The weekend had seen the teams below Cardiff battling it out for those all important Play-Off spots with the likes of Nottingham Forest and Leeds scrapping for sixth spot and Swansea and Reading trading places for third and fourth. That left the Bank Holiday Monday fixtures of Cardiff v Middlesbrough and Portsmouth v Norwich to be played out in the most crucial penultimate game of the Championship season. Cardiff sitting a point behind Norwich in third with a marginally better goal difference and on form and with all still to play for in the race for automatic promotion. I personally had been looking forward to this game for a while as I felt that we could hammer Boro in front of a sold out stadium in the last home game of the season waiting for Norwich to slip up in the later game and take us one step closer to the Premier League. However, I have learnt from experience to expect the unexpected as Cardiff fan and how true that statement proved to be in the 90 minutes of football I was about to watch.
The build-up to the two games had been well documented everywhere with everyone debating who would make it to that golden second spot and clinch automatic promotion with QPR. I love the excitement that builds around Cardiff at times like these with pundits everywhere mentioning our names as being the favorites to go up and how we had such a strong squad to take us to Premier League and pip Norwich to the post. The anticipation for this game was also swelling as extra tickets were being made available for city fans to really build up the atmosphere for the most important game of the season for our promotion hopes. Getting their nice and early and the sun shining on the pitch I felt that we were in for a good victory and another confident performance from the boys in blue. Sitting in the Ninian Stand seeing the players warm up and hearing Ali on the tannoy giving us some cringe-worthy pre-match entertainment is when you feel the atmosphere building and the game about to start. As the players come out of the tunnel, me and everyone sitting around me starting shouting out our usual predictions..3-0, 4-0, 5-0 even a 6-0 victory was being anticipated.. but how wrong we were. The next 90 minutes, or should I say 20 minutes, left me speechless and that old sick-to-the-stomach feeling returning once again with hopes of automatic promotion extinguished in front of our eyes.
- Hoping for another magic moment from Bellamy against Middlesbrough -
A strong line-up gave me even more confidence in the build up to kick off and the atmosphere was buzzing. The game kicked off and the early balls were being played as a benchmark for the rest of the game. I had hoped for an early amount of pressure on Boro and to get the early goal to get us on our way to a comfortable victory, but how shocked i was that it went the way of the boys in red! three minutes gone and Leroy Lita put the visitors in front with a looping header that looked like it went in in slow motion the way it trickled past Tom Heaton in the Cardiff goal. Never mind, an early slip up that was unexpected but at least it was this early and we could now get into gear and push on. Oh no, thirteen minutes on the clock and Boro go 2-0 up with a goal again created down the right hand side, with Lita driving a low cross in the box for the sliding Barry Robson to slot past Heaton. At this point the stadium fell into shock and I could not believe the terrible start to such an important like this we had made. My ever present optimism at the Cardiff City Stadium stuck with me and the belief that we would pull it back and get a result against a side with nothing to play for. A mix of emotions in the crowd but still the atmosphere was there with the ever faithful getting behind the boys to get the rhythm back in our play. Twenty one minutes showed up on the clock and next to that read the score Bluebirds 0-3 Boro. Another goal made down the right hand side for Richard Smallwood to smash in the back of the net sent everyone into shock and left the Cardiff faithful speechless. A goal that destroyed our automatic promotion chances and one that left us as fans with a feeling that we have become more and more familiar with over recent years. The half time whistle couldn't come quick enough.
The second half was upon us and I found that optimism I always carry with me and honestly believed that we would pull off a miracle and get a result from this game. As the game got underway I sat in my seat anticipating a magical half of football that would put us right back in the mix. The hour mark came and still nothing, slight chances, but nothing in the way of goal mouth action. Seventy-five minutes read on the clock and my optimism started to rapidly fade away along with any chance of a Cardiff comeback. The Boro defence were solid and nothing that we were trying could break it down and it seemed we could play until xmas and not get a goal. I have always stayed until the final whistle at home games no matter how dire a game has been or how a result is going against us but i felt my legs twitching as i struggled for motivation to stay and watch the embarassement i was seeing out on that pitch. Seventy eight minutes on the clock and my time was up. I stood up and left my seat in so much frustration i couldn't bear to look back, and headed straight to the car park. Head down walking out of the Ninian stand the question resounding in my head .. what if? what if we had scored one of them chances? what if we hadn't conceded that early? but that was over now and the play-offs were now calling.
Which brings me on to the point of being positive now for the games that we have coming up. The last game of the championship against Burnley to look forward to and the play off semi finals that will probably turn out to be just as stressful and exciting as last seasons. But you never know, with the QPR hearing coming up, we could be celebrating promotion to the Premier League with a victory against Burnley on saturday! It's all still to play for......
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