30-12-2017, 11:11
Cardiff City 0 Preston North End 1 (Clarke)
Cardiff City line-up: Etheridge, Peltier, Ecuele Manga, Tomlin (Healey, 76), Ralls, Zohore (Bogle, 83), Feeney (Hoilett, 64), Bamba ©, Paterson, Mendez-Laing, Damour. Subs not used: Murphy, Pilkington, Halford, Connolly.
PNE line-up: Maxwell, Clarke ©, Cunningham (Woods, 84), Pearson, Huntington, Davies, Gallagher (Harrop, 68), Barkhuizen, Browne, Hugill, Horgan (Robinson, 69). Subs not used: Rudd, Woods, Welsh, O’Connor, Mavididi.
Attendance: 17,751 (372 PNE fans)
Referee: Mr J Linington
At the end of the season there are games which you can look back on and say big result that one, that can be said of last nights win in Cardiff. For those watching on Sky and at the ground this was a pretty dire game of football which really only came to life in the last 20 minutes. Took us about 6 hours to get there crawling along the motorway through the North West and the Midlands but it was worth it.
Three changes for us with Greg Cunningham making his first start since Derby away in August and with Clarke returning to right back this was a very solid North End looking back line.
The only interest in the first 15 minutes were how many packets of weed would be found in the away end, it was two, the football on the pitch was non existent.
However once the game settled down North End began to look the better side although rarely looked like troubling the Cardiff goal, the home side hammered it long and everything was dealt with easily by our back four. City had a slight period of pressure on the stroke of half time, Tomlin broke clear, however his less than convincing shot was scrambled behind for a corner. A couple of other corners caused us concern but all square at half time.
Second half kicked off in almost silence took us a while to get going as City looked the more likely in the early stages, Maxwell saved well from a header, also saved another long distance effort but in the main looked comfortable. Going into the last 20 minutes two positive changes by Neil bringing on Harrop and Robinson, changed the shape of the game, we started to play the game on the floor and began to look dangerous, Barkuizhen had our first effort on target only just pushed away by Etheridge and we scored a series of corners and from the last one Clarke headed home from about 6 yards to win the game.
City had four minutes of injury time to salvage it, Maxwell made one good save but Cardiff couldn't score and the end of the game had Hugill as the pantomine villain with the home fans after being pushed over the hoardings at the side of the ground, once he got back on the pitch he fell injured to the floor on the pitch, the home faithful were less than impressed.
372 of us left exceedingly happy getting home at 3 am was it worth it? Oh yes.
Hugill worked his socks off, Pearson was excellent and Davies marked the dangerous Zohore out of the game. Three big points.
Preston manager Alex Neil told the BBC: "It wasn't a game for the football purist, it was a rough, scrappy match.
"But if there was any football being played, it was coming from us.
"I thought if anyone was going to win it, we deserved to."
Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock told BBC Radio Wales: "I can't fault the effort, they are trying their hardest, but I was disappointed with the result.
"We lacked a little bit of quality in certain areas. We are lacking in midfield but we only have two fit.
"It was a sloppy goal, I thought our goalkeeper should have had it really, but these are things that happen when things are going against you.
"I think it is up to me now to lift the lads."
https://youtu.be/k3JxgvJq348
Cardiff City line-up: Etheridge, Peltier, Ecuele Manga, Tomlin (Healey, 76), Ralls, Zohore (Bogle, 83), Feeney (Hoilett, 64), Bamba ©, Paterson, Mendez-Laing, Damour. Subs not used: Murphy, Pilkington, Halford, Connolly.
PNE line-up: Maxwell, Clarke ©, Cunningham (Woods, 84), Pearson, Huntington, Davies, Gallagher (Harrop, 68), Barkhuizen, Browne, Hugill, Horgan (Robinson, 69). Subs not used: Rudd, Woods, Welsh, O’Connor, Mavididi.
Attendance: 17,751 (372 PNE fans)
Referee: Mr J Linington
At the end of the season there are games which you can look back on and say big result that one, that can be said of last nights win in Cardiff. For those watching on Sky and at the ground this was a pretty dire game of football which really only came to life in the last 20 minutes. Took us about 6 hours to get there crawling along the motorway through the North West and the Midlands but it was worth it.
Three changes for us with Greg Cunningham making his first start since Derby away in August and with Clarke returning to right back this was a very solid North End looking back line.
The only interest in the first 15 minutes were how many packets of weed would be found in the away end, it was two, the football on the pitch was non existent.
However once the game settled down North End began to look the better side although rarely looked like troubling the Cardiff goal, the home side hammered it long and everything was dealt with easily by our back four. City had a slight period of pressure on the stroke of half time, Tomlin broke clear, however his less than convincing shot was scrambled behind for a corner. A couple of other corners caused us concern but all square at half time.
Second half kicked off in almost silence took us a while to get going as City looked the more likely in the early stages, Maxwell saved well from a header, also saved another long distance effort but in the main looked comfortable. Going into the last 20 minutes two positive changes by Neil bringing on Harrop and Robinson, changed the shape of the game, we started to play the game on the floor and began to look dangerous, Barkuizhen had our first effort on target only just pushed away by Etheridge and we scored a series of corners and from the last one Clarke headed home from about 6 yards to win the game.
City had four minutes of injury time to salvage it, Maxwell made one good save but Cardiff couldn't score and the end of the game had Hugill as the pantomine villain with the home fans after being pushed over the hoardings at the side of the ground, once he got back on the pitch he fell injured to the floor on the pitch, the home faithful were less than impressed.
372 of us left exceedingly happy getting home at 3 am was it worth it? Oh yes.
Hugill worked his socks off, Pearson was excellent and Davies marked the dangerous Zohore out of the game. Three big points.
Preston manager Alex Neil told the BBC: "It wasn't a game for the football purist, it was a rough, scrappy match.
"But if there was any football being played, it was coming from us.
"I thought if anyone was going to win it, we deserved to."
Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock told BBC Radio Wales: "I can't fault the effort, they are trying their hardest, but I was disappointed with the result.
"We lacked a little bit of quality in certain areas. We are lacking in midfield but we only have two fit.
"It was a sloppy goal, I thought our goalkeeper should have had it really, but these are things that happen when things are going against you.
"I think it is up to me now to lift the lads."
https://youtu.be/k3JxgvJq348
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