If Cardiff City fail to secure a play-off position this season, giving them a chance to compete for the remaining promotion place to the Premier League, England’s top flight of football and the most lucrative league in the world, undoubtedly the fans that attribute their failure to the hindrance of their Carling Cup run will compare the value of promotion – £90m – to the prize money they received from their Wembley appearance – £50,000, and will have every right to feel aggrieved.
Even if they’d won, which they didn’t, the prize money was still only £100,000 and whilst a win over Liverpool would’ve filled a trophy cabinet nicely, it doesn’t fill the wallet of a football club. So, was their Carling Cup run worth it, if it costs them promotion?
Arguably, Cardiff were in a slump before the Carling Cup Final, yet that still was subject to the ill effects of playing two semi-final legs in January – the second of which went all the way to penalties after 120-minutes of football – and the adrenaline of knowing Wembley awaited. The Bluebirds manager Malky Mackay, whose side drew 0-0 with Burnley on Sunday, a team that hadn’t won in four games and had only achieved one victory in the past seven, suggested post-match that their slump looked over: “When you have a dip, you look to get back to basics, which is something we’ve done. We’ve lost one in four now, having two good results away.”
Before Cardiff’s four most recent games, which Mackay highlighted as their turnaround period, the Welsh club, whose main rivals Swansea are enjoying their inaugural season in the Premier League, had been suffering some of their worst form of the season. Before their draw at Brighton’s Amex Stadium three weeks ago, an admirable result in itself considering the newly-promoted side were, until the weekend, unbeaten in 2012 and are still unbeaten at home since December 17th, Cardiff had only picked up four points from their last eighteen. In the month of the final, Cardiff won just one of their four games, picking up just three points – their worst month of the season so far, achieving just a 25% points haul.
Comparably, their best month to date was November, in which 86.7% of the points available were snapped up by The Bluebirds, only dropping points to Coventry, coincidentally their next opponents, whilst winning four of their five games, conceding just twice.
February looked to be where the focus on what should’ve been their primary objective – their league position – was lost and cup fever took over. At the beginning of the month, after a 1-1 draw away from home against the league’s best home form side Southampton, Cardiff were 3rd. They were three points off of 1st and had they beaten Saints, they would’ve gone into February in the automatic promotion positions, just a point off of West Ham and leapfrogging Southampton, who are yet to drop below second place all season, into second.
At that point in the season, whilst Cardiff were 3rd and just a point off of the automatic promotion spots, Reading were eighth. Now, in almost a like for like swap, Cardiff are down in eighth, whilst Reading sit in second place, three points clear of West Ham and just two off of league leaders Southampton.