Cardiff City suffered their second defeat in as many games during their trip to league-leaders Newcastle United on the weekend.
Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City were narrowly defeated by league-leaders Newcastle United on the weekend, making it back-to-back losses for the Bluebirds.
However, despite defeat, there were more positives for Neil Warnock to take from the 2-1 loss. Cardiff were actually unlucky not to draw level late-on when they were denied a seemingly stone-wall penalty.
Having said that, there was huge suspicion of handball in the build-up to Peter Whittingham’s goal so on the balance, it probably evened out.
Newcastle’s Aleksandar Mitrovic in action with Cardiff ‘s Sol Bamba
Newcastle showed their class for the two goals and were unlucky to extend their lead on a number of occasions.
Cardiff only really turned up in the second half, and in particular in the last 20 minutes and while that’s not a huge positive, it’s probably more than most will manage at St James’ Park this season.
Warnock’s men still lack fire power, that much is clear but they pushed forward and put the Magpies on the back ropes late-n and not many teams have managed that this term.
Newcastle’s Ayoze Perez in action with Cardiff’s Lee Peltier
Newcastle have now won seven consecutive matches and no one is likely to stand in their way of the Championship title, the three points were, perhaps a write off anyway but the performance can give Cardiff hope.
There are huge improvements Cardiff still need to make but if they can capture what they did in the second half and turn that into a 90-minute performance, lesser opposition would crumble.
Cardiff face Huddersfield at home after the international break and Neil Warnock will know that his team have every chance of toppling a team who have enjoyed an impressive start to the season.
Newcastle’s Yoan Gouffran scores their second goal
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