City keep on rolling forward

Cardiff moved up to fourth after their early kick-off this afternoon with a hard fought 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace but will have to wait for the rest of the afternoon results before knowing the final position.

It turned out well for the South Wales club with second place West Brom could only manage a draw away at Reading. Both Leicester and Swansea who at the start of the day were above Cardiff dropped points. Leicester lost 1-0 away a Derby and will be visiting the Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday night for a top of the table clash. Our rivals from down the road Swansea could only manage a draw 0-0 with relegation threaten Ipswich Town and are now level on points with the Bluebirds. Their (Swansea) next game will see them visit the Cardiff City Stadium next Saturday. Top of the table Newcastle play third place Nottingham Forest on Monday night.

Cardiff open the scoring with a scrappy goal from a low corner which was flicked into the penalty box and found defender Gabor Gyepes’ whose weak shot trickled over the line in the first four minutes. It has to be said for most of the game Cardiff had their backs against the wall with the home to putting on the pressure.

A 1-0 lead was never going to be enough and Cardiff were luck to go in at halftime with the slender lead as the Londoners came close to squaring the game a number of times. Cardiff best chance was when Kelvin Etuhu slipped through the Palace defence only for his goal bound shot palmed away by the Palace keeper.

The start of the second half once again saw the home team take up the baton and put the Welshman under the cosh and they soon found away into the Cardiff net when from a set piece of play in the 58 minute when Clint Hill fired home a header at close range to square the game up at 1-1.

This was the catalyst for Cardiff to go more on the attack in search of the lead and around ten minutes later Cardiff retook the lead with a fine goal from Chris Burke a beautiful volley straight passed the keeper into the back of the net. The Bluebirds held on to their lead but it was tense at times.

Everyone involved with Cardiff City must have been relieved to hear the final whistle but it’s another three points secured which is the most important thing no matter how ugly the game was.