Cardiff City 3-4 BFC, Saturday 17th December 2016

Get the f*** in.  Everyone who was there witnessed a special, special match.  This team is incredible!!!!!!

‘Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll give it to Heckingbottom’

The view from the away corner.

Unbelieveable (Jeff).  We go behind early doors, run them ragged, go in 3-1 up by the break (‘Should I cash out now or go for 6-1?’), throw it all away in a late collapse, then pinch it with an even later break as their lot get their little Welsh hopes up of the Great Comeback.  GET IN YOU F***ING BEAUTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As Molly said, we might have won 4-3 before (when?) but never in such circumstances as these.

It didn’t all start so brightly.  Yours truly made the age old mistake of chatting to Kempy on a street corner somewhere near the ground (but not near enough) and I got in just in time to see Cardiff swing in a corner on the screen in the concourse.  The roar from inside the stadium told me what happened next.  Yes, their bloke takes a step back and somehow has a simple header into an empty net.  Don’t we do marking?  Still, it means we’ll HAVE to score, so it rules out the cagey game.

I said to this Cardiff fan...'Oi!'

I find Andy, Molly, the Captain and Pompey and stand up near the back.  It’s a good atmosphere despite the early setback.  There is only one team in it – the Super Reds.  The game is mainly played up there, in the other half of the field but the equaliser, deserved as it was, comes out of the blue: Hourihane humps one in from wide right, Winnall drops off and somehow clears the keeper with a looping header.  Talk about slow-mo.  The keeper is wrong footed and the ball drops in the only place he could possibly score.  SSW does it again!!!!!!!!!!  My £50 looks shakier by the minute.

Cardiff make the mistake of trying to attack us and we rip them to bits on the break.  Scowen charges forward and we’re 3 on 1.  If he bothers to look to his right, he’ll send Bradshaw clear. He doesn’t. He plays it left to Kent, who gives it to Morsy to pull it across goal for SSW, in acres of space and aeons of time.  He coolly slots.  Cardiff look terrible, their only threat coming from corners.  Yet every time they get a corner, we look like we’ll pick them off on the counter.

'They're here, they're there, they're every f***ing where, empty seats, empty seats'

And it’s a counter which brings us our 3^rd.  We break down the left, Kent cuts inside and the touch (it later transpires it’s come off the defender) takes it past the onrushing keeper, who’s now in no-man’s land, as the ball rolls across the box for Scowen to stroke into an empty net.  Definitely the funniest goal of the day.  Reds fans jump around and hug each other. This game is surreal.

We calm down in the 2^nd half.  Like last week v Norwich, we try and concede an equaliser in the first minute, but they hit the post from close range.  Otherwise, it’s comfortable, without us going for the jugular. We start passing it around (as we do), taking the p*** out of them.  This never ends well.  And with 11 mins left they deliver another high ball in from the right.  Again we deal with it….then we don’t. Scowen (I think) scuffs a clearance straight to the one player in Cardiff’s side capable of banging it 1^st time with his left foot; Peter Whittingham.  Brilliant.  11 minutes to hang on.  

Stadium panorama

We retreat, deeper and deeper.  By now, Rickie Lambert is on for Warnock’s long ball wonders while Hecky has brought on Watkins to shore up midfield.  It’s not working.  Cardiff (and their fans) have woken up and smell blood.  We’re 86 mins in and the writing is on the wall, as they line up another free kick. I try to remain calm, telling Reedy that even if they score, we can still go on to grab a winner.  It’s that kind of day.  And it’s exactly what happened.

It’s now the 89^th minute and yet another corner comes in.  There must have been 20 players in that box and it’s too crowded for Davies to come out (not that he would anyway).  We lose another header and their player nicks it in front of Yiadom to equalise.  F***ing f*** f***.  We have thrown this game away.  I cannot understand how we have done this, so dominant were we.  And there’s still time for a Cardiff winner.  Depressed, demoralised….determined to make his half five train, The Captain leaves.

The home end.

Hecky takes a knackered Bradshaw off. He’s given everything.  On comes Ryan Williams.  Great. Just what we need.  Cardiff attack down the left and the ball is pulled back for the winner….but their lad lets it go across him cos he doesn’t have a left foot and the shot flashes wide of the right hand post.  I’ll tell you who WOULD have scored that: SSW!

Then a long ball out of defence finally finds one of ours (we couldn’t put a pass together in that last 20).  Winnall flicks it on with the outside of his boot and Marley is away down the wing. He drives between 2 defenders and shrugs them off with his strength.  He’s now in the box…surely not…surely he can’t….it’s an angle, but there’s a chance to score….but he pulls it across goal and Williams comes steaming in to sidefoot home.  PANDEMONIUM!!!!!!!!  We have nicked it.  Their lot are gobsmacked, we are jumping around like loons and we destroy what’s left of our voices screaming our heads off. Seriously, I came out of there with a headache, such was my own celebration.  F***ing brilliant.  Absolutely f***ing brilliant.  Even Molly was smiling.  The ref gives it another minute before we can do it all over again. Full time, 3-4, ‘Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells’ etc  Folk are laughing at what they have just witnessed.  ANOTHER great, great day for the Super Reds.  Another great, great day under Heckingbottom.  This man can do no wrong.

*** Christ, I don’t know.  Winnall.  Scored 2, played a part in the winner.  Moaned himself into the book.  Shook Geordie Al’s hand at Bristol station later.  Is there anything he cannot do!? 
** Davies.   Yeah, yeah, conceded 3, but you didn’t see the saves he DID make.  One, low to his left from a corner (obvs!) was world class.  Though the cameras problies enjoyed his dive for Whittingham’s longshot late on.
* Williams.  I cannot split the rest of them, so I’m going to give it to Sicknote himself, managing to run 10 yards for the first time in his Reds career without getting injured.  And making it a MERRY F***ING CHRISTMAS for Reds fans everywhere.  Do I love you? Indeed I do!!!!!!!!!!!

Party Time indeed.

Londontykes' Top 3:

1. Winnall

2. Davies

3. Kent

Despatches:
EVERYONE was magnificent in parts, everyone made mistakes.  That about sums it up.  But they dug deep and got the win in one of the best games I’ve ever seen.  A few chants at Warnock, though he never did return our plea for a wave.  3-1 up and 'Warnock, Warnock give us a wave' echoing around their shell of a ground.  Loved it.

Drink du jour: vodka and orange.  Decided not to bother SSW and Yiadom in 1^st class (after we shook hands on the platform, with the train coming in).  I’d have loved to tell Super Sammy to keep it up and prove me wrong (while telling Yiadom he’s destined for stardom even if Winnall isn’t).  Earlier, Andy found us a most excellent boozer, The Tiny Rebel (next to the Millenium Stadium) while afterwards he didn’t; one of at least 3 Wetherspoons I saw on my Cardiff travels.  It looked like another night of carnage in Cardiff city centre and I think we were all pleased to get out.

The Super Reds on the attack.

Away: Maybe the best part of 800.  We were certainly snug in our corner, while here, there and every f***ing where were empty seats (empty seats).  I hate this stadium. I hated it the 1^st time I came and since then they’ve added ANOTHER 6,000 empty seats.  Cardiff City – what’s the point?  Special mention to Barnsley FC, who provided the away end with Hecky masks, a letter commending our support at this expensive time of the year and a token for a free drink of our choice at the refreshment stand.  Nice touch.  (Though being late in, I missed all of it.)

Onwards and upwards!

The Damage:
23 travel
22 ent
3.70 steak pie

I’d tell you how much programmes were, but there weren’t any.  Mickey Mouse club.

Sean O'Driscoll's put some weight on...