Back in the promotion season of 1999/2000 I was among a sizeable following of Burnley fans who were drenched on the old open end at Ninian Park seeing goals from Steve Davis and Andy Payton give us a 2-1 win and edge us closer to that promotion.
We never picked up a point at the old ground again, losing on six occasions, and since their move across the road we've been four times and got ourselves two draws and two more defeats. Ten games, no wins, only two draws and only three goals scored, one each from Ade Akinbiyi, Robbie Blake and Steven Thompson.
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| Sam Vokes, second half sub for Junior Stanislas |
I'm not so sure why I set off with much confidence yesterday given that record, and given that Cardiff haven't dropped a point at home all season, but, nevertheless, enthused by the two wins against Blackpool and Bristol City, I just thought we might get something.
Leaving home around 8:30 a.m. it was a good enough day right up until around three minutes past three, that was the time of Cardiff's first goal.
Under almost cloudless skies, the journey down was an easy win and I even managed to get my nose into the book I'm desperately trying to find the time to finish reading. There were plenty of interruptions though, information coming through that Sean Dyche was to be our new manager, that Ian Holloway was, and with still a couple of other names thrown in.
It was just over an hour before kick off when we arrived at the stadium. I went to check and got confirmation of the £32 on the day admission price and then received a text to tell me the youth team had won 1-0 at Preston.
I then bumped into Janice, a friend of mine who I haven't seen since the Brighton away game in December of last year. Janice hasn't been well and I was delighted to see her able to get to the game yesterday and hope to see her at many more games in the weeks, months and years to come.
Inside, with a small following of Clarets, it was a case of sit where you want so I took up a position some way back and settled down, still confident of a result.
Terry Pashley had made just the one enforced change, bringing in Joseph Mills for the suspended Ben Mee with Danny Lafferty replacing Mills on the bench. Marvin Bartley's absence had been previously confirmed and Ross Wallace was also ruled out as expected, both with hamstring injuries.
Cardiff were without both Craig Bellamy and Tommy Smith, as well as long term injury victim Nicky Maynard and, as 'Men of Harlech' blasted out to an unenthusiastic home crowd, there had been no diminishing of my confidence.
Unfortunately it proved to be nothing but blind confidence as we turned in a simply awful performance. We conceded two goals in each half of the game and, believe me, it could have been a lot more.
I've come in for some criticism for my rating of some of our players, defenders in particular, in this game, for rating them considerably worse than at Bristol City where we conceded only one goal less.
There really can be no comparison. Four days earlier Bristol City had been assisted very strongly by a very poor referee in Lee Collins. Here, Cardiff could have had so many goals we might have needed to borrow the scoreboard from the newest test ground.
Cardiff, in their new kit of red shirts and black shorts, were supported by a crowd mainly wearing blue. There certainly looked to be more replica Burnley shirts inside the stadium then there were current Cardiff shirt.
But, red and black or blue and white, the home side were very quickly in front. Craig Noone, who gave Mills a torrid afternoon, hit a shot that came back off the post. Joe Mason was quickest too it and stuck home the rebound in only the third minute. Burnley appeals for offside were in vain, and pictures on the big screen behind us showed Kieran Trippier playing the goalscorer onside.
Already it looked as though it was going to be a difficult afternoon but we do have Charlie Austin so there's always hope, and he forced David Marshall into a save after a speculative effort from just outside the box.
It wasn't a start of Burnley attacks though and the woodwork, thankfully, prevented us going 2-0 down. This time it was scorer Mason and somehow we managed to scramble the ball away.
We hadn't really been in it but for a short time we did start to edge the possession. Brian Stock and the industrious Dean Marney were at the centre of it and they found an outlet in Junior Stanislas who, for me, was the only player who looked likely to cause Cardiff any problems.
It was never threatening though, it was always too slow, but as we approached half time just a goal behind there was some hope that we could maybe step things up a bit in the second half.
Then came the disastrous second. It was simply an awful ball from captain Jason Shackell to Chris McCann. How he expected McCann to do much with a ball hit at him at throat height I don't know. It presented the ball to Noone.
Lee Grant got the shot, tipped it up but it dropped in before he could recover. There was no question of whether it had gone over the line or not. It was a clear goal and Cardiff's 2-0 half time lead always looked as though it would be too much for us.
Sam Vokes came on for Stanislas at the start of the second half, and in fairness we did probably have our best spell for a few minutes at the start of the half. It was only a few minutes and then Cardiff regained the upper hand and, in truth, we never got much of the ball again.
Cardiff just needed that third goal to wrap things up. They hit the woodwork yet again with us all over the place and finally got that third when Matthew Connolly was allowed too much room to head home from a corner.
Soon after it was 4-0 as two of their subs linked up. Rudy Gestede got the better of Shackell in the air and his downward header was hit home by Aron Gunnarsson.
It was such a bad day for us, even Austin didn't get a goal, but he came so close to one right at the end of stoppage time. His shot did get a deflection, but in any case Marshall saved and that was just about it.
It was nowhere near good enough. I know we were playing one of the better teams in the division but this was a truly awful performance, and as someone said coming out, it was worse even than Huddersfield.
Sean Dyche was watching the game. If he is to be our next manager then he'll know he's got his work cut out with a team that just leaks goals for fun. This was four, but it really could have been a lot more.
Was there any consolation? I was asked on Tuesday morning if I'd take two draws from the two away games. I said I would. That would have given us two points. We got three. But the manner of this defeat is very worrying.
The teams were;
Cardiff: David Marshall, Andrew Taylor, Mark Hudson, Ben Turner, Matthew Connolly, Pete Whittingham, Don Cowie, Bo-Kyung Kim (Aron Gunnarsson 78), Craig Noone (Kerim Frei 83), Heidar Helguson (Rudy Gestede 63), Joe Mason. Subs not used: Joe Lewis, Kevin McNaughton, Filip Kiss, Craig Conway.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Joseph Mills, Brian Stock (Cameron Stewart 78), Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Martin Paterson (Danny Ings 72), Charlie Austin, Junior Stanislas (Sam Vokes 45). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, David Edgar, Danny Lafferty.
Yellow Card: Joseph Mills.
Referee: Nigel Miller (Co Durham).
Attendance: 21,191.