CITY MAKE THEIR POINT AT BRAMMALL LANE

SHEFFIELD UNITED 0 CARDIFF CITY 0

Attendance: 25,311
City support: 1,100
Weather: Cloudy but so mild still

Atmosphere:
Sheffield - were you there?
Cardiff - magnificent ... and then some

CARDIFF CITY put on a show of resilience, spirit, determination backed with 110% conviction and passion by the magnificent travelling support to earn a fantastic 0-0 draw at Championship leaders Sheffield United, denting their 100% home record. A superb occasion, one to make you feel so proud and happy about the team we support.

Sheffield fans will be disappointed by their side's display but it was all about Cardiff rising to the occasion. Not only did City comprehensively blunt the Blades, they easily finished the stronger and were denied a stonewall last minute penalty after a handball went unpunished.

It was a team effort, the team including the non-stop vocal backing and domination of Cardiff's 1,100 fans over Sheffield's 24000. Neil Alexander had only one shot to save in the 90 minutes, it was brilliant. Defence were heroic, Darren Purse quite inspirational but so were Loovens, Barker and the often criticised Rhys Weston who put in a storming display. Midfield, lead by the outstanding Jeff Whitley, competed and matched their opponents. It wasn't a day for strikers but Jerome and, to a lesser extent, Ricketts were all part of the effort as was Alan Lee showing what an impact player he can be appearing late on.

Mill Lane to Bramall Lane is a 400 mile round trip. Gathering at The Lansdowne in Canton before 7:30am, you always question your sanity and why we do this, the day proved why. We joined the Barry and Dinas Powys boys, picked up from The Duke of Clarence, another Canton City stronghold and were soon away.

There was a good mix on the bus including Bluebirdette81 trying her first taste of life on the buses with City, a few returning faces having their first away of the season (welcome back Peter Karaoke, Darren and Amanda) and a youth section too with teenage lookalikes of Darren Purse and Joe Ledley ... well they looked like them to us after a couple of bevvies anyway..

A novelty was that the coach - the one that broke down going to Stoke and didn't get out of Cardiff - had a dvd player and it worked too. I doubt, "Felony Fighting" - a dvd of organised unofficial street fights will feature on many Christmas present lists and, if it is, I'm sure nobody would watch it before breakfast time like we did for a while. Sanity prevailed and music went on.
The trip went well and coming upto 11am, we were only half hour from Sheffield so the scavenge started for a pub and yet again we came up trumps. The pub didn't normally open until 12 but 50 thirsty City fans willing to spend more in 90 minutes than they'd take all day was enough to open their doors at 11am with 'chef' press-ganged into bar work.

Chef had an extra job, he was also a washer upper and tumble drier as the Joe Ledley lookalike was suffering with travel sickness. Unable to get to the toilet, he puked up over Lloydey's back, t-shirt and jeans. How funny is it when it happens to someone else? Very very funny. By the time we left, I was still unbeaten at pool for the season and Lloydey t-shirt was warm and crisp.
Brammall Lane is an imposing sight. About 1 mile from the City Centre and in a residential area, it's not the easiest place to get to from the motorway with surrounding roads clogged up. More so today as it was Blades Day - one of four designated games over the season where United fans can access any part of the ground for a tenner. For City, it was £21 however, a few managed to be closet Blades for the day.





Now comes the difficult bit of the match report for me. I didn't actually get into the ground until the 2nd half, well I did after taking the home end and being thrown out and then we took the home pub too before being thrown out of there as well. I'd better explain.

A load of post from Ninian Park, including match tickets for Lloydey and myself, got lost somewhere between Ninian Park and the Post Office. City told us we had to collect replacements from the ticket office at Bramall Lane. Only with it being Blades Day, the queues were ridiculous, we joined it at 20 to 3 and made the window at quarter past only to be told, "one of our stewards, Andrew, has your tickets and you can take a short cut by turning right at the end of this stand".

We did that, turned right and walked straight into the ground, sat in the Sheffield end and admired the sight of 1,100+ City fans going mental with their backing for the lads. A Senior Steward saw us, we asked to be transferred to the away stand to get our tickets from Andrew and he promptly marched us back to the ticket office, not believing of us. Another 10 minutes went by before we were told the mythical Andrew would be outside the away end. Of course, when we got there, the game was now half hour old, every gate and door was locked up and stewards showed no interest in us banging on the doors. It was hopeless.

We then noticed The Railway Inn, United's pub with "home fans only" signs emblazoned everywhere. Our Welsh accents were quickly sussed. "Have one and then go" said the landlady who then liked us so much that she introduced us to her niece, her young and very tempting daughters and posed for pictures with us. It was annoying but we saw the humour in it as well.
At half-time, we returned to the away end, caught the attention of police who finally summonsed the away end stewards but, problem, they'd never heard of Andrew. It took a couple more minutes to sort out, everyone telling us it had been boring and we hadn't missed much but Andrew was found on the stewards tannoy and in we went at last.

What we missed hadn't been a great deal at all. City absorbed and quelled with Sheffield attack with some applomb and even found time to get forward and have a go themselves with Michael Ricketts through on goal but being stopped by others coming back in offside positions but not interfering, they type many refs allow. Jeff Whitley tested Kenny too. For Sheffield, their only shout was a half-hearted but 24,000 strong cry for a penalty from a ball that hit Barker and flew unintentionally to his arm.

The Blades were being frustrated already, the only side in the country with a 100% home record having previously disposed of challenges from Leicester, Preston, Coventry, Ipswich, Derby, Plymouth and Wolves with 15 goals banged past them. The had failed to score home or away in the Championship and only dropped 8 points on the road with defeats at Luton and Reading and a draw with Leeds last weekend.

They had a full strength side on show as well with Paddy Kenny in goals, a back four of Kozluk, Chris Morgan, David Unsworth and Bromby, midfield contained the mercurial Keith Gillespie-Quinn-the highly rated Phil Jagielka and Nick Montgomery and a forward pairing to be feared with Neil Shipperley and Steve Kabba but they have been matched goal for goal by Ricketts and Jerome.

Dave Jones, for the 8th time in 9 games was able to name the same starting eleven with Alexander, Weston-Purse-Loovens-Barker, Cooper-Whitley-Ledley-Koumas, Ricketts-Jerome. The bench were a familiar five too with Margetson-Ardley-Cox-Lee-Parry. The were fears with Glen Loovens, Kevin Cooper and Cameron Jerome suffering with various knocks and ailments but all came through. City were to start the second half attacking towards us and, better still, I was finally in the ground to witness it.


Half-time: SHEFF UNITED 0 CARDIFF CITY 0


My arrival almost coincided with an opening goal for City. A Koumas slide rule pass sent Jerome behind the Sheffield defence but his attempted chip of Kenny was mistimed, the ball flying into his arms instead. Moments later, City's scariest moment of the entire game. A lucky deflection sent the ball loose to Montgomery 10 yards out. With time and space, a goal looked certain but Neil Alexander stood tall and produced a tremendous parried stop. He deserved fortune as the ball returned to Montgomery but was put high and wide. .

What followed was Cardiff looking determined and disciplined, proving why their unexpectedly high Championship placing and having just 1 defeat in 11 league games are just no fluke at all. Belief on the pitch, belief in the away end

Sheffield were looking frustrated, they couldn't get through City as Loovens and Purse were first to everything,. they couldn't get around us as Barker and Weston stood firm and won every tackle. They were struggling to assert themselves in midfield where Jeff Whitley was the main man and City didn't just seem to be the first to every loose ball, they were the first. Ahead of them, Cameron Jerome was working hard without joy but was an essential part of the team effort, Michael Ricketts it has to be said was much quieter, he's a player who wants the ball but just won't work for it, his work ethic out of tune with everyone else out there but that's how he is.

It was a monumental effort and City's support recognised it, their backing was incredible and, if anything, just got louder and louder. You name the chant and it was sung but the main ones were the 'pride' chants with Men of Harlech getting repeated airings. You felt they were going to get a result but were hoping nothing went wrong.

It was time for Warnock to try and change things, undoubtedly one of the reasons why Sheffield are flying is that their sub's bench contain players who would be in the first team elsewhere. Between minutes 55 and 75, on came £800,000 Paul Ifill, hot striking prospect Danny Webber and committed attacking defender Derek Geary for Kosluk, Keith Gillespie who was snubbed out of the game by City and Neil Shipperley who got no change at all out of Glen Loovens. Sheffield thought it would probably put more pressure on City but Cardiff, by far, finished the stronger and were taking the game to the home side and leaders.

Kevin Cooper wasn't too far away with a 20 yarder and when Alan Lee came on for the again disappointing Michael Ricketts for the final 15, it was all about Cardiff. There were a couple of agonisingly close moments.

Instead the final 10 minutes, Rhys Weston broke out of defence, comprehensively dummied a defender on the outside, sent over a great far post ball which Alan Lee directed across the face of goal and which missed Cameron Jerome's boot by the tiniest of fractions, any tough would have scored.

In added time, came a moment of controversy. Joe Ledley won a free-kick running at the Blades
defence with options either side. The City end were on high octane sensing we were going for the kill and could do it.

Koumas' free-kick went around the wall low, Kenny got down to beat it out. Joe Ledley got it wide and turned it back from the touchline, a combination of Kenny and goalpost almost turned the cross into a goal, the ball coming off the outside of the woodwork, the pinball effect continued as Lee and defenders got touches but as the ball was coming out with Koumas charging in, a defender clearly handled, Koumas got a shot in but it went wide.

City's fans were furious, City's players were furious, the ref was surrounded. I can only think he missed it. Had he saw the handball, it could only have been a penalty but why didn't the linesman help him out? It was a poor decision but as the goalkick was taken, the final whistle blew.

The players came to the fans, the fans were bouncing and deliriously happy. Chants of "we're going up as ****ing Champions" reverberating to the players and Sheffield fans, those who had stayed on anyway. Many home fans starting disappearing with 15-20 minutes to go, all being waved on their way and bid cheerio by us of course. It was a major performance and result, no disguising that. The pride, passion and joyful happiness in City fans so evident in every song, every emotion. What a great day.

On a weekend when 7 of the Championship's fixtures ended in draws, I guess it was sod's law a couple of the winners were directly below us so, after such a great performance and result, City fell two places to 9th spot. However, win that game in hand and we go 4th. Sheffield stayed 3 points clear of Reading in 2nd, 10 points clear of third and 15 points ahead of City. There was no gulf between the teams today, City arguably the better and you cannot praise Dave Jones and the players highly enough for that.

The journey back was joyful too. Hicksie offered to give Lloydey and myself a lift in his car so we missed the bus. I think he may have regretted it as we were on such a high. His route was a little strange, through countryside and over hills all the way to Birmingham cutting out the M1 and M42. The coach got back at the same time by all accounts. I think he may have regretted it as we were on such a high. It was a long way to travel to watch 45 minutes but I wouldn't have swapped it for anything. Fabulous, just fabulous.

The Cost of Being A City fan:
Tickets: £21
Programme: £ 3
Food/drink: £24
Coach: £15
Travel to/from home & coach: £3
Total £66

Total for season: £1,233 *Total includes buying a City shirt (£20 with Ambassador discount & other City merchandise £15 the day before game)