Cardiff Outclass The Robins

Cardiff City secured a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Severnside rivals Bristol City this afternoon.

The away side’s preparations for the game were hit by injury and illness, with Cole Skuse ruled out thanks to an ankle injury and defenders Bradley Orr and Lewin Nyatanga sidelined by a bug.

However Gary Johnson’s team started the brighter, with Maynard and Haynes making a number of promising runs in the early stages.

Gary Johnson – Bad day at the office for his side

However, after that, Cardiff began to dominate. Chris Burke nearly scored after bursting through the City defence. He rounded Dean Gerken in the City goal, but his shot was blocked on the line by the retreating Liam Fontaine.

Just minutes later, Joe Ledley broke through, with Gerken on hand to make a handy save.

The former Colchester shot-stopper was again City’s saviour on the half hour narrowly beating Burke to the ball after a great long pass.

By this stage, it was only a matter of time before the Bluebirds took the lead. However, it was a Bristol City player who netted for the home side in the 37th minute. Jamie McCombe, City’s captain for the day in the absence of Louis Carey, had been one of City’s better outfield players, but unluckily sliced the ball past his own ‘keeper following a Cardiff cross.

Just three minutes later, Bristol City nearly got themselvs back into it when Paul Quinn dragged back Danny Haynes deep into the Cardiff half. From the resulting free kick, McCombe nearly made immediate ameds by forcing Marshall into a good save from a header, while Marvin Elliott hit the post from the rebound.

In first-half stoppage time, Cardiff doubled their lead. Chris Burke was again involved, evading a number of challenges to spread it wide to Peter Whittingham, who teed up Michael Chopra to deftly lift the ball over the oncoming Gerken.

Michael Chopra – Seven goals in just four games this season

Cardiff continued to press in the second half, with the Welsh side forcing another off-the-line clearance just 4 minutes into the second half.

Gerken continued to impress with his brave interceptions an clearances, as City enjoyed their only sustained period of pressure around the hour mark.

Hour, with 65 minutes gone, Gavin Rae sealed it for Cardiff after a great Burke pass.

Bristol City manager Gary Johnson was defiant in defeat. He told Sky Sports:

“All is not lost.

“We’ll hold our hands up and say we were second best, but we’ll move on.”

Personal Verdict: Bristol City were very flat today. With no target man up front any more, the insistence of the use of the long ball was counter-productive. The away side looked bright in the openign 10 minutes, with the pace of the front two Haynes and Maynard looking a threat. However, the pacy forwards had little service for the remainder of the game, and were isolated. City were outclassed by a far superior Cardiff side today. If their early season form is anything to go on, Cardiff are a good tip to at least make the playoffs this term.