Championship - Cardiff City vs Ipswich Town Preview & Matchday Thread

[arana peligrosa]

Suppose you're right. If you can overlook the obvious disappointment of right now and the manner in which we just lost that game, no team has any divine right to win any or every match out there and after a half-dozen straight victories, an off day / adverse score was surely due. Thought that could be the case and predicted a Cardiff win by the very same score but would have wanted to win it without question, it goes without saying.

momentum and consistency will get this club through the top places and into the EPL once again. Only question being do we possess enough of it or are the players short of enough nerve or belief to really make it happen. Leeds could have lost last night, we could have held on to win and three points with it. It's unfortunate and regrettable but if the team does, or really intends to, get a promotion, results such as today or loss of focus at such a pivotal time, have to be eradicated. It's essential, we can't allow too many further instances of what just occurred.

Real irritated to lose today, it happens so rarely with this new team but f*ck it you can't dwell on these things. Would like to listen in on McKenna and the players taking the bus back from Wales right now and hear thought and opinion but somehow you can kind of imagine what's being addressed. Can't allow any further time on this.

[Denny61]

If we are to lose a match or two .it's better to lose them now than with only a few games to go and a gap of 3 points or more ..we ain't going to win all Like league 1 .this is championship. Let's all chill..this will help to refocus and regroup and see what we can better do with defense with what players we have .

[hallamblue]

It comes back to two things:

1) we often struggle to beat teams that put up a block. I know this is hard for any team but we especially ( this season and last season) struggle time and again to show the guile to beat it. Playing slow build up, tippy tappy football in our half (which opponents are absolutely delighted that we do), causes NO threat.

2) our habitual inability to defend our box when we need to do the defending aspect of our game , continues to shoot us in the foot. Our defence is not good enough to shut up shop.

[Shed on tour]

Feels a bit like the Charlton away game last season where even though we came away with a point we threw away victory in time added on.
Felt really down coming out of the ground that day but we managed to put it behind us and hopefully the same will happen now. Hopefully we can get a win against Wednesday next Saturday which would mean at least we can go into the international break on a high.

[Denny61]

Are we better off in a way not to get promoted...let mckenna build a better team not only to get promoted nxt time but also to have a team that won't leak goals and get slaughtered .week in week out...in.the top tier..
Cos if it happens we do get promoted..we.will probly only at best keep 5 to 7 players..and taking on a lot of new players and getting them to gel and play in to mckenna system will take time and by time we will have got in to a system to survive. We could be well anchored to the bottom 3 and I for one definitely don't want that.

[hallamblue]

I think if we do get promoted there won’t be wholesale changes ( even though that will need to be done). McKenna would look for maybe 3-4 players gif the spine of the team snd continue that next season with the majority of this squad. He’s not a demolition man. He’s always maintained a considered approach and I don’t see that changing. It would be about survival 100%, and without a shadow of doubt he would do something to the defence and likely striker area.

[marko69]

Are we better off in a way not to get promoted...let mckenna build a better team not only to get promoted nxt time but also to have a team that won't leak goals and get slaughtered .week in week out...in.the top tier..
Cos if it happens we do get promoted..we.will probly only at best keep 5 to 7 players..and taking on a lot of new players and getting them to gel and play in to mckenna system will take time and by time we will have got in to a system to survive. We could be well anchored to the bottom 3 and I for one definitely don't want that.

That is a fear. Like Vincent Kompany last season with Burnley tearing the Championship up, with ease. And then failing quite convincingly. Definite fear.

But......, got onboard with a discussion few weeks ago ---->> Got to strive to be in the top league. The big time is there, the big money is there......, the big humpings will no doubt be there, but you never know. Maybe not --->> Brighton, Fulham, Forest, even Luton......, they're having a real go.

[Shed on tour]

Are we better off in a way not to get promoted...let mckenna build a better team not only to get promoted nxt time but also to have a team that won't leak goals and get slaughtered .week in week out...in.the top tier..
Cos if it happens we do get promoted..we.will probly only at best keep 5 to 7 players..and taking on a lot of new players and getting them to gel and play in to mckenna system will take time and by time we will have got in to a system to survive. We could be well anchored to the bottom 3 and I for one definitely don't want that.

Only trouble is there is no guarantee that we will enjoy the same sort of success next season. For a start we won’t have the surprise element like we did at the start of this season and teams will be ready for our style of play. Also, we will have to sell 1 or 2 players to help towards ffp. I agree if we do go up we are going to have weeks where we will get hammered by teams but I feel that will happen whenever we go up.
I’d rather have the opportunity to take our chance in the Premiership now than hope it happens in the next couple of years.

[Charnwood]

With Leicester dropping another two points that may prove to be a very costly defeat today. Plenty more twists and turns but we really haven’t helped ourselves today.

[lucy]

Hello Playoffs

Yes it's going to be against the Scum I can see it happening, I'm so gutted.

After the last Playoffs against them no thanks

[ashfordblue]

KMck gets his substitutions spot on normally today he didn't. He should of brought Travis on for Luongo who is more defensively-minded than Taylor and he should of brought on Axel for Clarke.

Correct Axel should have been on for Clarke and Travis for Luongo, and Haladi was a bit lost when he came on he should have stayed on the halfway line as they were pushing up and leaving their defence exposed, that would give our defenders something to aim at with a long ball, he's got a lot to learn and Kieffer should be his instructor, Clarke for me is a problem in the making the number of times he leaves his position exposed is shocking and he marks no one their 2nd goal was his fault he's standing on the goal line marking nothing with an easy tap in for Dowda. you would think he would learn from his mistakes but no, he needs dropping

[mendipblue]

KMck gets his substitutions spot on normally today he didn't. He should of brought Travis on for Luongo who is more defensively-minded than Taylor and he should of brought on Axel for Clarke.

Correct Axel should have been on for Clarke and Travis for Luongo, and Haladi was a bit lost when he came on he should have stayed on the halfway line as they were pushing up and leaving their defence exposed, that would give our defenders something to aim at with a long ball, he's got a lot to learn and Kieffer should be his instructor, Clarke for me is a problem in the making the number of times he leaves his position exposed is shocking and he marks no one their 2nd goal was his fault he's standing on the goal line marking nothing with an easy tap in for Dowda. you would think he would learn from his mistakes but no, he needs dropping

Also if he had kept Moore on we would of had more height in the box to help with the defending of the corner which they scored from

[rossi]

It comes back to two things:

1) we often struggle to beat teams that put up a block. I know this is hard for any team but we especially ( this season and last season) struggle time and again to show the guile to beat it. Playing slow build up, tippy tappy football in our half (which opponents are absolutely delighted that we do), causes NO threat.

2) our habitual inability to defend our box when we need to do the defending aspect of our game , continues to shoot us in the foot. Our defence is not good enough to shut up shop.

Yes Liz - we all know our defence has been lacking all season, but IMO that's not the reason we lost today. We lost because for some reason the decision was made to try and sit on a 1 goal lead - absolute suicide when you consider how weak we generally are defensively. KM said post match that we had so many attacking players on the field at the end of the game - so why did we not go for a second goal? Why did we invite them to come at us? It was a poor decision, and in the end we got what we deserved for being negative. If we don't get promoted this season, I think KM and the players should be made to watch the last 30 minutes of this game over and over again, as an example of how not to try to manage a game.

[marko69]

Just managed to catch some highlights. And watched the two Cardiff goals about 4 times. I cannot single out one player who is SOLELY to blame. Think all seemed to collectively shyte the bed and make a massive C-word of it. I bet Hladky was feckin FURIOUS in that dressing room…… Would’ve been 3-0 Cardiff @ HT had it not been for some top drawer stops from him ——>> to see his defence collapse would’ve been soul destroying.
What the hell happened??

[Charnwood]

I think Rossi’s right. Where we went wrong was trying to defend the one goal lead with a team dominated with attacking players. From that moment on our possession for the match dropped like a stone from 62% to 57%. Had we tried to keep possession and go for a second goal I don’t think they’d have got near us let alone won.

I’ve read somewhere that our season won’t be defined by this one result, maybe it won’t but it certainly could.

[herforder]

Five defeats so far this season, set against a comparatively poor goals conceded stat. Enigma or what. When we’re on it, we’re almost unplayable; but when we fall away we look bang average, with a collective frailty that sets in, and turns our defenders into Keystone Cops impressionists! We can accept defeats, but today’s was particularly painful as it was largely self-inflicted and totally preventable. The ‘we will learn the lessons’ mantra is, in all honesty, wearing a bit thin. But we need to trust KM to get stuck in and sort it. What can’t be changed, at least for a while, is the personnel he has to work with. It might be argued that failing to bring in better quality central defenders has contributed to our conceding too many goals; although both LD and HC are also culpable - better offensively than defensively.

But, as disappointing and annoying today’s manner of defeat was, keeping an overall perspective - relative to what’s been a truly wonderful season - is probably best. Mama told me there’d be days like this!

[number 9]

I’m listening to the Ipswich Town podcast with Matt Holland. He’s interviewing KM/MA. It’s lovely hearing the professionalism within our club. Cardiff are a good team at home. We’ve stolen so many wins in injury time. Today, we were on the losing end of that. I’m not too upset with today’s result. I’m beginning to think Leeds will be champions and the rest is up for grabs. We all want promotion now, but we have to be patient. KMs not going anywhere yet.

[arana peligrosa]

Viewed highlights twice. Thought we were using orange jerseys for away trips, now we're back in white. Fact of the matter is, could or should have won it. Moore's goal was worthy to win the contest, not only that (it) should have been 7 wins out of 7 but the team shut off at the most critical time and we somehow allowed them a victory.

Defending was poor for their first, I got three or four of our players in positions where they could have acted but remained almost static. Guess they thought the game was a done deal and we'd got the win. Second was hard for Hladky to keep out from such close range and the defender in front should have done better but got ask how the hell was the contest into 10 minutes of additional time by that stage. Must have been a sh*t load of stoppages somewhere throughout, but 10 minutes extra and we lost the game ? Seriously, what the hell.

If it gets to end of season and we miss out on any auto promotion by one point many can look to this fixture as a prime example of why we failed. No season's defined on one game alone, but that score and this game could or will prove pivotal when all said and completed.

[hallamblue]

It comes back to two things:

1) we often struggle to beat teams that put up a block. I know this is hard for any team but we especially ( this season and last season) struggle time and again to show the guile to beat it. Playing slow build up, tippy tappy football in our half (which opponents are absolutely delighted that we do), causes NO threat.

2) our habitual inability to defend our box when we need to do the defending aspect of our game , continues to shoot us in the foot. Our defence is not good enough to shut up shop.

Yes Liz - we all know our defence has been lacking all season, but IMO that's not the reason we lost today. We lost because for some reason the decision was made to try and sit on a 1 goal lead - absolute suicide when you consider how weak we generally are defensively. KM said post match that we had so many attacking players on the field at the end of the game - so why did we not go for a second goal? Why did we invite them to come at us? It was a poor decision, and in the end we got what we deserved for being negative. If we don't get promoted this season, I think KM and the players should be made to watch the last 30 minutes of this game over and over again, as an example of how not to try to manage a game.

But whose decision was it to drop back. We know we a flaky in defence , so who made that call? I doubt it was McKenna.

[hallamblue]

Viewed highlights twice. Thought we were using orange jerseys for away trips, now we're back in white. Fact of the matter is, could or should have won it. Moore's goal was worthy to win the contest, not only that (it) should have been 7 wins out of 7 but the team shut off at the most critical time and we somehow allowed them a victory.

Defending was poor for their first, I got three or four of our players in positions where they could have acted but remained almost static. Guess they thought the game was a done deal and we'd got the win. Second was hard for Hladky to keep out from such close range and the defender in front should have done better but got ask how the hell was the contest into 10 minutes of additional time by that stage. Must have been a sh*t load of stoppages somewhere throughout, but 10 minutes extra and we lost the game ? Seriously, what the hell.

If it gets to end of season and we miss out on any auto promotion by one point many can look to this fixture as a prime example of why we failed. No season's defined on one game alone, but that score and this game could or will prove pivotal when all said and completed.

The board went up indicating 8 mins injury time. So where has TWO further mins come from? I’m surprised no one has questioned that..,,

[rossi]

Viewed highlights twice. Thought we were using orange jerseys for away trips, now we're back in white. Fact of the matter is, could or should have won it. Moore's goal was worthy to win the contest, not only that (it) should have been 7 wins out of 7 but the team shut off at the most critical time and we somehow allowed them a victory.

Defending was poor for their first, I got three or four of our players in positions where they could have acted but remained almost static. Guess they thought the game was a done deal and we'd got the win. Second was hard for Hladky to keep out from such close range and the defender in front should have done better but got ask how the hell was the contest into 10 minutes of additional time by that stage. Must have been a sh*t load of stoppages somewhere throughout, but 10 minutes extra and we lost the game ? Seriously, what the hell.

If it gets to end of season and we miss out on any auto promotion by one point many can look to this fixture as a prime example of why we failed. No season's defined on one game alone, but that score and this game could or will prove pivotal when all said and completed.

The board went up indicating 8 mins injury time. So where has TWO further mins come from? I’m surprised no one has questioned that..,,

well, there were 2 goal celebrations in ET, so yes, I think 2 extra minutes was about right

[rossi]

It comes back to two things:

1) we often struggle to beat teams that put up a block. I know this is hard for any team but we especially ( this season and last season) struggle time and again to show the guile to beat it. Playing slow build up, tippy tappy football in our half (which opponents are absolutely delighted that we do), causes NO threat.

2) our habitual inability to defend our box when we need to do the defending aspect of our game , continues to shoot us in the foot. Our defence is not good enough to shut up shop.

Yes Liz - we all know our defence has been lacking all season, but IMO that's not the reason we lost today. We lost because for some reason the decision was made to try and sit on a 1 goal lead - absolute suicide when you consider how weak we generally are defensively. KM said post match that we had so many attacking players on the field at the end of the game - so why did we not go for a second goal? Why did we invite them to come at us? It was a poor decision, and in the end we got what we deserved for being negative. If we don't get promoted this season, I think KM and the players should be made to watch the last 30 minutes of this game over and over again, as an example of how not to try to manage a game.

But whose decision was it to drop back. We know we a flaky in defence , so who made that call? I doubt it was McKenna.

So are we saying that the team are not playing to instructions? I simply do not believe that. Fact is, we sat back after scoring, and instructions to do that must have come from the bench.

[Shed on tour]

Viewed highlights twice. Thought we were using orange jerseys for away trips, now we're back in white. Fact of the matter is, could or should have won it. Moore's goal was worthy to win the contest, not only that (it) should have been 7 wins out of 7 but the team shut off at the most critical time and we somehow allowed them a victory.

Defending was poor for their first, I got three or four of our players in positions where they could have acted but remained almost static. Guess they thought the game was a done deal and we'd got the win. Second was hard for Hladky to keep out from such close range and the defender in front should have done better but got ask how the hell was the contest into 10 minutes of additional time by that stage. Must have been a sh*t load of stoppages somewhere throughout, but 10 minutes extra and we lost the game ? Seriously, what the hell.

If it gets to end of season and we miss out on any auto promotion by one point many can look to this fixture as a prime example of why we failed. No season's defined on one game alone, but that score and this game could or will prove pivotal when all said and completed.

The board went up indicating 8 mins injury time. So where has TWO further mins come from? I’m surprised no one has questioned that..,,

well, there were 2 goal celebrations in ET, so yes, I think 2 extra minutes was about right

Yep agree, plus Hladky had been booked for time-wasting at the beginning of time added on so no doubt the ref added on extra for that.

[Bluemike]

Some good points but come on guys its like our world has caved in, its a poor day, a rare defeat, only our fifth, the best in the division, there will be plenty more twists and turns, its far far from over.

[Bluemike]

Just managed to catch some highlights. And watched the two Cardiff goals about 4 times. I cannot single out one player who is SOLELY to blame. Think all seemed to collectively shyte the bed and make a massive C-word of it. I bet Hladky was feckin FURIOUS in that dressing room…… Would’ve been 3-0 Cardiff @ HT had it not been for some top drawer stops from him ——>> to see his defence collapse would’ve been soul destroying.
What the hell happened??

100% this, why do we always need to look for someone to blame, we all do it, myself included but we win as a team, we lose as a team.

[rossi]

Some good points but come on guys its like our world has caved in, its a poor day, a rare defeat, only our fifth, the best in the division, there will be plenty more twists and turns, its far far from over.

Mike, I don't mind losing if we've been outplayed - as we have been this season when losing to Leeds and West Brom.
What really winds me up, though, is when we throw away 3 points by deploying ridiculously negative tactics when we have predominantly attacking players on the field. I just don't understand the thinking (if there was any thought) behind it.

[marko69]

Some good points but come on guys its like our world has caved in, its a poor day, a rare defeat, only our fifth, the best in the division, there will be plenty more twists and turns, its far far from over.

Mike, I don't mind losing if we've been outplayed - as we have been this season when losing to Leeds and West Brom.
What really winds me up, though, is when we throw away 3 points by deploying ridiculously negative tactics when we have predominantly attacking players on the field. I just don't understand the thinking (if there was any thought) behind it.

You actually place yesterdays defensive collapse in that crazy 5 minute period at Kieron McKennas doorstep? JaysusH. Wow.

[Bluemike]

Some good points but come on guys its like our world has caved in, its a poor day, a rare defeat, only our fifth, the best in the division, there will be plenty more twists and turns, its far far from over.

Mike, I don't mind losing if we've been outplayed - as we have been this season when losing to Leeds and West Brom.
What really winds me up, though, is when we throw away 3 points by deploying ridiculously negative tactics when we have predominantly attacking players on the field. I just don't understand the thinking (if there was any thought) behind it.

We definitely threw Three points away but I guess KM had made the same subs he does every game in an effort to win the game, it looked to have paid off again but as a collective group we didn't defend well, Taylor with a p*ss poor clearance that provided them with a goal, Burgess woefully missing a header, Clarke at tha far post slow to react, the list of errors was endless and as Marko said impossible to blame any one player, I don't think Mckenna could have done an awful lot about it on this occasion, it's very few and far between this season for us to be undone in the dying seconds.

[rossi]

Some good points but come on guys its like our world has caved in, its a poor day, a rare defeat, only our fifth, the best in the division, there will be plenty more twists and turns, its far far from over.

Mike, I don't mind losing if we've been outplayed - as we have been this season when losing to Leeds and West Brom.
What really winds me up, though, is when we throw away 3 points by deploying ridiculously negative tactics when we have predominantly attacking players on the field. I just don't understand the thinking (if there was any thought) behind it.

You actually place yesterdays defensive collapse in that crazy 5 minute period at Kieron McKennas doorstep? JaysusH. Wow.

The instructions to sit back and let them come at us and absorb them after we scored must have come from somewhere. If you had read what I wrote farther up the thread you would have noted that as far as I am concerned this was not a defensive collapse - I don't blame the defenders, I blame the ethos that caused us to sit back and let them come at us

[Blue Wilf]

Mike, I don't mind losing if we've been outplayed - as we have been this season when losing to Leeds and West Brom.
What really winds me up, though, is when we throw away 3 points by deploying ridiculously negative tactics when we have predominantly attacking players on the field. I just don't understand the thinking (if there was any thought) behind it.

You actually place yesterdays defensive collapse in that crazy 5 minute period at Kieron McKennas doorstep? JaysusH. Wow.

The instructions to sit back and let them come at us and absorb them after we scored must have come from somewhere. If you had read what I wrote farther up the thread you would have noted that as far as I am concerned this was not a defensive collapse - I don't blame the defenders, I blame the ethos that caused us to sit back and let them come at us

Don't you think its a big assumption to say that there were specific instructions to sit back? You have nothing to evidence that other than what you think you saw. I saw a Cardiff team that pushed us hard in the last few minutes (as we have often done this season - poor all game and then world beaters in injury time) and we just defended poorly. Nothing more in it than that. A bad day at the office and lapse of concentration but we move on. If they had pushed us hard in injury time and not scored, you would have been saying how well we managed the game out!