[Albion] Cardiff match REPORT

With no obvious striking options in reserve to change the game, Chris Hughton sent on Ollie Norwood in place of Beram Kayal, in a swap that was to bear almost immediate fruit. A quick pass round the corner from the sub fed Hemed outside the box. The Albion number 10 spun past Bamba in a flash and drilled an exocet past / through McGregor before he knew it. Relief all round – that the Albion led – also that we might now see 20 minutes of football before we trooped off to the bus queues. Terrific turn. Terrific strike. Lovely stuff.

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dazzer6666 said:

Nice one again, love these.

"Big Shane Duffy next to go close, glancing Knockaert’s free kick wide of an open goal after McGregor had come for the ball and failed to get there. Kudos to the Amex crowd tonight – as a frustrating evening dragged on, they stayed fully behind their team – not particularly raucous but unceasingly supportive – our collective anxiety kept within"

This bit struck a chord with me.....as this season has gone on, the anxiety levels we all get around not getting a result seem to be dropping. We've somehow found a way of winning this season so many times now I (and those who sit nearby based on half time chatter etc) are now becoming increasingly confident that we will usually conjure something up. Fulham (twice), Birmingham, WedsLOL, Cardiff.......we just keep finding a solution whatever the circumstances. Remarkable really and I think that confidence is spreading to the stands.

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dazzer6666 said:

This bit struck a chord with me.....as this season has gone on, the anxiety levels we all get around not getting a result seem to be dropping. We've somehow found a way of winning this season so many times now I (and those who sit nearby based on half time chatter etc) are now becoming increasingly confident that we will usually conjure something up. Fulham (twice), Birmingham, WedsLOL, Cardiff.......we just keep finding a solution whatever the circumstances. Remarkable really and I think that confidence is spreading to the stands.

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Exile said:

In an unprecedented timely manner, I've done a report already.

Read it here, should you chose... http://www.northstandchat.com/content.php?639-Albion-1-0-Cardiff-24.01.2017

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Exile said:

Its that, and hopefully a broader appreciation of what's being achieved. Hopefully when they DO have a bad day, we all stay with them (as 'we' did at Preston, I was pleased to hear)

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Guinness Boy said:

Excellent. For once I was sober, taking notes and child free and we seem to have come to almost exactly the same conclusions.

https://brightononlyathome.wordpress.com/2017/01/25/cardiff-city-at-home-201617-back-to-earth/

It's a good one to get out of the way IMO. A banana skin not slipped on, so to speak.

Was Stroud actually the ref in the end? On the long commuter train ride to Lewes I noted in my phone "Keith Stroud refs again". The BBC report has the ref as Chris Kavanagh. I wouldn't recognise either if they shopped in the same Tesco as me in their ref kit, yet it seemed an un-Stroud like performance. Dunno.

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AZ Gull said:

Yes, it was Stroud; Kavanagh was the original appointment but withdrew (due to illness?) and he was replaced by Stroud.

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Guinness Boy said:

Cheers. I was quite sure he'd been appointed but Kavanah was given as the ref in the official match day magazine as well, which is obviously where the beeb got it from. I've quite liked Stroud before. Not so much last night.

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Exile said:

Stroud barely got a significant call wrong all match, and yet STILL managed to be dreadful. His 'management' of the game, and of the players, was appalling.

The combination of Warnock's (understandable) spoiling tactics and Stroud's disinclination to put his foot down, led to a pretty poor spectacle for the paying public.

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