Dave Jones is an excellent manager, one of the best in the division and he has done well at every club he's been at. He started his career at Stockport County where he took them to the Championship and reached the League Cup semi final where they narrowly lost to Middleborough. He moved on to join Southampton and did brilliantly for them taking them into the top half playing some exciting football. He was dismissed though over allegations made again him regarding child abuse. Those allegations were proved to false but he was never given his job back and sued the club for unfair dismissal. Jones reputation was tainted despite
the allegations being false, he got his next chance at Wolves where
he built a very good side which finally won promotion in 2003 via
the playoffs, the same weekend that we lost in Cardiff. He couldn't keep his side in the Premiership and despite a decent season back in the Championship he was sacked and moved onto Cardiff. It's been a real success for him in Wales where he has built several very good sides having sell on many of the players along the way. He reached the FA Cup Final in 2008 and will consider himself unfortunate to have lost the playoff final last season. Jones is an excellent manager
who certainly deserves another crack at the Premiership.
Cardiff were always around the playoff places and the twenty goals from midfield of Peter Whittingham gave them a faint hope of automatic promotion at one stage but they drew too many games to make that a reality. Cardiff made the playoffs with several games to spare and looked impressive in the semi final first leg beating Leicester 1-0. The return game was a thriller and after taking an early lead things went wrong with the side falling 3-1 behind before scoring late to take the game into extra time. The game went to penalties and Cardiff just squeezed past Leicester after a comical effort from Leicester's Yann Kermorgant and an excellent save from a Waghorn penalty sent Cardiff to Wembley. The final was deemed a make or break game for
them with the clubs financial future still far from clear. Cardiff
twice lead in the final but couldn't find a third goal and ended
up losing to Ian Holloway's Blackpool to leave them proud of a good
season but ultimately stuck in the Championship for another year.
Tom Heaton Tom Heaton was signed on a free transfer this summer and is a goalkeeper who looks like he could be an outstanding talent for the Welsh club. Heaton had a previous loan spell at Cardiff and also enjoyed spells at QPR and Wycombe last season. He failed to make a single appearance for Manchester United but that is certainly no blight on him considering the goalkeeping talent available at Old Trafford. Heaton is an excellent shot stopper and has a strong command of his area and his back four. He is confident coming for the ball at set pieces and made a name for himself at Wycombe producing two brilliant penalty saves. This is a big step up for Heaton to be playing
regular Championship football but in a tight league his ability
could be worth 10 points or more to Dave Jones side.
It looks a tough time ahead for Cardiff City. They have a transfer embargo placed on them and face real financial woes which could threaten to put them out of business. The club being placed into administration is a real threat as well which would lead to an almost certain relegation battle but manager Dave Jones will still be expected to win promotion, good luck with that Mr Jones. Cardiff have lost Joe Ledley this summer but have so far retained the services of the excellent Peter Whittingham in midfield. Michael Chopra will again be a key man for them up front, if he can get among the goals again they should have a good season. They look on paper to be a decent side but it remains to be seen how they react to the off the field problems, this can sometimes galvanize a team to perform beyond expectations but can also have the reverse effect. Due to this they are a difficult side to predict
but they do look to have too much quality to struggle so I'll tip
them for a disappointing mid table finish.
On St George's Day, 23 April 1927, Wembley Stadium,
London; the FA Cup was taken out of England for the first and only
time when Cardiff City won the 1927 Final, defeating Arsenal, thanks
to a goal by Cardiff City cult hero, Hughie Ferguson. In the 74th minute, collecting a throw from the right,
Ferguson hurried a tame shot toward the Arsenal goal. Dan Lewis,
the Arsenal goalkeeper, appeared to collect the ball but, under
pressure from the advancing Len Davies, clumsily allowed the ball
to roll through his grasp. In a desperate attempt to retrieve the
ball Lewis only succeeded in knocking the ball with his elbow into
his own net. It is believed that this cup final attracted one of the highest audiences ever, as it was the first to be broadcast by BBC Radio. Captain Fred Keenor received the FA Cup trophy from
King George V only 7 years after Cardiff City had entered the Football
League and six seasons since they had been promoted to the top division.
Other players to play
for both clubs has been Matthew Brazier who came through the QPR
youth set up in the 1990's and ended up dropping down a few divisions
to do a decent job for Cardiff. One player who always
split fans of both clubs is Richard Langley The talented midfield
player looked to have a big future ahead of him before he picked
up a bad injury in 2001. He came back strong as a right winger rather
than a central midfield player and with more space out wide he began
to create a little more and score more goals. He had an excellent
season in 2003 where his goals played a huge part in us getting
into the playoffs but it was then that many fans fell out of love
with him. Langley scored an equaliser at Oldham before being sent
off for what looked a nothing incident. He missed the second leg
and the final which many feel cost us a chance of promotion. The following season
he started well scoring in the first two games of the season before
being sold to the team that beat us in those playoffs. Langley did ok at Cardiff
without ever hitting his best form for them and he got plenty of
stick from QPR fans when the two sides met in 2005. Richard Langley returned
to QPR in 2005/06 season but never regained his best form again
and was given a free transfer by Gary Waddock in 2006.
A midweek match at Loftus Road saw Graham Kavanagh score a controversial penalty in the first half. Rangers stormed back though with Andy Thomson equalising through an equally controversial penalty before Thomson scored a superb winner to send us home happy. The return game saw Cardiff on a storming run towards the playoffs and a creditable 1-1 draw kept our own playoff hopes alive. Richard Pacquette scored one for Rangers before being sent off and defender Scott Young gave the Bluebirds a point with a second half equaliser. The following season saw three very significant matches between the two sides. First off Loftus Road saw a Friday night game moved on police advice. The policeman advising this was not the smartest and thousands of drunk Cardiff fans made it a very intimidating night with plenty of crowd trouble before and after the game. It was just days after QPR's humiliating defeat against Vauxhall Motors so confidence was at an all time low. Despite a much improved performance which saw the scores level at half time and us having the better chances, we ended up on the wrong end of a 4-0 hammering. Robert Earnshaw tore Rangers apart with a hat trick and not for the first time that season Andy Campbell grabbed a late goal to finish the game off. Paul Furlong came on a second half sub and was booed by the moronic elements of the QPR crowd his crime being that he used to play for Chelsea. Ian Holloway was expected to resign after the game but thankfully he pledged to stay on and fight and he soon turned the club back round. By the time we met Cardiff again it was a different QPR. Paul Furlong was now one of our most popular players, Gino Padula was a rock at left back and Richard Langley was playing some of the best football of his career. Goals from Furlong and a last minute winner from Langley gave Rangers all three points as we clung onto our playoff position. Rangers of course met Cardiff again in the 2003 playoff final. In a tight game both sides had chances possibly the best of them fell to Andy Thomson in injury time but his header went wide. Rangers had several chances to win it in extra time
before Andy Campbell broke clear and scored a stunning goal to send
Cardiff to the first division and broke the hearts of the 30,000
QPR fans in the stadium. Once Rangers eventually won promotion a season later one of the first fixtures QPR fans looked out for was the visit of Cardiff. It came in November with a Saturday lunchtime kick off. It didn't quite live up to the hype with Cardiff struggling and Rangers without manager Ian Holloway who was at home ill. Danny Shittu smashed in his first goal of the season
to win an easy three points and the QPR fans began to dream of sending
Cardiff down on the last day of the season. That didn't happen though with the Welsh side already
safe at that stage and an uneventful 1-0 win for Cardiff ended the
season for both sides. The away game was an equally tight affair with Nygaard
going close to helping Rangers to a double over the Welsh side but
a 0-0 draw was a decent result against the playoff hopefuls. The 2006/07 season was a better one for Rangers as
we did the double over Cardiff. With the Welsh side top of the league
we travelled to Wales for a live tv game on a Friday night in November.
Rangers stunned them though with a good performance and a late goal
from Ray Jones won us three points. The return game was a vital one for us as we knew
a win would keep us in the Championship for another season. We got
the win thanks to an early Dexter Blackstock goal for a third 1-0
win in a row at home against Cardiff. In 2007/08 season both games were pretty poor for
QPR. Our first home game of the season was against Cardiff and we
were thrashed 2-0 by what looked a very strong Cardiff side. At
Ninian Park we were again thrashed this time 3-1 and to be fair
to them they looked one of the best teams against us that season. In 2008/09 Rangers somehow won 1-0 in the game at
Loftus Road despite being played off the park that day. The return
game was a dull 0-0 draw at Ninian Park. Last season was our first ever visit to the new Cardiff
City stadium, it was a good one as we became just the second side
to beat them at their new home. Jay Simpson got both goals in the
first half in what turned out to be the start of an impressive run
for Rangers. The return game was a dull affair at Loftus
Road and a late Joe Ledley goal won it for Cardiff and ensured they
would make the playoffs whilst Rangers were again stuck in the wrong
half of the table. Click on the match for a report of the game from this web site.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chris
Barker was the first choice left back for several years at Cardiff
during the clubs time in division two and in the Championship. Barker
played against QPR in the 2003 play off final and was a regular
for the Welsh side until he left on loan to Colchester in 2006 before
joining QPR in 2007 and helping to prove than snails can run faster
than man.