SATURDAY NOVEMBER 24th

CHAMPIONSHIP - Game 16/46 - at NINIAN PARK

CARDIFF CITY (1) 1
Parry 32

IPSWICH TOWN (0) 0



The smell of (temporary) relief must have been pretty sweet in Ninian Park's corridors at 4:45pm as Cardiff City and Dave Jones attempted to start may be a long road to recovery as they finally won a game and stopped freefalling down the league table for the first time since the end of October.

Victory over a dossile, lethargic Ipswich side who showed perfectly why their 2007/08 victory record is 100% at home and 0% away was only Cardiff's second home win in 8 months. The common factor compared to the last victory (over Burnley last month) was Paul Parry's identical beautiful match winning finish.

Today's goal was a classic finish to a sublime, sweeping move. The one telling moment of quality and movement from City all afternoon. Parry was a match winner in more ways than one as he also bundled Ipswich's late goal attempt off the line. The Bluebirds will also be joyous at their first win in 6 games, the first clean sheet in 15, a little bit of luck, their dogged determination and improved intensity which deserved those 3 points but this was an ugly win and uninspiring game on a day when only victory mattered.

A fortnight's without club football produced more talking points that had there been games at Ninian Park. The perceived turnaround of Peter Ridsdale and Board to give Dave Jones a vote of confidence after dropping hints of his dismissal, the general disbelief at that decision, the debates over whether Jones would change system and which players and some debate over whom should replace Jonesy if it all goes wrong again.

Any truth in the rumour that Heather Mills-McCartney is a leading contender because she could sort out our problems as she knows how the get the most out of Scouse mutli-millionaires (watch out Robbie) while having only one foot, she could advise McPhail?

However at least the break ended with some overdue football delight with City youngsters doing themselves proud for country at U21 (Ramsey and Blake) in a stunning 4-2 beating of France then senior level (Gunter and Ledley) in a superb 0-0 draw in Germany ... on and then England got knocked out of Euro2008 too. Now I've never had a threesome - never took up chance! - but I can't imagine it can possibly be any better than final whistle in Frankfurt and then changing channels at the exact moment Croatia netted their winner against Ingerlund's 42 years of hurt ... forever counting ... and our immense joy!

With the visit of Ipswich having a midday kick-off due to the non-event of an egg chasing Wales v South Africa game pulling Prince William and 50,000 across town for in the name of money-making, City deserve commendation for the brilliant offer of £10 for adults and £1 for oaps/kids/students in any part of the ground. It had success as attendance on a chilly grey day with some drizzle during the game was 15,173 which (although it didn't quite look that many to me) was 3,500 up on last outing vs Crystal Palace but 1,250+ of that was a superb travelling support from Suffolk who must have set off on Wednesday to get their tractors down here for 12 on Saturday.

I doubt anyone predicted Dave Jones' side which amounted to 2 defensive changes only but not quite what was expected. Back came Glenn Loovens and in came Chris Gunter to replace Roger Johnson and Kevin McNaughton. See McNaughton on the bench and Capaldi on the pitch - whom most fans expected for demotion - seemed incredulous but news emerged McNaughton had a knock. Other than that, it was as you were with Schmeicel (his loan extended until January and possibly all season) in goal, defence were Gunter-Purse-Loovens-Capaldi, midfield Ledley-Rae-McPhail-Parry, strikers Thompson-Hasselbaink. On the bench were Oakes-Johnson-MacLean-McNaughton-Whittingham. Fowler was dropped to the bench last time and was not in sight this time despite media reports of his successful hip injection and freer ability and sharpness on the training fields, whispers persist that retirement maybe under consideration.

The only thing you can say about Ipswich is that they are consistent - consistently fantastic at home, consistently awful away. They've won all 7 at home and dished out some handsome pastings too (Sheff Weds 4-1, Cov 4-1, Wolves 3-0 and Brizzle Zity 6-0 last match) yet it's now 4 points out of 27 (all draws) on the road. Whilst Cardiff deserve credit for their efforts, you can't disguise that Ipswich were one of the least threatening, ambitious team to come to Ninian Park in ages - Dave Jones and his Merry Men could not have picked better opponents.

Their side, of course, included City old boys in Neil Alexander (his effective release being one of the biggest crimes on Dave Jones' lengthening charge sheet and who rightly got an ovation each half and at final whistle), Alan Lee, the enigma who seems to be successful everywhere except his time (he had polite applause) and a Bluebirds supporter in midfielder Gavin Williams. Once those acknowledgements were out of the way, The Grange End got down to real business - chants about England, Steve McLaren and Croatia!

In centre-half Alex Bruce, son of Steve, Ipswich also had a player who would have grown up playing conkers with Kasper Schmeicel. Jim Magilton went with a 4-5-1 come 4-4-1-1 system with Alexander, DeVos-Bruce-Harding-Wright, Miller-Walters-Garvan-Williams, Counago, Lee.

One departure from normal routine was the non-appearance of City players "high fiving" each other before kick-off, instead they re-adopted the "huddle". Bless'em.

Darren Purse perhaps thought he was still in that huddle as, straight from kick-off, our dozing skipper completely missed a high ball falling for him,. Alan Lee was away on the bounce and his first time lob had Schmeicel beaten but smacked off the bar then the inside of the post after 14 seconds! The mass groan wasn't City fans reacting to early morning burgers and beers but mild panic, however we also enjoyed some rare luck and, in fairness, that was Ipswich's only sight of goal all half apart from a Lee effort straight at Schmeicel.

City weren't brilliant but did dominate, put together some exciting and flowing football at times, found some previously missing tenacity and desire, played the more controlled football and, in Paul Parry and Steve Thompson, had two players who made the game rise above ordinary.

Thommo was showing some great touches, turns and flicks and, just as importantly, was holding up the ball - a quality rarely seen from City forwards this term. Pazza was electrifying on the burst and driving City forward even if his final ball was of variable standard but he was also winning corners and applying pressure. City's first shot, a Thommo shot on the turn, was parried behind well by Alexander. Just before that, one of several goalmouth scrambles in the Ipswich box saw Loovens go to ground for a penalty appeal then got involved in shoving with De Vos. That was Loovens' 5th yellow card of the season which will mean a very early recall for Roger Johnson. It has echoes of last season already where none of our trio of centre halves seems to get a long run in the team.

The rest of the half was City good play, domination and control. It wasn't perfect and Tony Capaldi was infuriating by doing nothing more with the ball at his feet than chipping it 10 yards forward which nearly always conceded possession but did make up for it with a top tackle to stop a Tractor Boy breaking on
goal.

Shots were blocked, went wide, a Hasslebaink free-kick at the edge of the box was wastefully chipped into the Grange End. Just as we started to wonder if a goal was going to come, along came an absolute beauty. Capaldi, for once, played the ball on the ground, Thommo's flick into space for Gavin Rae was pure quality, Rae raced over halfway and swept the ball to Parry who, for almost the first time, cut inside his man and let fly with a rising rasping drive across goal that had Alexander beaten all the way as it tucked inside his far post. City's Goal of the Season so far without a shadow, a supreme moment.

City were in complete control for the remainder of the half but never threatened to add to that lead.

H/T;: CITY 1 HORSES 0

There is next to nothing to write about the second half, it was uglier than the girl gorging on chicken curry off the bone at 3am in Caroline Street who still looks a complete minger even with the beer goggles on! City had no effort at goal at all, Ipswich's sole effort - 10 minutes from time - at a corner saw Parry become a bigger hero by blocking a Miller shot on the line with Schmeicel beaten.

Other than that, it was gritty and dour. Up front, City were in trouble as Thommo went lame (it later emerged he had been ill on the day of the game and almost didn't play) while Jimmy Floyd-Hasslebaink looked completely shot, he must have been inexplicably offside 3 or 4 times simply by being unable to even trot back at a basic pace after a City attack. To shore up victory, Roger Johnson replaced Thommo in attack for the closing minutes.

Another subs saw Peter Whittingham replaced Joe Ledley who limped away just after the hour - hopefully nothing serious. Whitts must get stronger and show more determination but his superb low free-kick across the face of goal should have found someone there to turn it home..

Ipswich used subs and pressed harder but never broke down or broke through City, they were as limited as Cardiff themselves have often looked recently. The picks were Glenn Loovens, showing his old no nonsense form, who won possession time and again by reading the game so well and stepping up to take the ball and playing simple passes to set City on their way. Chris Gunter completed a brilliant personal week with an excellent performance, not just winning some big challenges and showing some great interceptions but by bringing the ball forward at every opportunity. The problems were Capaldi and Hasslebaink, neither were good enough today I'm afraid.

Final whistle and you would have thought we'd gone top of the league, not climbed all the way to 18th! A long, long way to go. This wasn't a performance that convinced City are going to climb the table with authority or suggested Cardiff are capable of putting together a strong run anytime soon but you hope it breeds confidence. For now, it's a welcome relief and a boost but with Leicester away Monday night, no more than a short-term one for all concerned at this stage.



GAME COST:
Tickets: (6)
£40
Programmes:
£3
Travel:
£4
Food/Drink/Misc:
£25 - there were 6 of us!

Total:
£72