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Cardiff City 0 - 2 QPR
Posted by archifCLICarchive from National - Published on 22/09/2009 at 00:00
Cardiff City showed they were a Championship club at heart, with a poor performance against a team they beat in the old Divison 2 (now League 1) play-offs to get here. Cardiff were lacking any spark and imagination, Michael Chopra had a rare quiet afternoon and Jay Bothroyd was easily dealt with, by QPR’s defence. Overall Cardiff’s attack was ineffective and their defence insufficient.
Well, if the game didn’t prove to be exciting, then my journey to it did. We were just about to go through our regular routine of trying to predict the score of the game. I am quite a superstitious person and I feel that if I don’t do the same routine I do before every Cardiff City game then it would somehow manage to affect the players for the worse. The players would be just coming out of the tunnel when the manager would say, “Sorry lads, Tim Crompton didn’t pick up his customary Americana from the drive-through Starbucks, its damage limitation now.”
However something very out of the normal happened today. We had paused in a traffic queue when our car was made a few inches shorter, courtesy of the car behind us who failed to see that we had stopped.
Anyway after an hour of talking to police, exchanging details, recounting events and calming down in general, we managed to limp our way to the game. Fortunately for us parking wasn’t that big-of-a-deal seeing as our car was a lot shorter than usual so we managed to fit into a tight space and head to the game.
I doubt I missed much in the opening ten minutes, if the rest of the game was anything to go by. I think the loudest cheer of the day was the ironic one that greeted the announcer as he tried to get the fans to text the club their man-of-the-match; I even heard some shouts that it should go to the linesman for his judgment of the first goal. Jay Simpson, on-loan from Arsenal, fired low through David Marshall’s legs, after Mark Hudson had been turned by Simpson’s large strike partner Rowan Vine, allowing him to feed Simpson for his first of the afternoon on the 19th minute.
Cardiff hit back with a few efforts, with both Joe Ledley and Chris Burke shooting wide from distance. A free-kick; brought about by a foul on Jay Bothroyd; gave Peter Whittingham a chance. However the free-kick went straight into the wall, with the rebound falling to him again, Whittingham released a low shot that flicked away for a Cardiff corner. QPR, after successfully defending the Cardiff corner decided to switch wings, with Wayne Routledge swapping from left to right. This brought him a good amount of space that he used to show the reason Cardiff signed him last season from Aston Villa. He cut in from his wing on a penetrating run, the Cardiff defenders backing off allowing him too much space. He used this space to good effect by playing a through ball to Simpson for his second on the 40th minute.
I didn’t get to see the rest of the half because the amount of fans heading out to drown the memory of the first half with a quick pint obstructed my view, but I think that was probably for the best. Over the first half Cardiff weren’t impressing, with the defence being turned as easily as a pancake, and the attack not working together. However, the half wasn’t without a few bonuses. New signing Solomon Taiwo showed a good touch and cool head in midfield and Chris Burke working the right wing well. But for the 56% of possession Cardiff had they couldn’t produce one clear chance.
QPR almost went further ahead at the start of the second half, when an effort from a well worked corner was cleared off the line by Cardiff right-back Paul Quinn. Routledge also came close on the 50th minute, his low shot inches wide of the far post. A swift Cardiff move involving Chopra and Burke resulted in a poor cross straight into Radek Curny’s welcoming hands. After a mistake from Taiwo, Simpson was gifted another chance to further the lead, but the Under-17 England international couldn’t complete his hat-trick, hitting his shot wide. This caused the already testy crowd to applaud the departure of Taiwo in a double substitution on the 55th minute, which saw him finish his home debut and be replaced by Gavin Rae. The second sub was the academy project, Josh Magennis replacing a quiet Peter Whittingham. This saw a shuffle around in the Cardiff line up, seeing Chopra on the wing and Gavin Rae and Joe Ledley in the middle, with Magennis heading the attack alongside Bothroyd.
On the hour mark, a rare good pass from Antony Gerrard, gave Burke a lot of space out wide. Burke saw a chance to cut inside the left back and angled a shot past the far post. Then on the 65th minute an ineffective Chopra showed some of his usual brilliance with some neat play, before squaring the ball to Ray, who’s shot was screwed high and wide, almost taking my head off!
With a necessary Cardiff substitution, Bothroyd was replaced Ricardo Scimeca on the 66th minute, allowing Chopra to be relinquished from the burden of a wide position and head the attack again. This also pushed Ledley out to the left and Scimeca into the middle alongside Rae. This proved to have an effect, because soon after a lively Burke played a one-two with Magennis to get a half chance on the edge of the penalty area, but his shot wasn’t good enough giving Cerny a comfortable save.
Then Cardiff’s only clear chance came. It was the 74th minute when Magennis made a run between right-back and centre-back. His run was found by Ledley and partly due to a lucky bounce and Magennis’ ability to bulldoze through defenders he found himself with acres of space and an eternity of time in the penalty area. We all thought that we had equalised, but not only did Magennis miss the target he also missed the ball. He took a rushed swing at the bouncing ball, only to smash the empty space it had just dropped from. Burke managed to scramble a shot from the situation but the chance was missed and it seemed to sum up a poor afternoon.
Neither team produced any more chances for the rest of the game and frustration was plain to see in the crowd’s faces as they flooded out of the stadium, with more than 5 minutes left. It was as if Burke’s over hit corner on the 87th minute had opened the flood gates and from the 20,000 fans that saw the beginning of the game, I reckon less than 15,000 saw the final whistle, and those only stayed to boo and jeer at the team they may have followed their whole lives. The crowd was so deflated they couldn’t even summon the energy to reply to the jeering chants of the QPR supporters who chanted, “Loyal Supporters!,” and “Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio!”
The game certainly wasn’t worth the car crash I experienced to be there.
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