After a fairly unspectacular 1st half Cardiff came out after the break a different side. Wednesday had nothing to offer in front of goal and it ended up as comfortable a win as you'd like with Roger Johnson's efort taking a huge deflection to open the scoring before Ledley was tripped in the box allowing Michael Chopra to score his 4th goal since coming back here on loan. Three of them from the penalty spot.
The best chance of the first half fell to Jay Bothroyd, who again put in good performance. The striker saw his shot on the turn clear the bar. In the second half efforts flew towards the Wednesday goal with their keeper pulling off some fine saves and City were denied a third goal (which would have been the first time we'd scored three this season in a game) when Chopra was ruled offside when scoring from a rebound. The orginal shot from Bothroyd was turned onto the post by the keeper.
Peter Enckelman had one of the quietest games he's likely to play in.
So that's 6 games unbeaten now. Three wins in the last 4 games as well. December, so far, has been a very good month. Why the upturn? Well it's clear to see that playing Joe Ledley in central midfield in place of Steve McPhail is giving City more of an attack mined approach. As good as everyone in the game says Steve McPhail is he does tend to suppress the midfield but with Joe in the side we are looking to push on through the centre as well as using Parry and Routledge to great effect on the wings.
City stay 5th after Burnley's win at Bristol City with Birmingham the only top 5 side to lose yesterday. That came at home to Reading who Cardiff face this Friday (Boxing Day). The top of the table looks like this
| Latest match Saturday, 20th December 2008 | Pld | Home | Away | Overall | Pts | EP | |||||||||||||||||
| W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | W | D | L | F | A | |||||||||
| 1 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 24 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 24 | 18 | 18 | 2 | 4 | 51 | 27 | 56 | +24 | ||||
| 2 | Reading | 24 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 31 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 20 | 15 | 15 | 4 | 5 | 51 | 22 | 49 | +29 | ||||
| 3 | Birmingham City | 24 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 5 | 5 | 33 | 23 | 47 | +10 | ||||
| 4 | Burnley | 24 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 20 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 18 | 20 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 38 | 31 | 43 | +7 | ||||
| 5 | Cardiff City | 24 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 34 | 24 | 40 | +10 | ||||
| 6 | Sheffield United | 24 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 33 | 23 | 37 | +10 | ||||
| 7 | Crystal Palace | 24 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 18 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 17 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 35 | 26 | 37 | +9 | ||||
| 8 | Preston North End | 24 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 19 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 9 | 33 | 31 | 37 | +2 | ||||
| 9 | Queens Park Rangers | 24 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 11 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 23 | 24 | 36 | -1 | ||||
| 10 | Swansea City | 24 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 22 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 16 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 33 | 30 | 33 | +3 | ||||
| 11 | Sheffield Wednesday | 24 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 28 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 24 | 34 | 33 | -10 | ||||
Roll on Reading on Boxing Day. It's going to be a Christmas cracker.