Nervous Cardiff City Beaten By Brighton

Cardiff City were beaten by a lively performance from Brighton & Hove Albion last night as the Bluebirds missed a host of chances and were stunned by a late goal in each half to slip to a 2-0 defeat.

Cardiff had the majority of possession, and certainly the better chances but nothing fazed the Seagulls who were by far the most comfortable passing side to visit CCS this season. They clearly spend hours in training working on their traingle passing movements and retaining possession - Poyet's men were calm, assured and patient even though they failed to create much at all in the final third. In Matthew Upson too, they had a superb defender who led by example.

Craig Noone should have opened the scoring when Andrew Taylor slipped down the left and pulled back, but Nooney got no power on his effort and it was comfortably saved. Bellamy nearly rounded the keeper too but it was former Swansea City man Andrea Orlandi who made us pay when Taylor lost possession in midfield. The Seagulls were quick to exploit the vacant left-back position and Orlandi reacted quickest to nip ahead of Hudson and divert home.

The second half saw more of the same..... Bellamy should have had a penalty but was instead awarded a freekick while Gunnarsson, Whittingham and Campbell (twice) all had decent chances. A scramble saw the ball somehow dribble wide of the post but the closest we actually came to finding the net was when a mishit cross dipped onto the crossbar from the left (either Taylor or Conway).

Leonardo Ulloa scored a deflected goal right at the death following a swift counter attack but it was clear by this point it was not to be Cardiff City's day. Far from a disaster and on another day it could have been a comfortable win - however, several players looked off form today and with our rivals picking up points - City will be desperate to get back on song.

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