Source: FOOTYMAD
Sheffield Utd 0 - 2 Cardiff City. Bluebirds go 2nd
Goals from Craig Bellamy and Jay Emanuel-Thomas raised Cardiff into 2nd place in the Championship. With Norwich only drawing at Watford Cardiff completed a remarkable turnaround. At 3pm last Saturday City were four points behind the Canaries but tonight the Bluebirds have a one point advantage with just 5 games to go. Swansea stumbled as well with a home draw against Hull but Reading kept the pressure on with a victory at Scunthorpe. The defeat for Utd edges them closer to League One while City give themselves a great chance of heading in the other direction. Bellamy scored City's first in the 21st minute and could have scored a couple more in the first half. After the break Utd pressed but JET scored the decisive second with 19 mins to go. Fan reaction from John Marenghi. Very competent and professional performance tonight. Controlled the game in the first half, scored the goal and Bellamy could have had a couple more, the chance right on half time was a great counter-attack. First 25 minutes of 2nd half was a little nervy, we sat back and Sheff Utd did throw everything into it, without showing too much composure. Another fine break though and it was 2-0 and game over. There were some excellent performances - McNaughton and Keinan were very solid, Olifinjana controlled the first half but special mention must go to Craig Bellamy - he ran his socks off. I've never seen one player cover so much ground and at such a pace. His work ethic was excellent and it rubbed off on his team-mates who all worked hard. It was very telling that in the very last few seconds, with the game in the bag, both Bellamy and Bothroyd were still harrassing their defenders and closing them down to prevent them clearing the ball up field. Bywater's kicking was awful but he claimed the ball cleanly from several crosses and though they weren't many shots from Sheff Utd on target he was more solid than in previous appearances (still hope Heaton is back soon). All in all it was job done, there were still one or two weak spots but it seems churlish tonight to highlight them - if the team continues to put this sort of effort in then there is enough skill in the side to score goals and bring in the wins we still need.
