Cardiff City 1, Birmingham City 1
The Bluebirds have become far too careless lately.
They allowed another winning position to slip away when Birmingham City snatched an injury time equaliser.
Manager Neil Warnock has now seen his Cardiff City team fritter away nine points in their last four Championship matches.
They have been in front against Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Blackburn and Birmingham and failed to earn even one win, drawing three and losing at Loftus Road.
That’s frustrating for Warnock and his coaching team because his team were the better team for most of this fixture at Cardiff City Stadium.
More than 20,000 spectators, the third highest attendance of the season of the season, turned out thanks to a cut-price ticket offer and there were a lot of positives for the home team.
Junior Hoilett, Joe Ralls and Joe Bennett produced some delightful work down the left, linking beautifully to cause Birmingham major problems, while the work ethic of Warnock’s men was immense.
They covered each other and that was underlined when Sean Morrison and Sol Bamba were caught out and Jazz Richards, spotting the danger, provided essential cover and cut out the danger.
Birmingham striker Lukas Jutkiewicz looked certain to run unmarked into the penalty area until Richards appeared.
In the end, though, Cardiff had to settle for a draw when they had played well enough to have earned all three.
Under-fire Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola danced along the touchline when Jutkiewicz scrambled home their 89th minute equaliser.
The Blues’ leading scorer bundled in a rebound after goalkeeper Allan McGregor had parried his initial header. The ball hit Jutkiewicz on the shin as it came off McGregor and flew back into the net.
Cardiff had gone ahead after 53 minutes when Sean Morrison was fouled by Ryan Shotton, who wrestled the Bluebirds defender to the ground trying to stop his run inside the penalty area.
Goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak went the right way and got down well, but Ralls struck his shot with power. Kuszczak could only palm the ball high into the net.
Birmingham were delighted with their away draw, but they are still in danger of being dragged into a relegation scrap . They have won only twice in 18 games in all competitions since manager Gary Rowett was sacked.
Zola has taken over, but Birmingham have slipped from seventh under Rowett to 17th with the Italian in charge.
Warnock, meanwhile, has overseen Cardiff’s climb to 13th place. They had been second from bottom when he arrived at the club in October.
Bluebirds fans love the way their team are playing under Warnock, who has kept them making progress even though they have been hit hard by injuries.
Matt Connolly was again ruled out, while Aron Gunnarsson was able to return after recovering from illness.
They side were in control for the vast majority of the match, but let their guard slip late on as keeper Alan McGregor saved Jutkiewicz’s header, only for the ball to ricochet off the striker’s shin and into the net.
Cardiff’s next test is against Ipswich Town at home next Saturday when they hope Bruno Manga and Rickie Lambert could be back in contention.
Cardiff City: McGregor, Richards, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett, Halford (Whittingham 57), Pilkington, Gunnarsson, Ralls, Hoilett (K Harris 90), Zohore. Subs not used: Noone, John, Meite, Murphy, M Harris.
Birmingham City: Kuszczak, Bielik (Cogley 90), Shotton, Robinson (Adams 64), Nsue, Davis (Frei 75), Tesche, Kieftenbeld, Grounds, Gardner, Jutkiewicz Subs not used: Legzdins, Gleeson, Maghoma, Stewart.
Referee: Peter Bankes
Attendance: 20,334
