Bluebirds Goal Leads Charmed Life Despite Shutouts

Cardiff City have come away with an encouraging 4 points from the two games played so far with a 1-0 victory at home against Huddersfield Town always a winnable game, and a creditable away draw against Brighton - who look a strong prospect this season.

Particularly pleasing has been the two clean sheets, 180 minutes of football without conceding a goal is no mean feat early in the Championship, especially with new players like Mutch, Helguson and co just blending into the squad.

However, whilst it looks very impressive on paper, both games relied on a great deal of luck as well as strong defensive displays. Against the Terriers, we were very susceptible the break and Town enjoyed plenty of decent chances that David Marshall did brilliantly to save. As a visiting fan, I would have felt aggrieved that none of those chances was converted.

Against Brighton, we were forced to keep out a barrage of corners, and against our opponents created plenty of chances - 16 shots with 9 on target according to the stats. Of those, David Marshall did well to keep out a Mackail-Smith effort while he had no right to save a low Bruno Saltor effort when virtually unsighted. It is not always shots on goal that are Cardiff City`s undoing, more the prolonged application of pressure leading to danger in the box and the ball falling to an opponent. Therefore it was particularly pleasing to keep Brighton out throughout the game.

Plenty of work to be done, but also plenty to build on and City can be pleased with their start. Saturday`s opponents are Bristol City, who hit four past Palace on Tuesday. Another clean sheet would be a very big ask, but a very welcome achievement.

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