View From The Town End: Cardiff City Boosted By ‘Massive’ Midweek Win

This season’s been a pretty miserable one for Cardiff City. The Bluebirds are in the midst of a relegation scrap, sitting just two points and one place ahed of 22nd-placed Wigan Athletic, due to a torrid run of form. They’ve won just one game in their last 13.

That victory came in their last outing though, a 2-0 triumph in midweek against Birmingham City. As Cardiff fan and writer Dan Lewis explains, it could well be the kickstart they require to push away from the bottom three under new manager Sabri Lamouchi - the Bluebirds’ third boss of the campaign after Steve Morison and Mark Hudson.

You can find Dan on Twitter @Daniel_Lewis92.

How’s the season gone for you so far?

Terribly. It was hard to predict exactly how this season would pan out before a ball was kicked in August after pretty much overhauling the squad – we’d either surprise people and be challenging for promotion or find ourselves in a relegation scrap.

If I’m going to take any positives out of the situation, a first real relegation fight (outside of the Premier League, at least) in what feels a lifetime has at least made things a little more interesting than jostling for position between 12th and 17th place.

How’s Sabri Lamouchi doing?

You know that saying about how one game can change everything? After losing three in a row under the new man, it was hard to see anything positive, but our 2-0 win over Birmingham City in midweek has instilled a lot of confidence in supporters. Nottingham Forest fans were quick to sing Lamouchi’s praises when he was appointed here, so fingers crossed he can just get us over the line this season and then build towards a more positive future.

Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images

Like Reading, Cardiff got a big win in midweek. How important was that result for you?

Massive. We were 12 games without a win since beating Sunderland on November 5, losing the last four of those prior to getting that valuable three points. With some largely positive results elsewhere on Wednesday, this is the first time in a few weeks I’m now confident about staying up.

What are the main strengths of this Cardiff side?

I think a better question would be ‘are there any strengths in this Cardiff side?’ Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. It really has been dire stuff this season. Callum Robinson has looked a threat, but the fact he leads our scoring charts this season with just five goals (Callum O’Dowda is next on three) says it all. Like I said though, hopefully the win over Birmingham - and another few days on the training ground for Lamouchi - will lead to something more positive.

And weaknesses?

Scoring goals is the big one. We’ve failed to find the net in 15 matches this season and have scored just 24 all season, which is by far the worst record in the division. Opposition teams don’t tend to score all that many against us on the whole (there’s another positive for you!), but one goal conceded tends to lead to us losing.

How do you see the rest of your season going?

If we finish in our current position of 21st I’ll be delighted. The aim is to avoid relegation and, if we can pick up three more points in this winnable fixture on Friday, I think we’ll just about achieve that.

How will the game play out on Friday and what will the score be?

It’s easy to get carried away after picking up such a rare win. But on the basis of the past four months or so, I’m going to have to go with a low-scoring, low-in-quality game that’ll probably finish 0-0.