Bizarre game which needs to be forgotten about quickly, Preston fan Tim Mercer laments loss to Cardiff City

In view of all the time-wasting tactics we have come to expect from Cardiff sides of late, it was only one more bizarre incident in a match that needs to be forgotten as quickly as possible!

These included North End’s new suicidal tendency to concede a goal unnecessarily within the first moments of a game, in this case one-each at the start of each half; and not one but two second-half penalty misses, with the second given for a foul in the follow-up to the first!

Substitute Paul Gallagher was guilty of putting the ball too close to the keeper for penalty No.1 given for a foul on Everton loanee Anthony Gordon, and then Ched Evans failed to convert No.2 given after Gallagher had been fouled as he closed into score from the rebound of No.1!

Gordon was the one bright spot of the afternoon and put his more senior and established teammates to shame. Amongst them was the particularly disappointing Daniel Johnson who was replaced in the 61st minute, it being more of a relief than a surprise substitution.

Playing in their now familiar green away strip, scoring either of these penalties would have pulled the score back to 2-1 and given the team a way back into the match.

But no, this ridiculously inconsistent side of lockdown season 2020/21 chose to make two more defensive errors and gift the Bluebirds a 4-0 thrashing in what could and should have been a closely contested game.

Not good enough! There is plenty for manager Alex Neil to ponder before the next match at home to QPR on Wednesday night.