Never a side to help their manager/head coach, Sunderland quickly rubbished Mowbray's quote that our first half at Huddersfield was the worst we've played this season with a display that lacked just about everything. Cardiff were no great shakes but deserved their win more for our ineptitude than their ability with a dodgy goal when a wayward shot hit one of their own and flew in.
It had started so well, with me winning the football card in the bus, us reconsidering our second at Huddersfield as a thing of real beauty, and bumping into Skinner on the way to the ground. There was a fabulously observed remembrance ceremony, then the nonsense started.
We defended North, they kicked off.
Patterson
O'Nien Wright (c) Batth Cirkin
Ba Neil
Roberts Diallo Clarke
Simms
..and on the bench Bass, Embleton, Evans, Hume, Matete, Pritchard, and Bennette .
To keep this as brief as possible, we were overrun in midfield as Diallo pushed forward and Neil was left on his lonesome. On eleven we got so desperate that we conceded the clumsiest of penalties when Batth flattened an opponent. Thankfully Patto did really well to palm away the spot kick high to his left. That really was the highpoint of the half, as we created precisely nothing and had to rely on some desperate blocks by O9 and Batth. Let's just say family jewellery took a battering.
We could see that it wasn't working and that subs should really have been made after half an hour, but they didn't happen and the half, including the added two minutes brought nothing more than another silly yellow, this time for O9.
We'd pressed the self-destruct button so many times that prize draw picker David Corner must have thought his 1985 aberration a mere hiccup. He made somebody richer as all the subs warmed up. If Mowbray thought our first half at Huddersfield was the worst we've played this season, he'll have had to reconsider after that shambles. We didn't hit Simms with one decent cross (or a cross of any kind, come to think of it) and our passing had been slacker than my bladder.
The same faces appeared after the break, so we hoped for a different shape. I don't think we got it, although it was hard to tell. Three minutes in a wayward Cardiff shot deflected off their own man and left Patto flat- footed - although they looked well offside from my seat. Which probably means he wasn't.
On 56 Ba and Neil went off for Evans and Pritch, and there were also a couple of Cardiff subs. We did manage a shot when a Pritchard free-kick went into the side netting on the hour, but that was as close as we got. There was a half decent move on 64 which won a corner on our right which we took short and Cardiff cleared. Soon after, Bennette came in for Roberts - who'd arguably been our most dangerous player. Diallo showed his fancy footwork coming in from the right to shoot left-footed - but wide of far post. Luke won it back with 20 to go and crossed, but Simms put his header onto the roof of the net. That was Ellis's final contribution, as he was replaced by Embo and Pritch dropped ridiculously deep. Naturally enough, we suddenly began to flung in crosses - but there was no Simms, and Clarke was acting centre forward. Bring on Bass! On 82 looked we might have got a penalty as Diallo hoofed up in the air, but the ref deemed it a fair challenge.
There were only four added, which seemed a bit short, but it's not as if we looked like doing anything anyway, despite getting forward more with the crowd roaring on anything vaguely positive.
Did we deserve anything? No. Did Cardiff? Possibly, but they were slightly less rubbish than us.
Man of the Match? Patto. He saved a penalty and nobody in a striped shirt had anything other than a moderate game. I think Mowbray got the starting eleven wrong today as we left a huge gap in central midfield and didn't start hitting decent crosses until our big lad had gone off - after which they became pointless crosses.
