On a night when Cardiff could have stayed 2nd and be 5 points clear of the rest, they were instead been leapfrogged by Bristol and now lie outside the automatic promotion spots in 3rd place after a disastrous evening home game shown live on Sky tv.
On the night, little went right for Cardiff. Chances were at a premium but City had plenty enough to have won the game despite being below par but missed them. Every one of our 'star' players failed to perform. City's passing and movement style fell apart. Bristol waited until their chances came - courtesy of a dubious penalty and comedy defensive error - and showed no mercy.
Bristol can argue they did just enough to deserve the win but, in all honesty, they really weren't that good nor did they play particularly well but, there again, they didn't have to be. In a game that was not a good advert for Division Two and only highlighted the lack and real flair and quality presently at this level, the West Country side were solid, professional and composed. It was enough as they were three qualities that The Bluebirds lacked in this game.
Cardiff went into the game with some problems, most notably a reconstructed defence. Danny Gabbidon, touted as 50/50 all week due to his mystifying back/short foot/short leg/whatever else it is injury, was absent again. He's now been missing for 5 weeks, it's a major problem. With other centre halves injured or young, Lennie Lawrence opted to give a league debut to Fan Zhiyi. Rhys Weston was serving a 1 match suspension for bookings this season so Gary Croft switched to the right and Chris Barker came in at left wing back.
Although never punished, the back four were a poor unit. Fan was the pick of the City players and voted man of the match. Says everything about City's performance when a centre half is their man of the match at home, doesn't it? Fan won some vital interceptions, showed a good touch and it's good to see some pack in central defence. My caveat is that the enthusiastic way he charged into some tackles bordered were as a midfielder. Some were hasty and could prove costly in time. Tonight though, he did well.
Gary Croft, calm, effective and consistent at left wing back, suffered on the right. His passing was poor as he was totally unable to fulfil Rhys' role. Denied someone to dominate the right side of the pitch as Rhys does, it was a reason why our usual fluency was not there.
I never understood why we needed to pay £600k for an "unknown" defender in Chris Barker (he's a definite unknown at that price) and yet again, his performance suggests that Sam paid at least £550k too much and, arguably, the whole £600k. It's becomes more apparent that he's not worth that money. Like it or not, that's how he should be judged. Scott Murray was subdued and Chris Barker, along with Leggy, were reasons for that but Barker's distribution and support play going forward were badly lacking.
City's midfield has been unconvincing all season and tonight showed their deficiencies yet again. Willie Boland is the exception as he again played well, 1st half he was fantastic and seemed to be taking on Bristol on his own before he fading but it's hardly a surprise with Captain Graham Kavanagh so anonymous. Totally outgunned by his veteran opposite number, Brian Tinnion, it's hard to recall any telling contribution by Kav in the entire game.
Despite what other media would have you believe, it's now more than 10 months since Kav was a major influence on the team and won man of the match displays. His form will come good we're told by some, he's a big game player say others (clearly forgetting the Stoke play-off games last season and Wigan away this season) and no doubt some will still tell us how will be a major factor in our promotion bid. I hope they're all right but the wait goes on ... and on ... and on.
Des Hamilton who worked so hard for little reward in the LDV at Bournemouth in midweek has now jumped ahead of Layton Maxwell but after a promising start and some big hits, Disco Des chased back, put in a great tackle and tweaked something in his leg. He was out of the game after just 14 minutes and looking for his latest sick note. Des has something about him but he's far too injury prone and has been unable to put in a run of games in the last five years. It's tragic, he looks the part but surely, he is now a luxury that we can no longer afford.
I winced when he was replaced by Layton Maxwell. Lennie spoke after the Bournemouth defeat about certain players blowing a big chance. Maxwell was awful beyond belief at Dean Court and after that showing, I didn't think he would be anywhere near the first team for a long while.
Given the opportunity to redeem himself, Layton made things worse by doing the same thing - passes backwards, a few sideways, finding Bristol players as often as his own and not a single run. His confidence has gone but is it more than that? Have we expected to much? His performance was so poor that we actually subbed the sub, Maxwell was taken off with 25 minutes to go. Bad call to use him Lennie.
Lennie's error was compounded as Jason Bowen was brought on to replace Maxwell but there was no change of tactics or formation, Jason was asked to play central midfield but did nothing anyway. It made no sense but the game was beyond us by this point anyway with some of us losing the will to live.
Andy Legg completed the midfield quartet and showed his usual 110% attitude and commitment but even he will admit that he achieved little. Am I the only one who has noticed that he is now struggles to get around his man, doesn't actually supply that many crosses anymore and the ones he gets in tend to be long, diagonal and floated?
The strikers named on the team sheet for City were Peter Thorne and Robert Earnshaw but the only one I remember seeing was Earnie. Peter Thorne was awful, starved of service but did nothing on the ball, When he was withdrawn for the closing stages and clapped us, it the first time I saw Thorne do something interesting. I'm a self-confessed Peter Thorne fan but have to admit, he failed in this match.
Earnie was off key too but worked and tried, had some bad luck and also missed some guilt edged chances. Sadly, he had and missed a number of chances. You would have expected him to have netted a couple but his misfiring summed up the whole evening.
On an evening when City announced they have adopted the St Davids flag as the new club emblem with a page of history in the programme to explain it and gave St Davids Crosses flags to all the kids in the Canton Stand, I was fearing the worst already.
The first half belonged to Cardiff. They weren't playing well but Bristol were on the back foot and just hoping to hit City on the break with Peacock and Murray wide and ex-City starlet, Christian Roberts running hard through the middle. Fans who now say how we should never have got rid of Roberts have forgotten that he had some problems, lost his form and lost his way at the time he left Cardiff. He was a talent and it's good to see him back but he also had to leave City when he did.
The game was tight but when chances came, they fell to City. Thorne should have got to a long Leggy throw that the keeper missed but he missed it to in the opening exchanges. On 6 minutes, Prior got up well at the far post and the ball dropped invitingly for Earnie 8 yards out in the centre of goal but through leaning back and stretching, he fired well over the bar when half the singing, supporting crowd when on their feet in anticipation. The sort of chance he usually buries.
Worse came later in the half was more of a crime when Earnshaw wasted the best chance of the entire match. A hideous back pass under no pressure put Earnie 5 yards clear of the Bristol defence but he wanted far too mush time to get into shooting position and took three touches before aiming to shoot. By the time he did, he was tackled. I would have bet all my salary on him putting that chance away but he didn't even get a shot off.
When Bristol finally broke, it so nearly was fatal to City as Chris Barker missed completely trying to nod a cross field ball out. It left Murray away inside City's area. He aimed at the middle of goal rather than the unmarked Roberts at the far post and Fan made a great interception to 'takeaway' the ball. It seemed to gave Fan great confidence and was the best of a number of great touches. His "Fan" club quickly grew in number when he did the Ayatorrah ... sorry Ayatollah!
City came back but a Leggy piledriver hit Eranie and a Fan free kick blaster hit the back of the Grange End. City had a number of long throws and corners but nobody got on the end of any.
An interesting half with not a great deal of quality but City showing most promise if they could sort out their problems.
Half-time: City 0 Wurzels 0
When Ali played, "there may be troubles ahead" at half-time as a tongue-in-cheek remark towards Bristol's current finance problems, little did we know that it was to become apt for the course of the remainder of the match as Bristol returned to the pitch with the same 11 players in red plus Premier ref Alan Wiley in black.
Forty nine minutes gone, Neil Alexander made a good save from a header, the ball was loose and as everyone followed play, the ref mystified all by blowing his whistle and pointing to the centre spot for a free kick. TV replays showed it was a debatable decision, Thorne swung for the ball and caught a player with no intent at all, many refs would have let it go without thinking about it.
It was a major decision that changed the shape and destiny of the match. Neil Alexander has never saved a penalty for Cardiff and his record remained intact as Brian Tinnion sent him the wrong way with a hard drive that was by no means put into the corner of the goal.
When City have gone behind in games this season, they are often commended for not panicking, carrying on playing football and biding their time for the chances to fight back. Tonight, that professionalism went from their game.
Boland and Kavanagh showed their frustrations by being booked by poor challenges when there was no need at all, Kav's particularly nasty as he scythed down a player with full intent. Leggy got booked as he argued with the ref over of his (few) correct decisions in the half. Wiley really did us no favours and his decisions influenced the result but Cardiff players and manager must accept the blame ultimately.
City made two quick chances to equalise as Willie Boland fired an excellent low 25 yard curling drive that Phillips could only palm away, Peter Thorne misfired the follow up but it ran to Earnie whose 6 yard snapshot was brilliantly saved by Phillips again. In the next attack, Earnie carved a chance out of nothing as he superbly nipped in nodded the ball away from Bristol's central defenders but fired narrowly over on the spin with his left foot with the ball was running away from him.
Bristol came back with Christian Roberts firing across the face of goal and another chance was fired over before the second killer goal arrived, it was one that had been waiting to happen all season.
A simple ball over the top saw Christian Roberts charge through and Neil Alexander race out. The keeper was favourite and was first to the ball but "bottled" it. As Roberts stretched, Alexander almost jumped over the ball, missed his kick entirely and it left ROBERTS with the simple task of slotting into an empty net.
Chrissie Roberts deserves a lot of credit for not celebrating his goal on his return to his hometown club, he still lives in Cardiff too. He also deserves respect for calming walking off when subbed and when the final whistle blew, he shook hands with players who were at the club when he was last at Ninian - Bowen, Leggy and finally a hug with Earnie who he walked down the tunnel with leaving his team mates to celebrate with their fans.
The energy and fight had visibly gone from City whose confidence looked shattered too. Kav put a shot over, a free kick narrowly wide but also had several more unproductive corners.
It was a bad night, result and performance. It is incredible to think that Cardiff have only lost just 6 of their last 74 home league and cup games but two have been to Bristol City and also 2 to Peterborough. The Robins are a bogey side, Cardiff have amazingly failed to beat them in their last 21 games at Ninian Park, you have to go back to 1971 to find the last time we beat them at home.
It was hard to find many positives from what was generally a let down display display in but, disappointing as this game was, it's anything but doom and gloom for the season.
Cardiff are 3rd and still average over 2 points per match. Those who feel Bristol deserved to will also accept but they hardly looked special, luck went their way and they showed better discipline and organisation on the night.
Six of the next 7 Bluebirds league games are against teams in the bottom 10, the other being against 8th placed Luton who are currently injury ravaged and showing loss of form. It also seems inevitable that Cardiff will strengthen and improve the team when the January transfer window opens (they better had anyway!). Recent displays have surely focussed Lennie's mind on the positions where we must improve and players who are struggling.
Bristol are now on a superb 11 games unbeaten but their outstanding rise up the table has been mainly at the expense of many sides in relegation trouble. Their forthcoming fixture list are games against a few teams with play-off aspirations and a January home clash with Wigan. If anything, Bristol's money problems could mean they lose a star player or two in the January sales.
Maybe we should reserve judgement until then. I personally don't believe Bristol are good enough to finish above us but our players must perform better, our manager must be more adaptable too. That even includes a reconsideration of his best players, formation and tactics. His first job though will be sorting the debris of this defeat and rebuilding morale and confidence. Busy times ahead but things must be sorted.
Report from FootyMad
Two second-half goals cost the Bluebirds second place in the division as their promotion rivals from across the Severn deserved the win.
Brian Tinnion slotted home a 48th minute spot kick and former Bluebird Christian Roberts drove in the clincher 15 minutes from time. It was a bitter defeat for City boss Lennie Lawrence who was celebrating his 55th birthday.
"The penalty was definitely the turning point in the game," he said.
"Not many officials would have given a penalty as they seemed to be very little going on.
"Once they had scored from that we had to chase the game but in all honesty our passing was not up to the mark, our luck was out and generally we were not good enough."Bristol City manager Danny Wilson was understandably please with his side's display.
"I think we showed even more character than last season when we came here and won 3-1," he said.
"Today I had a big performance from every player as we had to be disciplined throughout the match and keep a positive attitude.
"The first half was even and we got our noses in front with that penalty early in the second half. Cardiff then had to push forward but we defended well and still looked dangerous on the counter-attack.
"It is a very good result for us to beat everyone's favourites for promotion but it is still too early to say anything yet about our own chances.
"I hope we get the recognition we deserve for this victory but I still think that Cardiff City are the team to be above at the end of the season if we want promotion."Roberts, the former Cardiff City player who scored the clinching second goal, found it difficult to react after hitting the net.
"I loved my time here at Cardiff and still think a lot of the club but I came here to do a professional job," he said.
External reports
Wales On Sunday
BBC Wales
The Western Mail
South Wales Echo