Leeds Utd 0-4 Cardiff City

Since I got back from Elland Road, I’ve been trying to recall a better Cardiff City performance, and I really can’t. Maybe the FA Cup Quarter Final at Middlesbrough in 2008 was a more efficient display at a better team than Leeds, but for panache, skill and attacking flair, last night’s carnival will be hard to beat.

I wasn’t really looking forward to the trip. The irritating voucher arrangements meant that I had to drive past Elland Road from my North Wales starting point and then Southwards past the service station pickup before turning round to pretend I was coming from the direction of Cardiff. I’m not sure what the whole point of the collection was, as after receiving my match ticket, I was just allowed to make my way to the ground as normal. Heavy traffic meant that a 2 hour journey took me 4 hours.

I arrived at the ground and after driving round the ground twice eventually found the away fans car park (alongside McDonalds for future reference) about 45 mins before kickoff. There was a heavy police presence and an air of menace that you rarely find at the football these days. This wasn’t a night for a stroll round the ground, and the atmosphere reminded me a lot of the old Ninian Park of 20 years ago when away fans had to cross Sloper Road to reach the ground.  Leeds need to move on.

I was a bit surprised to find very few City fans at the ground already. But it had taken me an hour from the ticket collection at Woolley Edge and I left at 5.40pm. Anybody who collected their tickets at 6.30pm were going to struggle to make kick off. By 7 o’clock rumours were circulating of a late kick-off due to traffic problems, but this was the usual appeasement routine being used by police whenever a group of fans is delayed.

The game kicked off with less than 200 Cardiff fans in the ground. It’s always good fun when this happens, as the home support start ridiculing your numbers. You can sit there smugly knowing that another 1,000 wound-up, beered-up loons are about to pour through the gate at any minute. And so it proved.

It has become common watching Cardiff this season to see your side look a different class to the opposition. This doesn’t always mean that results will follow, or that our football is more effective, but our players just look better. Straight from kick-off we had more time, more vision, and more quality than Leeds. You just wonder if that quality will produce a result, and whether our back five will cope with the pressure that a physical, percentage-playing team will inevitably produce.

Unfortunately for Leeds, they try to play football properly, and that is the worst thing you can do against Cardiff. The opening goal was fortunate, but in truth we had looked comfortable throughout the first half.This was a home team bereft of confidence, playing in front of fans who knew their game was up. This was my first visit to Elland Road, and in many ways it was sad to visit while the club are struggling to compete. It was like visiting Tower Blackpool on a Tuesday afternoon, and seeeing a lonely widower dance on creaking nostalgia in an arena where he once shone. The empty seats around the park were faded wallpaper on a  crumbling wall.

If I was a fan of another team, Bellamy would simply terrify me. I was saying recently that he hasn’t really hit form yet. but his influence on the field is palpable. When Bellamy is involved in a passing movement, the other players seem to concentrate a bit more, and their passes stick. To watch some of the movement and passing between Bellamy, Bothroyd and Whittingham last night took me to another level. I have been watching Cardiff City for 30 years and I have never seen football of that standard.

While teams mark Bellamy well in early parts of the game, Burke is allowed to flourish. In many ways the Glaswegian is like a lot of other wide midfielders, but what he offers is a high percentage of good quality final balls. Rarely does he balloon a cross or overhit a pass. His decision making is pretty good too.

City’s first goal was a result of a poor defensive mixup between Bruce and Schmeicel. That sounds good doesn’t it? Despite this embarrassment, Schmeicel took the field to the second half and did the Ayatollah for the City fans, which probably annoyed the home support.

While we were evidently superior in quality, it worried me that we hadn’t been able to convert another of the chances that our breakaway pace was creating. I needn’t have worried as City produced a 15 minute spell of devastating attack. I don’t need to write a match report – others will document the details, but bloody hell, it was a privelege to watch those players last night.

Craig Bellamy just didn’t put a foot wrong. I will be very surprised if anyone can find a misplaced pass from the player. His accuracy when attacking at pace is unerring. And I don’t even think he is fit yet. He was really puffing after his runs down the flank and I was persuaded a little more that he genuinely wasn’t ready for Wales . He explained post-game that he hasn’t been able to train until this week, and I think we saw the first glimpses of his potential influence.

Jay Bothroyd is vital to the effort. He is without doubt the single most important player in this team, and if the team are to fulfil my belief that they can be Champions this season, then City will need to find a similar player as backup. Bothroyd takes a hammering in every game, and will need respite at some point in the season.

If I’m honest the last thirty minutes was boring in a way. But it was the best boring 30 minutes I’ve had in quite some time. If I could be bored like that for the rest of my life, I would never again want to do anything interesting. We took the piss, frankly. At one point our keep ball sessions mirrored exactly that famous Leeds movement against Southampton in the seventies. Bellamy even did a juggle, which I thought was ill-advised at the time. It won’t take much for a frustrated opponent to decide that a red card for a broken leg is a fair swap.

All credit to Leeds though, in particular Becchio who refused to exagerrate his injury from a challenge by Bothroyd which Sky tried to build up into a major diplomatic incident. Yes, it was poor, but neither side wanted to make an issue out of it, and the incessant questioning in  four different interviews was crass. Sky commentators spoke of “the good side of Bothroyd”, as if he had a darker side that often made poor challenges, when in fact, he is the most fouled player in the League, and usually takes that punishment without revenge. I also thought that Grayson spoke with dignity, and I was impressed that the whole Leeds Kop End stayed until the final whistle in a match that was last on the hour mark.

After smiling in my sleep, I awoke to some comments today which just bemuse me. “The back four still looks dodgy” – “Imagine how good we’d be if we had a new centre half and a keeper”. Come on lads, if you can’t wallow in the afterglow of this win, then you might as well stop watching football. You sound like the pundits who claim that Barca are weak at the back. You won’t ever get the perfect team, but by God, the one we’ve got is close enough for me.