Cardiff City 2011/2012 Season Review

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Five Positives

Joe Mason
A revelation. 29 starts, a further 16 appearances from the bench, 11 goals, 3 assists, an absolute steal for £250,000. A goal scorer in the Carling Cup Final, he received Cardiff's Young Player of the Year award and should have won the overall prize. Natural football intellect and positional awareness, he has become integral and provides a link between attack and midfield that is lacking in his absence.

Team Spirit
What Cardiff may have been lacking in individual talent, compared to the previous season with the likes of Jay Bothroyd, Craig Bellamy and Aaron Ramsey, they certainly subsidised with an infectious team spirit and togetherness. Team huddles, youthful exuberance, a lack of ego and never say die spirit are qualities that bode well for the future and made this season's side far more appealing.

Malky Mackay
A breath of fresh air. Where Dave Jones had become increasingly dour and prickly, Mackay has won over the fans with his enthusiasm and positivity, he would make a great politician. The right appointment at the right time and already awarded a new deal, the hope is that he will be able to replicate the transfer market prowess he demonstrated last summer.

Big Wins
Having struggled to beat the top sides in the division in Dave Jones' final season, it bodes well to see Malky's charges defeat Southampton, Blackburn and Birmingham at home, West Ham and Middlesbrough away, while beating Reading twice. With an extra year's experience, hopefully Cardiff can add a bit more consistency next year. Very encouraging.

The Carling Cup
They may have been fortunate to avoid anybody of note until the final, but reaching the final was a massive achievement. The performance they provided against Liverpool was astonishing and will never be forgotten. In dreadful form going in to the game, they rose to the challenge, took the lead, defended heroically and somehow found reserves of energy and courage to score a late equaliser to take the game to penalties. A glorious failure.

Five Negatives

No Width
Cardiff only really had Chris Burke as a winger by trade last season, so when he departed, wingers would surely be high on the agenda when Malky assessed the needs of the squad he inherited. Only Craig Conway arrived, Don Cowie, Joe Mason, Joe Ralls, Peter Whittingham and Aron Gunnarsson have all filled in but a lack of natural width and pace on the flanks made Cardiff one-paced and predictable at times. Kadeem Harris sounds an exciting prospect, having not yet played for the senior side, I cannot comment, but surely wingers will be brought in during the summer.

Losing leads
On 13 occasions in the league, Cardiff took the lead and failed to secure a victory, which cost them 31 points in total, a tally that would have see them automatically promoted with a 16 point cushion at the top of the table. I'm sure the rest of the top six will have also dropped a fair amount of points too, but Cardiff are league leaders regarding this particular statistic. Naivety coupled with a lack of rotation and fatigue are likely to be responsible, if Malky is able to address this problem, Cardiff will be a far more formidable proposition next season.

A lack of Earnshaw and Gestede
Injury has restricted Gestede to only nine starts, where he has scored on three occasions, with a further 21 appearances from the bench. With a lack of options up front, his availability would have taken some of the burden away from Kenny Miller and provided a tall, physical outlet that has been sorely lacking at times. Earnshaw made 13 starts, plus 15 cameo showings, with all five of his goals scored in the first few weeks of the season. He may have lost some of his explosive pace, which has in turn highlighted some of his inadequacies, but he should have played a bigger part and a pairing with Gestede may have been prosperous.

The January Transfer Window
With West Ham and Southampton adding to their squad from a position of strength, Cardiff identified three main targets and missed out on all of them. Relatively paltry bids for Brighton's Craig Noone and Blackpool's Matt Phillips were dismissed, as were belatedly increased offers. A bizarre £3m deadline day move for Watford's Marvin Sordell also proved unsuccessful, with an apparent lack of alternatives, only Kadeem Harris was acquired and Cardiff began to struggle. An opportunity missed.

Andrew Taylor
I seem to be on my own on this one, but I think Andrew Taylor is distinctly average. He may be pretty solid and consistent, but I was expecting far more from a former England Under-21 international. One-paced, positionally suspect, uncomfortable in possession and quick to blame others for his own failings and mistakes. The new Tony Capaldi, I feel that competition at left back is required.

In all the madness last week we forgot to announce YOUR 2012 player of the season.
We have been taking your votes for the last few weeks of the campaign and by some margin you voted for young starlet Joe Mason as Cardiff City's player of the season.
His goal against Liverpool launched him into worldwide acclaim but it was really his dynamic attacking performances as the Bluebirds surged towards the play-offs that won the hearts of Cardiff City fans.

So congrats to Joe Mason, the Bluebirds Banter 2012 Cardiff City player of the season.

RED shirts, red seats and red dragons - no thanks.
If you are a Cardiff City fan, you will bleed blue and white and will always be a Bluebird.
I'm a proud Welshman but seem comfortable with my fix of red shirts and red dragons from following my country.
Furthermore, as somebody completely dismissive of superstition, I can't see any justification for ripping up more than 100 years of history purely because the Malaysian owners believe red to be a more dynamic and prosperous colour than blue.

Is this the end for Peter Whittingham at Cardiff?

Was a 3-0 Bank Holiday surrender against West Ham Peter Whittingham's final game in a Cardiff City shirt?

It goes without saying that I hope to see him lead next season's promotion charge, but I have my doubts that he will still be at the club. There has been a bizarre lack of interest in recent seasons, but confirmed as the best player outside the Premier League by FourFourTwo magazine, he now boasts a prestigious accolade that will surely attract top-tier interest.

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Once again, Cardiff were comprehensively outplayed and outfought by West Ham. Last time, Cardiff were in a woeful run of league form and believed to be suffering a post-Carling Cup hangover, this time there are no such excuses and the outcome proved to be exactly the same.

Their wealth of ability and resources was once again evident. In their previous outing, West Ham were able to introduce Carlton Cole and Gary O'Neil from the bench, this time they brought on Nicky Maynard and George McCartney, with Henry Lansbury unable to break in to the match day squad.

Despite the gulf in options and quality, there is no excuse for such a tame performance. Cardiff looked intimidated and nervous as West Ham outthought and overpowered their hosts, by the time the Bluebirds got going they were already two goals behind.

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It may not be familiar territory for Malky Mackay but it certainly is for Cardiff City as they embark on their third consecutive year of participating in the Championship Play-Offs.

The opponents this time, West Ham United.

The team from East London dubbed the 'Academy of Football' visit the Cardiff City Stadium on Thursday before Malky takes his squad down the M4 for a Bank Holiday Monday showdown at Upton Park.

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For the third season in a row, the Bluebirds have booked themselves a play-off spot.
I have to say that given the overhaul that the squad had last summer, this is a fantastic achievement.
I am immensely proud of everyone at the club that helped to make this happen.
I will be the first to admit that after the 2-2 draw against Brighton on March 7th I didn't think Cardiff had much chance of making the cut.

Thankfully a fantastic run of 5 wins, 6 draws and only 1 loss in the remaining fixtures, coupled with teams around Cardiff dropping points, saw them cement their position.

Cardiff City defender Kevin McNaughton tells Steve Tucker that the Bluebirds will be giving everything to beat West Ham in the Championship play-offs this week.

An inspirational video from the Cardiff City Stadium of fans queueing for play-off semi final tickets against West Ham United.

Cardiff City star Kevin McNaughton talks cars and music and the playlist on BLuebirds awaydays.

Listen out for his efforts in singing Hey Jude!

And here is captain Mark Hudson having a go...