City Cruise Past The Posh
Cardiff City 2 – 0 Peterborough United
Pundits love to whip out the adage that playing badly but still winning is the true mark of champions.
Now, while City can definitely forget finishing top after the trashing at Newcastle United last week, the professionalism they displayed last night in rolling over The Posh without breaking sweat has to be admired.
Despite Peterborough propping up the Championship, there was a sense of anxiety in the air before the game, as City appear to enjoy tormenting fans, losing to rubbish teams (Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town) yet beating those at the top (Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion) as well as the financial troubles that besets the club.
Perhaps sensing this, City started brightly with Jay Bothroyd smacking the post early on after a knock-down from Michael Chopra. Alas the game seemed to drift listlessly after that burst, aided by the quiet atmosphere. The gate was a relatively small 17,686, but it was Peterborough United… on a Tuesday night… in February.
Thankfully Chris Burke enlivened proceedings with his seventh goal of the season. Ghosting in from the right wing, he crashed in Bothroyd’s knockdown in the 30th minute.
Peterborough mustered a few attempts, identifying City’s left as a weak spot, putting Mark Kennedy under pressure and were occasionally aided by Anthony Gerrard faffing about at the back, but David Marshall, sadly not pretty in pink this game, was untroubled.
The second half kicked off in torpid fashion, City content in playing sideways rather moving forwards. Peterborough seemed happy for Cardiff to play in front of them, inviting them on. Or maybe it was that they're League One team playing in the Championship and were succumbing meekly.
Cardiff kept the stats-man busy, especially with the ‘shots off target’ column. They finally put the game to bed in the 78th minute. Peter Whittingham floated in a free kick, Bothroyd (who else?) knocked it down and Gerrard had enough time to wink at the Canton End before stabbing home past Joe Lewis, who despite letting in two goals, had a good game for The Posh.
The number of injuries picked up will stretch Dave Jones’ small squad even thinner. Darcy Blake left the park mid-way through the first-half, while Bothroyd limped off towards the end after a collision with Lewis. Jay riled some fans after appearing uninterested as the game wound down, but he’s such an integral part of the way City play it seems a bit rich to quibble. Alas setting up two goals is not enough for some fans.
If, as early reports suggest, Boothroyd misses Saturday’s trip to Stamford Bridge, it could be a long 90 minutes against Chelsea. Tune into S4C at 11.30am to see for yourself.
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