Bradshaw goal consigns Bluebirds to another loss as winless run ...

21 Jan 2023
Cardiff City vs Millwall

Boos rang out at full-time as Cardiff City slumped to a 1-0 defeat by Millwall and edged even closer to the dreaded drop zone.

It took a defensive error from Cedric Kipre to allow Tom Bradshaw in to poke home the early goal, which proved to be the winner, with City's blunt attack once again failing to land a punch.

It's now 11 games without a win in all competitions, a run stretching back to November 5, pre-World Cup. Huddersfield below them, whose game was called off this weekend due to a frozen pitch, have two games in hand and just a three-point deficit to overturn.

These are worrying, worrying times at Cardiff City.

The day began with protests outside of Cardiff City Stadium against the owner and the board over the club's current position and lack of plan to get out of it.

Unfortunately for Cardiff, that lack of forward plan transferred on to the pitch, too, with things simply not clicking into gear in the final third. How many times have we said that this season?

A perfect example was after eight minutes when Sheyi Ojo had burst clean through with Jaden Philogene galloping on his outside. All he had to do was roll it into his team-mate's path for an easy finish - but a recovering Millwall defender cut out the errant pass.

Millwall fired their shots on the break, too, to make sure Cardiff weren't too comfortable. George Honeyman was a weapon on the Lions' right-hand side and his low cross found Zian Flemming in the box, but his shot fizzed wide.

But it was a big City error which led to Millwall's opener. Philogene's poor pass was intercepted by Jake Cooper, who waltzed up the pitch and slotted a cute ball in behind the defence. Cedric Kipre tried to shepherd it out, but in an error of judgement, allowed Bradshaw in behind him to poke home at the near post.

Cardiff fought back well before the break, to their credit. Callum Robinson did well to dispossess Cooper before slotting in Philogene, but the pass was just off and the winger couldn't get his shot away.

As ever, Cardiff looked dangerous until that final third, but were so easy to defend against. A smattering of boos rang out at the break.

City changed things up after the break, opting for a back three, and it almost paid dividends as Kipre broke out of defence and fed Robinson. The forward drove towards the Millwall box before playing a cute one-two with Kion Etete before bending his effort just inches wide of the far post.

But Millwall always looked dangerous on the break and Honeyman in particular was a threat. He was found ghosting into the box near the hour-mark and took a touch before lashing towards the bottom corner. It looked a certain goal before Mark McGuinness, on his return from a loan at Sheffield Wednesday, slid in and put it over his own crossbar.

It just looked destined to be one of those days for Cardiff, who were largely comfortable but posed little threat on the opposition's goal.

Cardiff lumped everything they could at Millwall towards the end, but, as has so often been the case this season, it was not enough.

A disgruntled fan base, a feckless attack, a partial transfer embargo and a managerless team: It's a dark time at Cardiff City and supporters are desperately looking up, waiting for some sunshine to burst through the menacing grey clouds.

Cardiff City XI: Allsop; Ng, McGuinness, Kipre, O'Dowda; Wintle (Ralls 69), Rinomhota; Philogene, Ojo (Davies 69), Robinson; Etete.

Subs: Alnwick, Nelson, Sang, Sawyers, Colwill.

Millwall XI: Long; McNamara, Hutchinson, Cooper; Mitchell, Styles (Malone 90), Saville (Cresswell 90), Flemming; Honeyman (Voglsammer 79), Bradshaw (Shackleton 79), Bennett (Leonard 63).

Subs: Bialkowski, Esse.

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