Steve Bruce opted to pick an unchanged sixteen from that which had seen off Leeds United during the week for the visit of another bunch of desirables and a club that everyone has a little soft spot for. Or something. This meant that there was still no Damien Johnson, whose little niggle appears to be a little worse, given his prolonged absence. Blues were also well supported with a crowd of over 28,000 for a Sunday morning game - well over 10,000 more than for their last fixture at the same time against Stoke, and we all know what people thought after that. Seeing the ground full was a bonus though, and will have undoubtedly helped the players.
The players needed all the help they could get early on, as Blues continued their fine tradition for starting slower than, well, their opponents. Cardiff settled down into the conditions quicker than the home side and will feel that they missed out on a chance to kill the game off during the first 45 minutes as they spurned a number of good opportunities. Blues were awful for much of the first half - there was no tempo to their game and the movement of players was shocking.
Michael Chopra was the main threat to Blues, and he went close on a couple of occasions, including having a decent enough shout for a penalty turned down. Chopra also provided Steve Thompson with a good chance, but the Scottish striker couldn't quite reach the ball as it was fizzed across goal. At the other end Rowan Vine was just wide with a decent effort towards the end of the half as Blues finally got themselves into the game.
Blues' gradual improvement carried on into the second half as they really raised their game and in turn raised the crowd. Gary McSheffrey - who worryingly was qute poor again - went close before Larsson struck about 10 minutes into the half. Mat Sadler made a good run down the left and his low cross was helped on towards the far post by Nicklas Bendtner where Larsson was on hand to knock the ball into the back of the net from a couple of yards out. The players' celebrations highlighted their delight and the fact that they just seemed to want it that much more in the second half. It's easy to knock coaches, managers, etc, but credit where it's due - whatever was said at half-time did the trick for Blues.
Having taken the lead Blues went on to look the better team. Colin Doyle - who was impressive yet again - made one fine save from Roger Johnson, but as Cardiff pressed Blues looked more and more dangerous. Mehdi Nafti and Cameron Jerome both came on for Blues and Nafti calmed the midfield down with his sensible, intelligent football, whilst Jerome's pace and directness stretched the game and helped Blues. Jerome was denied by Neil Alexander whose low save was followed up by the onrushing McSheffrey who was just unable to knock the ball home, clipping the post instead. Bendtner, McSheffrey and Jerome all looked dangerous on the break by the end as Blues closed the game out fairly comfortably to once again leapfrog their next opponents, Derby County, in the league table.
One worry for Blues - and not footballing, for a change - will be the state of the St Andrews pitch. Ok, the weather was horrendous and didn't help on this occasion, but it's awful anyway. There's totally inconsistent bounce in different areas of the pitch and it does nothing to help anyone play football. Admittedly, it's arguable that Blues don't play a great deal of football, and you could also say that as it's Blues' home ground it will do them favours and opponents who only play on it once will struggle whereas Blues should get used to it, but it's still a joke and could hinder Blues. It's making passing very difficult, and as such Blues aren't creating as many opportunities as they had been doing earlier in the season.
On the player front, as I've mentioned Colin Doyle was again impressive, but in front of him I though that Bruno N'Gotty and Stephen Kelly also played key roles. N'Gotty's reading of the game was excellent, as you'd probably expect from someone with his experience. His performance was unspectacular yet effective in a similar way to Kenny Cunningham's performances for Blues, or, dare I say it, those of N'Gotty's current manager - he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, which was handy given that Martin Taylor had a bit of a nightmare. Kelly too was unspectacular yet effective, and Blues look to be getting the best out of him now after a tricky start to his time at the club. His defending is solid and his pace, energy and composure on the ball are all assets to Blues offensivley too.
And a final note of positivity, after a pretty positive result, for the fans who turned up in numbers, stuck with Blues when things didn't look great in the first half and supported the team well. There's been quite a big of negativity around really, and I guess it's been a little bit like road rage - it doesn't really get you anywhere, you don't achieve anything but sometimes you feel better for spouting off and it helps clear your mind a bit. All that's been done now and Blues are grinding out results (the Hull debacle aside) which is what you need to do at this stage of the season and it seems that the fans are back on side with them and that can only bode well.
So, not a good first half, a very good second half and a key win over fellow promotion hopefuls in front of a good crowd - the best in the division on a weekend when Leeds hosted Sheffield Wednesday in a huge derby game, and Albion were at home to Sunderland in another huge game. Not much to moan about, really. Bring on Derby.