Bad to worse...

I started by last post by saying "Just when you think things can't get much worse at Cardiff City...", but oh, how they can.

Today's dismal 2-4 defeat to Watford took both Cardiff City, and my support for them to a new low. Manager Russell Slade had called for a reaction after their capitulation of a 1-0 lead against 10 man Charlton on Boxing day, but even when they went 1-0 up today through an Adam LeFondre header, you just knew it wasn't going to be a great afternoon.

Empty seats throughout the stadium showed that a lot of people had stayed away (more on that later). City started brightly enough, and got that early lead, but Watford always looked neat and precise and a goal was always coming. It came on 42 minutes after some typically comic book defending by City, and then just 3 minutes later Watford took the lead after more defenders went awol. The boos were inevitable. The fight that City showed in the second half against Brentford never materialised, and Watford added to their lead on 63 minutes with another belter from way outside the box (this is happening every game now). By the time the Hornets bagged their 4th, the crowd were "ole-ing" Watford's passes, had chanted "You don't know what you're doing" to Slade when he subbed Adeyemi (arguably one of the better of a bad bunch today), and topped it off with "You're getting sacked in the morning" as the visitor's 4th went in.

I didn't see Jones get a second for City, because I'd walked out by then. I think I've only ever walked out of a City match in disgust once before, but at the moment they are an utter, utter, utter, shambles.

Slade appears to be way out of his depth. In mitigation it's not his squad, he's got too many overpaid and under-achieving players, but he was brought in (by Vincent Tan lest we forget), because he was such a good man manager. Well, let's just leave that thought there shall we?

The crowd also broke into laughter at Ali's announcement that there were 22,208 in attendance because there were clearly no where near that many there, and that's before most people walked out. There's a difference between tickets sold and bums on seats, and I reckon there were 18,000 there at most. If the club wants to delude people that it's being well supported, they need to get a reality check. The club is going down the pan fast. It saddens me, because the club is never going to admit things are bad - it's their jobs after all. But someone needs to sit Vincent Tan down, and be brave enough to tell him that frankly, he needs to go, or he needs to change things. Listen to people who know football. He doesn't, and I doubt he ever will.

I really do despair. There's a sickness, a poison around the club. The disillusionment is immense. On and off the pitch the club is an embarrassment, and no one except the supporters are prepared to say it.