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NPOWER CHAMPIONSHIP 2011-12 |
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Cardiff City 5 |
Barnsley 3 |
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Miller 10 | Drinkwater 36 McNulty82 Vas Te 86 |
In what was a shining example of Championship Football Barnsley FC unfortunately came out on the wrong end of an eight goal thriller with Cardiff City.
Aron Gunnarsson got a brace for Cardiff during this eight goal thriller, Kenny Miller got the home side off to a flying start on ten minutes.
Joe Mason put Cardiff two in front on 34 minutes, Danny Drinkwater got one back for Barnsley with a nice freekick but the two goal cushion was restored two minutes later as Gunnarsson volleyed home for his first of the day.
Cardiff pulled well ahead to a 5-1 lead through second half goals from Don Cowie and again from Gunnarsson a scoreline that didn't do the Barnsley credit, but we pushed forward and played ourselves to within touching distance, making things slightly less comfortable for Cardiff at the end with goals from McNulty and Ricardo Vas Te.
Cardiff gave Steele a busy day with Gunnarsson going close early on and Ben Turner testing the Reds keeper from close range, and it only took 10 minutes before Miller on his return fired home from a Cowie pass. Steele in goal did keep the scoreline down somewhat as he kept out Kenny Millers powerful headed effort from a Peter Whittingham corner kick.
Mason came on for the injured Miller and immediately made an impact, as he was brought down on the edge of the area by Rob Edwards, Whittingham took the freekick which was only blocked by Steele, Mason reacted fastest as he got on the end of the rebound to put Cardiff two up.
Danny Drinkwater scored a long range deflected freekick against his former club to get the Reds back in it. The reds fell back again after Gunnarsson hit a spectacular volley past Steele following a cross field pass from Whittingham.
Drinkwater had another freekick opportunity after the break, hitting the bar with his strike, but Cardiff got the next and fourth goal on the hour mark as Cowie was played in my Mason's throughball, and he took the ball around Luke Steele to fire in.
By 71 minutes the Cardiff rout was over as they made it 5-1 through Gunnarsson who got his second from close range from a pass from Andrew Taylor. Not a good scoreline for the Reds, but we batteld and almost got within touching distance of the draw, on 82nd minutes Jimmy McNulty headed in Barnsley's second from a Jacob Butterfield cross, and Ricardo Vas Te put a bit more pressure on the hosts in the dying minutes with Barnsleys third and his second in two games on 86 minutes scoring from a nice lay off from Davies.
