot in and gave their all to ensure the three points. It lifted everybody as the City end, nervous as we were, played our part by singing them home.
The anger increased when Willie Boland got a brilliant tackle to deny the dangerous Ghanian, Asamoah, and didn't even touch him but got a yellow card anyway.
City never created anymore clear opening but Thorne, Earnie and Mahon ensured Northampton were kept fully occupied and with Barker winning every loose ball and Young getting it vital interceptions and clearances, City were holding firm.
Northampton pressured and had chances, they should have done better with a header at the far post from a corner and deep into 3 minutes of added time, we fell asleep for the only time all game and gifted Rahim a free header which he wasted.
In the first half, Olivier refused to let City take a corner in added time but the ref had a final smack in the face at the end of this game, with the three minutes gone, he decided it was ok for Northampton to take a corner. City were furious but when Young headed clear, that was it.
It was a fantastic celebration, it meant everything to everybody as the fans mobbed each other, the players threw their arms in the air, jumped on each other and enjoyed the moment wildly too. The buzz is back at last, it was a feeling I haven't had about City for about 3 or 4 months but this felt better than good.
It is unfair to single out any player, everybody did their job and did it well. If errors were made, City quickly put them right, the fight and sheer will to win was a joy to see after so many recent abject showings. To show they have what it takes on such a cold night against unattractive opposition fighting relegation, we have dropped 11 points already against the bottom 6 this season, lifted your spirits.
To make it even better, the news filtered through that for the 2nd time in 4 days, Crewe had squandered a 2 goal lead against lowly opposition and now it's their turn to feel the pressure and query whether they have what it takes. It was possible after Friday's result that we could have fallen 8 points behind Crewe tonight but our win and their draws mean it's just 1 point and City have a game in hand.
The promotion rollercoaster is very much on the up again.
External reports
Western Mail
BBC