Another Night when Results don't favour City

Three Championship games tonight but in the only one impacting on Cardiff City, in form Sheffield United confirmed their status as genuine automatic promotion contenders with a 2-1 home victory over near neighbours Barnsley.


All the goals and drama came in the final 8 minutes with The Blades scoring through O'Toole and Lupoli in front of 27,000 before Barnsley missed a penalty and then scored an injury time consolation with the home side then hanging on.


Victory lifts Sheffield United into third spot ahead of Reading and just 3 points behind Birmingham with 5 games to go and they are the team coming through on the rails with a late burst now being unbeaten in 9 and with 4 successive wins. Their next game is a blockbuster at Reading this weekend.


It leaves Cardiff looking on in some envy. We had dreams of being in the pack but, by contrast, 5 points in 5 games and 3 defeats in the last 8 leaves City lagging behind knowing only a major winning run can change anything - and, even then, it may not be enough - but now wanting to concentrate on making sure play-offs are achieved.


The night's other games saw Palace/Coventry and Watford/Southampton both share draws.

		P	GD	PTS
1	Wolverhampton	41	22	77
2	Birmingham	41	16	75
3	Sheff Utd	41	24	72
4	Reading	40	30	69
5	Burnley	41	8	66
6	Cardiff	39	15	64
7	Preston	41	3	62
8	Swansea	41	11	59
9	Bristol City	41	6	59
10	QPR	41	0	57
11	Ipswich	41	6	56
12	Sheff Wed	41	-8	54
13	Crystal Palace	41	1	53
14	Coventry	40	-4	52
15	Watford	41	-4	51
16	Doncaster	41	-15	49
17	Derby	39	-5	48
18	Blackpool	41	-13	47
19	Plymouth	41	-13	46
20	Barnsley	40	-12	45
21	Norwich	41	-9	43
22	Nottm Forest	41	-19	42
23	Southampton	41	-17	41
24	Charlton	40	-23	32