It needed golden goal extra-time at a stage when the Bluebirds were close to a penalty shoot out but nobody could doubt that the home side fully deserved their win.
Lennie Lawrence and the Bluebirds have stated a determination all season to go for this trophy and deliver a dream hometown Millennium Stadium to the supporters and what a day that would have been. City were favourites to win it and had they had first teamers, there is no reason why that would not have happened.
The reality was that City never took the competition seriously enough - they used fringe players, used some out of position and changed the system - and against a fired up Bournemouth first team who had won their previous 8 home league games and look a strong bet for a return to Division Two, we probably didn't show them enough respect and we certainly got what we deserved.
Even so, those supporters like myself, who took turn off work to attend, travelled for 5 hours there and back, spent £30 or more, braved near arctic conditions for over 2 hours and then get reduced sleep before work on Wednesday will never accept was the overall display of the team and the individual performances of some players.
This was an absolute shocker. Half the team played as though they had met for the first time in the car park before the game, the passing was dreadful, movement was almost non-existent and there are a handful of players who really need to take a close look at themselves. In one or two instances, starting to think about finding a new club wouldn't be a bad option either.
Bournemouth isn't the easiest drive. Although it's only 110 miles from Cardiff and you cover the first 50 miles to Bath in 45 minutes, the rest of the journey takes more than twice as long as that along single lane twisty country roads and passing through village after village. The weather was bitter too, there was sleet in the air and the lightest sprinkling of the first snow of winter on the ground in some places.
Once there, City fans were in good heart in the Queens Park pub near the ground, just about everyone stayed there in the warm until the last possible moment. As for Dean Court now known as the Fitness First Stadium (I guess it'll have to be renamed soon if the leisure centres sponsoring the ground go into liquidation), it's a small, functional ground and a decent place to visit.
Set in a public park, it is currently a three sided ground with no sign of the final side (behind one goal) being developed. The stands, not big, all offer good views - ours was on the side of the pitch from a corner flag to halfway. Huge toilets (with no hand dryers and only ice cold water, no chance of getting warm tonight) and two catering points - good but pricey food (we're talking £2 a pie but the balti ones were fantastic and £2.40 a pint).
City lined up with a system that was either 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2, it seemed to switch between both. The in-form Margetson was in goals sometimes helped and sometimes let down by a back four of Weston, Fan Zhiyi, Collins and Simpkins. A midfield trio that didn't work of Disco Des, Bonner and Maxwell with a front line of Leo, Campbell and Peter Thorne. Why Peter Thorne, the only player in this side likely to start on Saturday was included, I don't know but he was trying the floating Bowen role behind the front two.
No matter which side Lennie selects, a worrying pattern now seems to be firmly set that our opponents are up for it and buzz from the off while we start very slowly and the for first 20 minutes, it looked like the game was between Bournemouth and Martyn Margetson who had to make 5 stops of varying difficulty, a couple were very good.
Bournemouth were a small side, it looked like Snow White had given The Seven Dwarves a night off from preparing for panto, but they were fast and skilful and used width well. They broke quickly and flooded the final third. Our midfield were being over-run and looked particularly poor while our back four were dreadful with Fan Zhiyi guilty of playing too far up and Simpkins guilty of playing too far back - there was barely a time when they kept a straight line and the communication between them consisted of shouting at each other every time a cross whizzed behind or a shot was beaten away or Fan shrugging his shoulders and waving his arms.
Bournemouth were on top in the half as City's pattern of play let them down. In midfield, Layton Maxwell had the stinkiest of stinkers as, given chances and a run, the only conclusion we can now have is that he is over-rated and over-weighted.
When he gets a run out for 20 minutes as a sub, he is direct, runs at players and drives City but give him a game and all he can knock off passes to his side (80% of the time) or backwards for the remainder, his success rate of finding another yellow shirt was 50/50 but he wasn't the only one who lost the ability to find another player from his own team. The crabs by Boscombe pier couldn't believe Maxwell went sideways more than they did.
Bonner was ok and closer to match fitness while Disco Des worked very hard but seems unable to make the major impact on games that he should or we expect. I think most of us are starting to accept that he just isn't going to cut it.
Up front, Thorney worked hard and buzzed for little reward and then we had Leo and Campbell. Leo gave Campbell a pre-match confidence boost by saying how it's a travesty that he is not a regular, Campbell however showed exactly why he's not a starter. He wasn't helped by what was going on behind him but you do expect him to run, make space and show commitment, he rarely did any. I can think of at least four times in the game when Campbell had a 50/50 chance against the keeper or last defender, each time he bottled it.
As for Leo, he has done well for City playing the wide man in a 4-3-3 but stick in the middle and he just can't cut it. Again, he had poor service in mitigation but his presence was minimal.
I'd like to think I'm not being over-harsh or over-critical, just talking straight. That's exactly how it was. Too many of our players didn't care as much as we did and showed that desire t be successful in this competition as give us a magical day at Millennium Stadium wasn't as good as ours.
City got more into it as the half progressed but our only efforts were Leo bringing a smart save from the keeper with a good header (one of his few that went where he intended it to go) while Fan hit the side netting from the subsequent corner. Bournemouth meanwhile ran the show, only Margetson and their own failings in front of goal were stopping them being out of sight.
HALF-TIME: Bournemouth 0 City 0
The second half was no better and, if anything, got worse. Michael Simpkins was unfortunate enough to be on our side of the pitch and had our support screaming at him to get forward and help, as a wing back. The problem was that he couldn't hear us because he stayed back. Is he really a professional player who has been taught tactics?
Meantime, Bournemouth were still pushing forward, just about every attack started by a City player passing straight to ones of theirs as we attempted to get out of our half. The high energy so evident in the first 45 minutes had gone a little from their game and they had to be more wary of Weston and Thorne linking on the right, the only area where we looked like creating.
City's only effort of note was an early Bonner 25 yarder that fizzed slightly over the bar, it was the only thing to warm us until the closing stages. Bournemouth brought a couple more routine saves from Margetson and couldn't quite find the finish they deserved ... that is, until 73 minutes with a great goal for them and a shocker summarising all that was wrong with City.
A simple ball was played to the right and Bournemouth had 3 players over on Michael Simpkins again lying way too deep and out of formation. ELLIOTT showed no problems advancing into the area and produced a superb finish to fire over Margetson and crash the ball in off the underside of the bar.
It looked all over for City but two minutes later, it was incredibly 1-1. Gavin Gordon, ready to come on as Bournemouth's goal flew in, came on for Leo. Des sprayed the ball wide, Weston produced a great far post cross and GORDON headed home superbly back across goal and guided it inside in the far post. A superb piece of play by City, unlike anything else they produced in the entire match.
Gordon looked back and hungry but as a few fans said, he can only score in the competition, can't he? A reference to his 5 goals against Rushden last season.
Almost instantly it was 2-1 to the Cherries as a similar shot to their opener flew over Margetson and hit the bar again but this time stayed out but only just.
Full-time: Bournemouth 1 City 1
The game now golden goal extra-time just as rigamortis entered those of us watching with the temperature dropping. Fans who came by train had the dilemma of missing the last train home if it carried on for too long ... and City tormented us to the end by doing exactly that.
Bournemouth carried on being the better side in extra-time but there was no near misses in the first period. Andy Campbell had two good looking through balls but his desire was missing and the keeper collected with ease, it shouldn't have been allowed.
The ref suddenly became fussy and stopped the game to talk to players without showing his card, fans screamed at him to get on with it, it was too late and too cold.
City fans were singing non-stop to encourage the players on the pitch but it was wasted on them. Gavin Gordon ran hard and showed the other forwards how it should have been done. If Leo and Campbell had shown similar attitude, we could have snatched a win. Jason Bowen came on for the closing stages of normal time and showed some great first touches usually followed by an awful second touch as the disease seemed to go through the whole side.
Extra-time half-time Bournemouth 1 City 1 .
We were starting to get ready for penalties, all of us confident that Margetson could win it for us ... that of course included the very dangerous assumption that we had 5 players able to hit a ball on target from the spot to give him a chance.
There was no doubt Bournemouth played to win, City played for penalties so we got our just deserts. The extra-time was probably hurting City players too who were not used to first team games for this long, some back from injury etc but not as much as watching all of this was hurting us who travelled and paid to be there.
Bournemouth had one disallowed, Feeney, turned home but there was an offside. Then he scuffed his shot when clear. Then we had a let off as he broke clear on the right, played a pass and a shot came off Margetson's near post and was scrambled away but 30 seconds later, with 6 minutes of that extra-time left and the time now 10pm, City were out.
From the scramble away, Bournemouth constructed another move down the left, the ball came over, Hayter shot, Margetson beaten and the post saved us for the third time but as it came out, no City defender reacted and Margetson and Hayter were in a chase for the loose ball. HAYTER got there first and smashed home from close range to send their players and fans into raptures.
City fans silently filed out, the players - apart from Maxwell and Gordon - couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge us. In many cases, it was just as well.
One young City fan was in tears at final whistle that we were out of the cup, it meant something to us. It looked like it didn't mean anything like as much to some of our players and on behalf of the supporters who were there, I truly hope that it's time some of them were moved on, are never close to first team action again or for a very, very long time.
We didn't get home until 1am, others would have been later again. To think of the money we wasted to go and how well they (our players) were paid for that. It leaves an unpleasant taste.
Report from FootyMad
Striker James Hayter scored his fourth goal of the season deep into extra time as Third Division Bournemouth dumped Division Two promotion favourites Cardiff out of the LDV Vans Trophy.
Hayter rammed home the winner 23 minutes into extra time as in-form Bournemouth notched up their ninth successive home win.
The Cherries seemed to be heading for victory in normal time when midfielder Wade Elliott deservedly opened the scoring 11 minutes from time.
Winger Elliot raced on to Garreth O'Connor's throughball before majestically chipping Cardiff goalkeeper Martyn Margetson from 15 yards to make it 1-0.
But Cardiff substitute Gavin Gordon drew the Bluebirds level with a header just two minutes later, within 60 seconds of coming off the bench, to take the game into extra time.
External reports
South Wales Echo
Western Mail