FT: CARDIFF CITY 0 - 1 LEICESTER CITY. Match thread

[Former Labour leader]

Decent first half hour but lost our way after. Leics just a bit sharper and more savvy than us. They dId a good job to nullify Murphy.
Generally I thought our defence coped well. Didn't see the hand ball, interesting to see it on motd.

[Der Kaiser]

Thought we started very well, but then just went back into a shell after about 20 minutes. Bamba probably our best player and the only player who would deserve anything over 5/10. If we can somehow keep ourselves relevant by 1st january, we should just throw every penny of whatever our budget is at a striker, no point in dicking about. I actually think when we aren't panicking we can pass it around. Leicester weren't that good today. Can't see anything more than a comfortably win for Brighton next week.

[City123]

That ref... feck me he was shocking. Absolute disgrace

[Organ Morgan.]

Great success today on the public relations front. The performance was woeful though. Camarasa against the bar and a surging run into the box from Murphy and, er, that was it. Toilett appeared to be even more bored and lethargic than usual.

[Penarth Blues]

I'm not going to be too tough on our players today as the occasion clearly got to the ref and linos as much as the players.

What I was disappointed about, as others have partly noted, were:

- our inability to simply control the ball - the number of times we just sliced it our walked it into touch was painful to watch,
- our inability to play with any shape at all to enable us to press properly
- the number of times we were second best in 50:50 situations was really frustrating. Reid epitomised this. He's very lightweight and is only going to make a good premiership footballer if he is able to use his other skills to make up for his lack of physical presence. Not quite doing that yet and he needs to learn quickly.
- bringing Madine on when we already had Paterson and Ward on. Harris should have been brought on to provide a speed threat and possible supply to the middle.

Today was a weird day all round though so best to just move on and hope normal service is resumed vs Brighton

[Hilts]

I dont think the occasion got to the players.

After Maguire went off we were outclassed.

[Fine Lines]

I thought Paterson struggled against The centre half’s today Evans and Morgan. Just couldn’t win the ball as much as he does and that stopped us getting a foothold in the game.

I applaud Paterson’s effort but today wasn’t his day. Hoilett was non existent when he came on. Manga struggled at times. As did Bennet. To summarise we need a right back and striker. Which was the case in January.

[fred keenor]

Throw in another centre midfield player as well.

[thehumblegringo]

Warnock absolutely clueless in being able to change it. Just chucking players on willy nilly and hoping for the best. Did Ward even touch the ball?

A Premier League side lumping it up aimlessly to Madine and Patterson. I despair.

Absolute garbage.

I couldn't make the Fulham game as I was with my son and I saw that people were saying we were excellent and I know the occasion meant we were on a hiding to nothing but as you say, our football is appalling.

We never even attempt to play between the lines and in the second half in particular all our players were just lined up against their last line of defence.

I know our fans are against moving the ball sideways but the whole reason for this is to create overloads for someone like Josh Murphy.

With us we just pass the ball to him and expect him to beat 3 players FFS.

Finally can we put to bed that players in the premier league won't be able to deal with us off set pieces etc.

Every game I've been to this season has shown us to be very ineffective with long throw ins and corners.

Very poor all round today.

[chepstow]

I just dont think we are quite good enough for the prem. Our defence is leaky our midfield doesnt create enough and our forwards cant score. We are basically really struggling atm

[Penarth Blues]

I think we should relax about today, Leicester won the title two years ago and were able to demonstrate why today with the quality of player they were able to bring on as well as the ball skills their players possessed. For the first 30 minutes they were in trouble but the lino and ref conspired to allow them to get away with a number of things and we were unable to take advantage.

After that they simply outplayed us. We have to move on and try and get some composure back in our game. The one thing that was brought home to me today was the insanity of having Damour, Madine and Harris in the squad ahead of Pilkington and Tomlin. Either of the latter two would have brought so much more to the team in terms of quality.

[LeningradCowboy]

Finishing the game with Paterson, Ward and Madine on the pitch was exasperating. Ward had to move out to the left wing at one point because we had nobody to deliver the ball into the penalty area.

[Michael Morris]

Cardiff City 0 - 1 Leicester City. Demarai Gray scores the winner as Leicester end traumatic week with three points.

The off-field atttention has played heavy on the shoulders of Cardiff and Leicester in the build up to the Premier League clash between the sides at CCS on Saturday. After the decision was made to play the game the media has focussed on the Leicester reaction to the helicopter tragedy at the King Power Stadium last week.

But Cardiff City had to deal with occasion and they acted and delivered a fitting arena to honour and respect Leicester City, their owner's memory and the lives of those that perished with him.

But with the ceremony and circumstance out of the way Cardiff fell short when it came to matters on the pitch. A Victor Camarasa free kick rattled the bar in an even first half before Leciester also hit the bar but it seems via the arm of Sol Bamba who could have been sent off for stopping a goalbound effort. The half ended 0 - 0 with neither side in control.

But after the break Leicester's pace and movement made them the bigger threat and City's inability to close down balls in the wide area saw a cross fall to Demarai Gray who slotted home to earn the win the football community would be happy with. That is apart from the Cardiff City fans community who left feeling frustrated at the failure in front of goal from a shot shy City side.

Let's be honest, Callum Paterson is not the answer as a striker. Ken Zohore should be embarrassed that he's being kept out of the side by a defender. Gary Madine has shown nothing since a £6m move to CCS.

City are pinning all their hopes on Josh Murphy to create chances but he's ploughing a lone furrow when he looks up to see open spaces and defenders and not a strike force hungry to score goals.

It's now a myth that we are a danger from set pieces and long throws. Very little threat. And with Leicester far more savvy they saw out the game comfortably enough. They also used their influence and intimidation to presure the referee from the first whistle with scenes reminiscent of the way Man Utd used to gang up on the officials.

City are back in the bottom three, no complaints that we are not as good as Leicester, they did win the league two years ago, but disappointed that we are not putting ourselves into positions where we can win games, or at least not lose them.

We are apppearing second best far too often.

It's Brighton at home next week, an early 12:30 ko live on Sky.