By Chris O'Brien
August 28 2002

In the clubs first 0-0 draw for over 18 months, the Bluebirds have drawn with Luton Town at Ninian Park. It was a very dissapointing performance from Cardiff, who have now dropped 5 points at home. Cardiff City 0-0 Luton Town

Match Report from Sam's Cat:

At the start of the season in all the local press, many of our highly paid players said that they would make Ninian Park "a fortress" this season!
Lennie Lawrence confidently predicted that most teams would be happy with a share of the points from games at Cardiff City. It would be visiting teams Cup Finals ! What a joke those comments are becoming!

This afternoon v Luton Town was not a pleasant experience for City fans, and for those of us who also witnessed the robbery of three points from Swindon on Saturday, we have to face facts.

At the moment this collection of highly paid individuals are simply not performing. Graham Kavanagh has had a shocking season, the forwards with the excption of Leo Fortune-West are not playing well and there appears to be an overall lack of team spirit. The opening spell against Port Vale excepted I am reliably informed.

Todays game was against a team who had lost all their games and were pointless. On paper they were there for the taking, however irrespective of some strange referring decisions, City were once again poor in front of another large crowd of 13,500.

Highly paid individuals forming part of the most expensive squad ever assembled at Ninian Park have to be able to take criticism and look at their performances. They are only too happy to take the plaudits and the cash and goal bonuses when things are going well.

The fans pay their entrance money week in week out and are should expect 100% effort and are entitled to voice their opinions about the fare served up.

The advert in the Echo said "come and see City beat the Hatters" - total arrogance and excellent motivation for Luton. Some people at the club believe we are better than we currently are!

I could detail errors and comment on the game at some length however that would not make pleasant reading - thanks to Neil Alexander we got at a point, but for woeful finishing from Robert Earnshaw we would have snatched all three. However that is only half the story, we are not playing as a team and the crowds will soon reduce below the average 13,000 if the displays continue in this vein.

Players at this club are paid more in a month than most of the fans earn in a year, goal bonuses running into thousands are on offer - simply for doing their jobs. I can understand supporters frustrations when they witness games like this.

Promotion is absolutely vital was the early season message - well Ninian Park and our home form will not be assisting in this quest unless things improve dramatically.

The Cheltenham game takes on massive proprtions next week, unless the "pop and crisps" tour begins to look more of a joke than the title suggests.

Our home form is already well below championship requirements and Lennie Lawrence must look at his team selections.

At least this afternoon he had the sense to substitute the ineffective Kavanagh, but only after taking off Leo FW who has exceeded all expectations this season.

The travelling Hatters certainly earned their point, and must have revelled in our long ball tactics as they towered above City's forward line.

No goals
No passion
No tactical awareness

0-0 !