A comfortable victory for the Bluebirds over Hull meant a fifth place finish in the league and the chance to get promoted to the Premier League through the play-offs.
Going into the final day, City needed a point to seal a place in the top six. Swansea were three points behind and Nottingham Forest were level on points. However, remarkably, the two teams from South Wales, Cardiff and Swansea, finished fifth and sixth respectively with Forest missing out on the play-offs.
As for the Cardiff game it was pretty comfortable throughout. First half goals from Junior Hoilett and Sean Morrison put the Bluebirds firmly in control, with Danny Ward coming off the bench to add a third.
Cardiff started the game strongly with Robert Glatzel having a couple of close effort. The first was a long-range strike which was saved by Hull goalkeeper George Long. The second was from a closer distance which he fired wide from an angle.
The first goal came in the 20th minute through Hoilett. He received the ball from a Joe Bennett header, before driving down the wing without being closed down and firing into the far corner. It was a very good finish.
Morrison doubled the lead in the 34th minute. It was very poor defending from Hull, leaving Morrison unmarked and he took advantage by heading high into the goal to double the lead.
There wasn’t much action during the second half with Cardiff managing the game well. Hull came close once but Morrison managed to block James Scott’s effort. It was brilliant defending from the skipper. Following that, Alex Smithies saved well from Mallik Wilks to preserve the clean sheet.
To round off the scoring, substitute Ward scored past Long after the keeper’s save from Bennett’s free-kick. The result was hardly in doubt throughout the whole game.
Hull struggled to find an intensity to threaten Cardiff, most probably because were realistically already relegated due to their inferior goal difference. That made it even more comfortable for the Bluebirds.
Following all the results, City will face fourth-placed Fulham, who finished the regular season with a 1-1 draw at Wigan. At the moment Wigan will be playing in League One alongside Hull next season unless they appeal successfully against their 12 point deduction for going into asministration. The other club to be relegated are Charlton who suffered a 4-0 loss at champions Leeds. It is harsh on Charlton who have had to try and overcome many obstacles this season, including plenty of injuries and losing their star man for the games after the break.
If the 12 point deduction to Wigan remains, Barnsley will be safe, having surprisingly won 2-1 at Brentford, who could’ve gone up automatically with a victory because of West Brom’s 2-2 draw at home to QPR. Barnsley finished one point above Charlton, while Brentford were two points adrift of West Brom and will face Swansea in the play-off semi-finals.
West Brom managed to hold on to second place to go up automatically, even though they didn’t manage to hit the ground running following the restart. Brentford has the opportunity to overtake them, but lost their last two games against Stoke and Barnsley and will have to settle for a place in the play-offs.
Before the match day it would’ve been sensible to predict that Nottingham Forest would’ve at least got something of their game at home to Stoke. But, what followed was extraordinary. Stoke had been fighting relegation for the majority of the season while on the other hand there was talk at one point of Forest challenging for automatic promotion.
But, in the end Stoke won 4-1 which coincided with Swansea’s 4-1 victory at Reading which meant that Forest fell out of the top six and Swansea replaced them. There needed to be a five goal swing for this to happen and that is what happened. It shows how competitive the Championship is, that anyone can beat anyone on their day and that nothing is guaranteed.
Going back to the bottom of the table and Luton Town, it has been an incredible effort for them to stay up. Nathan Jones returned to the club during the break and he has turned it around for them. Their final game was a 3-2 win over Blackburn at home. They have collected 16 points off their final 9 games to pull off what seemed impossible at one point.
Rounding up the other results by starting at St Andrews and Derby’s 3-1 victory over Birmingham. Birmingham finish two points above the relegation zone after a disappointing season while Derby finish in 10th. Star youngster Jude Bellingham played his final game for boyhood club Birmingham as he has completed a transfer to Borussia Dortmund. He was very emotional following the game.
Bristol City and Preston, who at one point were challenging for the top six, played out a 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate. Preston finish in 9th with Bristol City in 12th.
Millwall finished only two points off the play-offs following a 4-1 win over managerless Huddersfield, who have since appointed Leeds United assistant Carlos Corberan as their new head coach.
To finish it off, Middlesbrough secured their safety by beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at Hillsborough.
It was a final day full of excitement, which was expected. The Championship is always full of action and this certainly proves that.
To finish the season there will be the play-offs. The first legs will be on the 26th and 27th of June and the second legs on the 29th and 30th of June. They are Swansea against Brentford and Cardiff against Fulham, with the possibility of a South Wales derby in the final. That would be nail-biting and probably too much to take for both sets of fans.
We will wait and see what happens in what should be a gripping play-offs.
Cardiff City Daily 