[themaclad]

Cardiff City line-up: Alnwick; Ng, Goutas, Phillips (Méïté, 85), Collins; Wintle (Ramsey, 45), Siopis, Turnbull (Colwill, 72); Bowler (Wilson-Esbrand, 45), Etete (Diédhiou, 62), Grant. Subs not used: Horvath, Romeo, Ralls, Tanner.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Potts (McCann, 73), Whiteman, Browne (Ledson, 80), Millar (Brady, 86); Frøkjær (Woodburn, 87), Riis (Osmajić, 86), Keane. Subs not used: Cornell, Cunningham, Stewart, Whatmough.

Attendance: TBC.

Referee: Mr D Whitestone.

A long weary day ended up with three points on our European tour, the 7.30 am coach start seemed a tad early, arriving in the Welsh capital at 12.15pm proved it was. So mate and I wandered into Cardiff, 19 years since I've been that close to the MNillenium stadium, Bobby Zamora shinned it in and the rest as you say is history.
Fair play to the stewards at the ground they were human and friendly compared to some of the stasi that you get at some places.
Unchanged from last week looks more by accident than design Fantastic has found his right eleven, however at times his brand of football at times is dire.
First 30 minutes we were woeful, our inability to pass to a team mate is off the the scale of poor, Our ex Swansea keeper distribution also leaves a lot to be desired in saying that we restricted City to long range efforts, Etete and Grant shots were both easily dealt with by Woodman. Just about managed to keep awake during the first 30 minutes and then boom, smilar to Millwall away two weeks ago, the alarm clock woke them up, Mads ball to Riis, into the box skipped past one defender then another right foot bottom corner, first goal since his ACL


From then this game was ours and just before half time it was two, Potts to Mads, into the box went the Danish god could have shot saw Whiteman better placed ball across face of box and it was two and basically game over. Pushed for the third bfore the break didn't get it.

We managed to survive Fantastic's half time talk which usually tells them to defend on masse strangely we didn't this time, Ramsey came on at half time for his first appearence since September. He probably should have done better with a mistimed header apart from a shot from Grant and a late effort from the big Greek lad at the back it was fairly comfortsble, we thtreatened with Millar down the left but eased to three points.
Apparently Erol thinks we play rugby, he's wrong

Two points from the play offs still in it.

Cardiff manager Erol Bulut:

"We started really well in the first 30 minutes, until we conceded from their first shot. Then our confidence went a bit down.

"For their second goal, I thought there was a foul on Kion [Etete]. The referee allowed a lot of fouls. We don't play rugby - we play football.

"There were more faults from us - we can't say this is why we lost the game - but these are key details. Generally, the game was under control but three shots from the opponent, two goals."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe:

"The first 15 minutes we gave the ball away and we have to give Cardiff a bit of credit but, once we got control of the game, we were fantastic.

"Two good goals and we should have had more. I thought the resilience and desire they showed was excellent.

"We're not going to get carried away. The lads have worked hard on a daily basis and they've been a breath of fresh air to work with. We'll never get too high or low."