And so this is Christmas
And what has Kav done?
Stupidly sent off when we were winning
and City lost two-one
This time, it's not Lennie Lawrence but the man LL chooses to be his captain and leader, Graham Kavanagh.
Kav was inspirational and influential but it was Sheffield that the skipper inspired, not City. Lennie pulled off what looked like a tactical masterstroke by bravely going for a 4-3-3 system that surprisingly found City in total control and domination at an eerily quiet Bramall Lane. Having taken a fully deserved 41st minute lead through Neil Harris, enter Kav the eejit to dive on recklessly on Jon Harley who was going nowhere to earn his 2nd yellow card in 4 minutes and a red card for the 2nd time in 3 games and turn the game totally on its head.
City looked odds on for at least a point, and favourites for all three, but Kav's continued stupid tackles, petulance and lack of example setting on the field cost Cardiff dear as Sheffield blitzed us for the entire second period with the extra man before we eventually succumbed to two goals in the final 20 minutes. In our perilous position, Kav may have cost us points that could be the difference between Championship and League One football next term.
He certainly ruined what could have been a good day for the club, his team-mates and the hundreds of travelling fans showing full commitment to the team by getting to Yorkshire for a midday kick-off. For that, he certainly owes an apology. Currently, he's done that to his manager and his fellow players but he has nothing to say to the supporters. He also happened to be the only City player not to attend the Junior Supporters Xmas Party the following day. Not good enough as far as I'm concerned Captain Kav.
The trip to Sheffield must have been a surreal experience to most fans, especially those who partied hard the night before on the pre-Xmas "Black Friday" before heading north for an even Blacker Saturday.
In my case, I had an excellent Friday night party with free bar thrown by a local company. Got home to Barry and bed at 1am only to be up 4 hours later to get a taxi back to Cardiff for the Lansdowne bus leaving at 6am. The taxi cost me £17.50. 200 yards after leaving my house, we passed a Pencoed travel bus. "Is that yours?", said the taxi. "No, we never do Pencoed" I tell the driver only to get out at The Lansdowne, pay the fare and see the Pencoed Travel coach pull up behind us - doh, doh, doh!
The coach was full, shared with the Dinas Powys boys and it felt like I was still having a warped dream going over the Severn Bridge at 6:30am, everyone singing away and drinking Strongbow and various other potions while the p.a. was blasting out Ska music ad The Addams Family theme tune.
A good, fun journey ensued with women, moshers, Shrewsbury's reserve team and more women being regaled by song by ourselves at one services. The moshers were great, four of them sat at a table caked in mascara, long dark hair and goth outfits with one spare seat. Back in full party mode, "let's go speed dating with them", I suggest, "we got 30 seconds each" as I went first. Deano Hurley took over with a cry of "Good Morning Laydees and how are you" before realising two of the lanky lank hair princesses of darkness were actually blokes.
Sheffield was reached early. On the M1, we passed a variety of football out-posts - Notts County, Mansfield, Chesterfield and Rotherham. You know, the sort of clubs to whose fans we sang "we'll never play you again" not so long ago but who may well be our week in, week out opponents once more from next May. The irony wasn't lost on us.
Police met us and we were escorted to the ground by motorbike who actually did nothing to help our journey through the town centre but it was funny when one car almost cut him up. Coaches stopped outside Bramall Lane in plenty of time, a far cry from last season when police held up City fans on coaches to the extent that kick-off had to be delayed ad fas still had to jump off and run 20 minutes to the ground.
Once there, another copper jumped on board laying dow the rules for the day and some genius of a desktop woodentop back at their base decided to hand us out a 5,000 word essay (longer than one of my match reports... almost) with more rules. It would have taken longer than the match itself to read so was immediately ignored and thrown away. Lads, please just keep your messages simple. There were no problems at all and it should never be forgotten that any trouble last season was caused by Sheffield supporters in the streets outside after the match, not by City.
Inside, it was £2:60 a can but it was Christmas and therefore, indulging was compulsory. Four of us, yours truly included, were dressed as Santas. Opinions were mixed about Bramall Lane as a ground, I personally like it. It is old, looks very grotty from the outside, needs a lot of modernising but, inside, it has four big stands. I'm particularly fond of the away end - the aptly Gordon Lamb stand for us sheep sh*ggers - had us in an elevated top tier which offers excellent views.
Lennie - a pioneer of the safety first, rigid tactics, little imagination style of management - who is feeling the pressure went bold for once and, had it not been for Kav, would surely have been rewarded for it too. Neil Harris seemed right for a start with many expecting youngster Cameron Jerome would make way in the routine 4-4-2 but, instead, we were 4-3-3 with Harris playing behind Thorney and Jerome.
McAnuff made way for this change and Danny Gabbidon was back after missing the Sunderland game through injury, Tony Vidmar returning to the bench. There had been a week long debate over whether Tony Warner should keep his place in goals as he continues to be well short of best from and seems to lose concentration every match but LL decided to give him a nother go. City's team were therefore Warner, Williams-Collins-Gabbidon-Barker, Boland-Kavanagh-Ledley, Jerome-Thorne. Subs were Alexander, Bullock, McAnuff, Parry and Vidmar.
Sheffield are firmly in the play-offs. They were unbeaten in seven and had lost just once in 14 games but they are draw specialists and that gave hope. Going into this clash, they had won just 3 out of 11 Championship games at Brammall Lane, they had not triumphed at home for 2 months and the likes of Rotherham, Watford, Wolves, Gillingham and Nottingham Forest had all drawn against them in previous weeks. I'm sure Lennie's tactical decisions owed much to their recent form.
City would also have been buoyed by knowing that Forest had been held at home the night before whilst Brighton had lost at home so, yet again, we had a chance to pull away from those below and catch those above us with any result. Not for the first time, it was an opportunity that we blew.
For the record, Sheffield's team were Ian Bennett (on loan from Birmingham whilst Paddy Kenny is suspended) in goals, a back four of Harley-Morgan-one time City target Danny Cullip and Jagielka in central defence. Cullip was signed 24 hours earlier from Brighton for £250k, Lennie was thinking of paying £900k for him a year ago. Midfield were GearyBromby-Tonge-Quinn and strikers were Andy Gray and ex-City loan player Paul Shaw. They had plenty of options on the bench in Luke Beckett, Andy Liddell and Danny Cadimateri. Manager Neil Warnock had to watch from the stands, a result of his latest ban, he gets more than Kavanagh!
The game kicked off in deadly silence, I've attended noiser one minute silences at football matches. Early kick-off must have had some effect, the cold grey day must for a drab atmosphere too but I've never been in a ground before where the home fans have been taunted to "give us a song" and they still sit there motionless and silent. 100% Blade, 100% Quiet!
On the pitch, City settled nicely, found early rhythm and cohesion and were looking the better team of the two by far but, once again, it was far from a classic encounter and it merely confirmed what we've long learned, this is as poor a division as football has ever been at this level. Encouragingly, the football was coming from City, Willie Boland doing what he can do so well grabbing midfield and Neil Harris looking a livewirse and making things happen ahead of him, our defence looking extremely comfortable. Kavanagh and Williams fired in early efforts but failed to hit the target.
There were flashpoints as, firstly, Dazza Williams can count himself lucky that the officials all appeared to miss him lash out after a heavy challenge form Jon Harley, had they done so, he could have bee dismissed. Then Kevin Geary scythed through Chris Barker late and with studs showing, it was a horror challenge. Barker managed to ride it and got straight up to show his anger at a tackle that was a potential leg breaker.
Ref Andy Marriner, who had a terrible afternoon, and who seemed to give many injustices against City booked Geary, it could so easily have been a straight red, but unbelievably, booked Barker too. Before 20 minutes had elapsed, Marriner incensed us all again as a diagonal Barker ball saw Peter Thorne easily win a challenge over Jon Harley and gleefully rifle home. The linesman gave a foul for Thorney's challenge was looked perfectly fair, he just used his strength and the ref backed him. On any other day with any other officials, that would have been a perfectly legitimate goal.
City were playing some flowing football and very much taking the game to Sheffield. There was minor excitement as one Sheffield fan was ejected in the stand nearest us, it must have been for something he said. That will teach him to break the silence. Cameron Jerome ran hard but failed to make the most of a couple of opportunities, the best of which saw Harris put him in with a through ball but as Bennett came out to challenge and make it a 50/50, the kid not to put too fine a point a things, bottled it.
Just before 40 minutes, Kav earned his first yellow card for a poor late challenge on a Sheffield player creating no danger at all near haflway. It was needless and stupid and would prove costly but that was temporarily forgotten, City took the lead they thoroughly deserved on 42 minutes with a beautifully worked goal that summed up the good football they had played all half.
Willie Boland made space in midfield and pushed on before dinking a ball to Kav. Kav flicked it on his chest to Neil Harris who played a one-two with Thorney as Thorne's flick sent the ball wide and behind defenders, HARRIS was onto it and rifled an angled shot across goal and inside the far corner. Brilliant, we understandably went nuts, especially me. I put N Harris (a near name sake) down as first scorer and won £30 - that covered my taxi and coach fare. Cheers Neil!
The home side were behind, playing shocking and in disarray. It just needed City to stay calm, professional and the older heads to show the way. But this is Cardiff City. Straight from the kick-off, Harley motored down the left but was still 45 yards from goal with Darren Williams in front of him when Kav launched himself at the player from the side, flew though the air and took him out right in front of Lennie's disbelieving eyes. Kav started walking off long before the ref even reached for his pocket. What an idiot, what a fool, how he let us all down once again.
It is time to sort out Kav once and for all. His disciplinary record is quite possibly the worst in football, it is certainly significantly worse than the likes of Viera, Keane and Savage yet the club have never even fined a player now facing his 7th ban in 4 seasons with City.
His record - goalscoring and booking continue to move in opposite directions. It tends to confirm that we have a player who has lost that yard of pace and therefore much of his ability. That's the impression many of us get and stats bear it out. Kav's first season with Cardiff saw 50 games, 15 goals and 14 cards. In our play-off winning year, Kav had 6 goals and 10 cards in 53 outings. Last season, it was 7 goals and 9 cards in just 29 games. This season, it's just 1 goal in 22 games but 9 cards. Kav has had 21 cards in his last 58 games, just ridiculous. Worse than that is the knowledge that most of these bookings are for tackles of gross stupidity, petulance and rarely in an area of the pitch where we're in trouble.
The club have to act. The general feeling is that he must lose Captaincy as he is no leader and role model on the pitch, be fined 2 weeks wages and everyone sincerely hopes he is forced to train and attend games rather than have any extra tie off at Christmas simply because he cannot be involved with the team he had once more let down.
There are rumours that a Scottish Premier side may be interested in Kav in the transfer window if they can sort his wages and that Kav may be interested - the source is credible. Some wouldn't be too sorry if Kav did leave sometime soon and many feel that he is a key factor is our problems.
Half-time: BLADES 0 BLUNTS 1
The sending off was the pivotal and defining moment of the match. It woke up the sleeping home support and it gave the incensed Neil Warnock not only the chance to rollock his side at half-time but go for it tactically and attack City. He brought on two half times subs Andy Liddell and Danny Cadimarteri. Lennie dispensed with Jerome and brought on Jobi McAnuff but City had lost all momentum and the initiative was firmly with the home side.
The second half was sadly predictable, a one way procession towards City's goal. We only got close to the home goal once as Neil Harris handball to bring down a ball was missed by the ever incompetent officials but he fired over the bar towards us.
Other than that, it was wave upon wave of attacks towards the City goal with Willie Boland doing his best to break up play in midfield, he worked his bits off, and James Collins absolutely immense as a man mountain at the rear. Ginge won header upon header, tackle aftyer tackle, put his body on the line, went off injured twice and kept coming back from more. That's the spirit and commitment we need to see i our situation and he led the way. Gabbidon wasn't too far behind but nowhere near his usual influence, he still didn't look 100%
Most Sheffield efforts were from distance as they couldn't get though us or behind us, Warner made some good saves, watched others fly by and we enjoyed some luck too, none more than when the impressive Michael Tonge's screamer smashed back off the bar with Warner a spectator.
The longer the game progressed, the more intense the pressure and bombardment of our goal, the home side now winning several corners. Most fans were thinking Lennie had to thrown on Vidmar or extra defensive help and the attacks were unrelenting but he stuck with it. The goals had to come and they duly did.
On 70 minutes, a left wing ball was fired across goal. I hate being critical of Tony Warner but, to me, he went day dreaming once more and was slow to react to the danger. By the time he came out, he missed out, Gray flicked on and LIDDELL turned home into an empty net at the far post.
Lennie reacted by bringing on a sub, Parry for Joe Ledley but it was now a case of whether we could hang on for a point and that was taken from us on 80 minutes with another set piece nightmare. A corner swung over, Morgan was allowed a free header across goal at the far post, it was touched on and GRAY acrobatically turned home from a couple of yards out with three City shirts around him and Tony Warner rooted to the spot once more.
Game over, maybe an expected result but, on the day, lost points without a shadow of doubt. Some called for Lennie's head but out of pure anguish and frustration on a day when we were let down by the skipper.
It didn't feel right getting home from an away game at 6pm but we managed to get over it with some decent dvd's and a singalong, plenty of Christmas songs too. We have to stay optimistic and hope for change, the display was better and gave some hope but if the club don't pick up results fast, the situation will be so serious that it's hard to believe we'll get away.
Still, let's keep supporting the lads because, right now, that's all we can do. Just remember, supporting Cardiff City is not just for Christmas, it's a life sentence ... and don't we know it!
Report from FootyMad
Promotion-chasing Sheffield United bounced back with two goals in a ten-minute spell to plunge ten-man Cardiff City into deep relegation trouble.
The Welsh side snatched the lead in the 41st minute through on-loan Millwall forward Neil Harris before Cardiff skipper Graham Kavanagh was handed a straight red card for a vicious tackle on Jon Harley.
Cardiff manager Lennie Lawrence admitted Kavanagh cost the Welsh side the game after the big midfielder was handed his second red card in three matches.
Kavanagh had been lucky to escape with a caution after scything down Alan Quinn in the 37th minute, before a horrendous tackle on Harley five minutes later left Cardiff defending a one-goal lead.
"The sending off was the turning point," said Lawrence. "We were in total control of the game in the first half. I was convinced we would get something.
"He has apologised in front of his team-mates and I won't castigate him publicly.
"The referee got one thing right and that was the sending off. Graham has got to look at himself and his own game and we have got to play without him."
United, with just one defeat in 16 games and with new signing Danny Cullip making his debut after signing from Brighton in a £400,000 deal, were caught out in the opening minutes
Cameron Jerome blundered as he stretched to meet Harris' precise cross and steered his header wide, before Phil Jagielka's misplaced back pass let in Jerome who was robbed by keeper Ian Bennett as he charged out of his area to clear.
United striker Andy Gray headed over from Leigh Bromby's long throw before Cardiff found the net in the 18th minute only to have the goal disallowed. Referee Andre Marriner ruling Peter Thorne pushed Chris Morgan before hitting the target.
Visiting keeper Tony Warner foiled Harley before Cardiff snatched the lead four minutes ahead of half-time. Harris linked cleverly with Thorne before beating Bennett with an angled drive from ten yards.
A minute later Cardiff were down to ten men, before Neil Warnock made two half-time substitutions to turn the game round.
Michael Tonge skimmed the top of the bar with a spectacular shot from long range before United were back on level terms in the 69th minute. Harley's cross was touched on by Gray and substitute Andy Liddell finished off at the far post.
Warner conjured up a stunning save in the 76th minute to push Jagielka's fierce strike onto the post before Gray snatched the winner 11 minutes from time - finishing off from close range after Chris Morgan had headed Liddell's cross back into the goalmouth.
External reports
Wales On Sunday
Western Mail
Report from FootyMad
Promotion-chasing Sheffield United bounced back with two goals in a ten-minute spell to plunge ten-man Cardiff City into deep relegation trouble.
The Welsh side snatched the lead in the 41st minute through on-loan Millwall forward Neil Harris before Cardiff skipper Graham Kavanagh was handed a straight red card for a vicious tackle on Jon Harley.
Cardiff manager Lennie Lawrence admitted Kavanagh cost the Welsh side the game after the big midfielder was handed his second red card in three matches.
Kavanagh had been lucky to escape with a caution after scything down Alan Quinn in the 37th minute, before a horrendous tackle on Harley five minutes later left Cardiff defending a one-goal lead.
"The sending off was the turning point," said Lawrence. "We were in total control of the game in the first half. I was convinced we would get something.
"He has apologised in front of his team-mates and I won't castigate him publicly.
"The referee got one thing right and that was the sending off. Graham has got to look at himself and his own game and we have got to play without him."
United, with just one defeat in 16 games and with new signing Danny Cullip making his debut after signing from Brighton in a £400,000 deal, were caught out in the opening minutes
Cameron Jerome blundered as he stretched to meet Harris' precise cross and steered his header wide, before Phil Jagielka's misplaced back pass let in Jerome who was robbed by keeper Ian Bennett as he charged out of his area to clear.
United striker Andy Gray headed over from Leigh Bromby's long throw before Cardiff found the net in the 18th minute only to have the goal disallowed. Referee Andre Marriner ruling Peter Thorne pushed Chris Morgan before hitting the target.
Visiting keeper Tony Warner foiled Harley before Cardiff snatched the lead four minutes ahead of half-time. Harris linked cleverly with Thorne before beating Bennett with an angled drive from ten yards.
A minute later Cardiff were down to ten men, before Neil Warnock made two half-time substitutions to turn the game round.
Michael Tonge skimmed the top of the bar with a spectacular shot from long range before United were back on level terms in the 69th minute. Harley's cross was touched on by Gray and substitute Andy Liddell finished off at the far post.
Warner conjured up a stunning save in the 76th minute to push Jagielka's fierce strike onto the post before Gray snatched the winner 11 minutes from time - finishing off from close range after Chris Morgan had headed Liddell's cross back into the goalmouth.
External reports
Wales On Sunday
Western Mail