By Terry Phillips
Cardiff City 3, Barnsley 4
Neil Warnock can’t wait for the year to change to 2017.
The Bluebirds manager has two Championship fixtures left, trips to Brentford and Brighton, before he can welcome in the New Year with open arms.
Cardiff City threw away their chance of earning at least a point against Barnsley because they made far too many errors in critical places.
Goalkeeper Ben Amos got things spectacularly wrong a couple of times, while his defenders didn’t do enough to protect him.
Having fought back from 3-1 down to draw level they threw away hopes of a point when Bruno Manga and Lee Peltier allowed a visiting player to wriggle between them and set up a simple finish for Ryan Williams to score the winner five minutes into injury time.
Warnock accused some players of ignoring instructions, although he stayed short of naming the culprits, and bemoaned the ‘elementary mistakes’ which proved costly.
He also promised changes for the Boxing Day match at Brentford, saying: “I’ve had enough.”
Cardiff played some good football, they played with intensity and there is no doubt Warnock has instilled a spirit and character which will help them progress.
But right now changes are needed – and fast. City lack leaders, pace, composure at times, and have players prone to individual errors.
Warnock will send eight players, at least, on their way in January, while three or four capable of going straight into the starting line-up will be recruited.
Goalkeeper Amos, Manga, Frederic Gounongbe and more will be leaving, while Warnock surely has a quality goalkeeper and a striker with an instinct for scoring as priorities.
A new left-back would allow Peltier to play on the right, where he is one of the best at Championship level, instead of struggling at times on the other side.
Matt Connolly, a solid, consistent centre-half, looks uncomfortable at right-back.
The loss of Sol Bamba because of suspension has been massive, but Cardiff are five places off the bottom and they have undoubtedly made progress since Warnock took over.
There is a good spirit within the club and among supporters plus the promise of much better times ahead.
Warnock has been in charge for 11 fixtures and earned 15 points. In their opening 11 games of this season, under Paul Trollope, the Bluebirds managed only eight from 33.
City under Trollope scored only seven goals and conceded 19. Warnock’s group have fired 16 and conceded 17, including those four against Barnsley.
This was the last match at Cardiff City Stadium this season and, while set pieces delivered by Peter Whittingham, are a potent weapon going forward, the Bluebirds struggle when opposing teams hit them, on the counter.
They lack the pace to get back and Barnsley exploited that weakness.
Warnock had talked to his team about the danger of being hit on the break, but some players failed to follow his instructions and paid for that.
City suffered a horrible defeat against Barnsley and Warnock said: “It was exciting for the neutral, wasn’t it? How not to defend!
“I was pleased with the way they came back, but disappointed with every goal, our own fault, elementary errors. I’ve persevered for a few weeks now but I’ve got to make changes now, I’ve had enough.
“When I look at the goals I have to be critical.
“We were caught twice, because people who were told where they should be stood, an elementary thing, decided to do what they wanted to do. So we were caught on two goals by two lads who decided to do their own thing. It shouldn’t happen it’s disappointing.
“There were other errors along the way, I don’t want to name individuals other than to say that I’ll change it for the next game and January can’t come soon enough.
“I thought we played some good stuff, we should have won it. We made them look like Real Madrid for 15 minutes in the first half. Overall we had some cracking chances, their keeper should be man of the match.
“If they’d had our chances they’d have beaten us by nine. Our chances, dear me, they take some missing, I’m really disappointed. They weren’t 50-50, they were just tap ins.”
Cardiff City: B Amos; M Connolly, B Manga, S Morrison (capt), L Peltier; C Noone (K Harris 63), A Gunnarsson, P Whittingham, A PIlkington; J Hoilett (R LAmbert 75), K Zohore. Subs: B Wilson (gk), J Bennett, J Ralls, L Immers, S O’Keefe.