After another weekend in the Championship, Cardiff finished in the top six with their hopes increasing of a place in the play-offs at the end of the season.
There were some huge games this weekend, with City, who started in seventh just outside the play-offs, travelling to sixth-placed Preston. There were also big games between top of the table West Brom and fourth-placed Brentford and between second-placed Leeds and third-placed Fulham.
In past years, Cardiff have struggled badly when travelling to Preston and there were fears that the positivity that came out of last weekend’s brilliant 2-0 win over Leeds would be taken away after the trip to Preston.
However, they produced an impressively solid performance against a strong side. There wasn’t much action during the first half, with Cardiff having more of the ball which doesn’t happen often, and Preston trying to hit them on the counter-attack.
But the second half produced a lot more action. In the 69th minute, following Junior Hoilett’s free-kick attempt which was blocked, Dion Sanderson produced an excellent cross for Joe Ralls who battled to head home. It was a very good goal.
However, the lead didn’t last long and four minutes later, Daniel Johnson equalised for Preston. Curtis Nelson lost the header to Jayden Stockley and Sean Maguire ran onto the ball. He passed the ball to Alan Browne whose shot was blocked by Joe Bennett, but Johnson was there to fire it into the corner.
The Bluebirds continued to battle and in the 83rd minute, substitute Nathaniel Mendez-Laing put them back in front. He played a one-two with fellow substitute Lee Tomlin, before powerfully running through and slotted it in with a composed finish.
Robert Glatzel, another substitute, finished off the scoring with a deflected strike. Manager Neil Harris once again got his substitutes spot on. They will all be knocking on the door for a spot in the starting eleven for the next game.
This was a huge win for Cardiff and with some favourable results around them, it was an excellent weekend for the Bluebirds. Now we must push on and hopefully we will have the play-offs to look forward to.
Final score: Preston 1-3 Cardiff City
Next up Cardiff are playing Charlton at the Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday at 18:00. That will be another tough game, but this time it is against a team at the bottom, fighting to stay in the division. We will look forward to that.
There were some big games between teams around Cardiff. On Friday night, Brentford took on West Brom at Griffin Park. Ollie Watkins scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win for the Bees. West Brom have failed to win since the return and will need to start picking up form to make sure they get promoted automatically, with Brentford now only five points behind them.
There was another clash between two promotion hopefuls at Elland Road between Leeds and Fulham. Fulham could’ve closed the gap to Leeds with a victory. However they were comfortably beaten in the end, with Patrick Bamford, Ezgjan Alioski and Jack Harrison scoring in a 3-0 win. To make matters worse for Fulham, they had Neeskens Kebano sent off for two yellow cards and could have Alexander Mitrovic banned after an off-the-ball elbow.
A lot of the teams in contention for the play-offs slipped up this weekend, with Blackburn, Swansea and Bristol City all losing against Wigan, Luton and Sheffield Wednesday respectively. Millwall also dropped points, drawing 0-0 at Barnsley.
Goals from Lee Evans and Michael Jacobs gave the Latics a 2-0 victory over Blackburn, who are four points off the top six. They will be very frustrated with this result. On the other hand, Wigan are now on 47 points, five points above the relegation zone after a run of seven games unbeaten in the league.
Luton kept up their hopes of staying up with a well-earned victory over play-off hopefuls Swansea. James Collins got the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute, heading in from Izzy Brown’s cross. It got worse for Swansea with the sending off of Jordon Garrick late on in the game. Swansea are now four points off the play-offs.
Bristol City also lost in the race for the top six, losing 2-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday. Connor Wickham and amassing Luongo scored for the Owls, with Nakhi Wells responding for Bristol City. The Robins are now five points off the play-offs while Sheffield Wednesday are 13th after an inconsistent season.
Nottingham Forest consolidated their place in the top six with a 3-1 win over Huddersfield. Two goals from Lewis Grabban and a goal from Ryan Yates secured the win for Forest, with Karlan Grant responding at the end of the game with a penalty after Joe Worrall brought Frazier Campbell down. The Terriers finished with ten men after Juninho Bacuna was sent off for kicking out at Nino da Costa. Forest climb to fourth above Fulham, while Huddersfield drop into the bottom three, level on points with Hull in 21st.
Also fighting against relegation are Charlton, who have won both games since returning and are now three points above the relegation zone in 18th. It would be a fantastic effort for them to stay up, especially as they lost star striker Lyle Taylor, who has refused to play for the rest of the season. QPR’s season is sizzling and they have dropped to 14th after an inconsistent season.
There was a big clash between Stoke and Middlesbrough, who are both down the bottom. In Neil Warnock’s first game as Boro manager, they won 2-0 through goals from Ashley Fletcher and Marcus Tavernier. Once again veteran Warnock has returned to management and he made an immediate impact in this game.
Also down the bottom are Hull City, who were involved in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Birmingham. Hull remain in trouble and will need a big fight to stay up.
The other game in the division was Derby’s 2-1 victory over Reading. The Rams are only three points off the top six with plenty still to play for.
It was a thrilling weekend of Championship football and who knows what will happen between now and the end of the season. The next set of fixtures are midweek with all 24 teams in action.
The Results:
Brentford 1-0 West Brom
Charlton 1-0 QPR
Preston 1-3 Cardiff
Swansea 0-1 Luton
Barnsley 0-0 Millwall
Derby 2-1 Reading
Birmingham 3-3 Hull
Leeds 3-0 Fulham
Stoke 0-2 Middlesbrough
Wigan 2-0 Blackburn
Bristol City 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday
Nottingham Forest 3-1 Huddersfield
Cardiff City Daily 