Analysis of Albion 0 Cardiff 2

How typical of the Championship then that, at the end of a car crash of a match for the Baggies, the damage was slight.

Carson's sending off for butting Michael Chopra in a moment of uncharacteristic madness late in the game means they will be without their captain and goalkeeper for three matches. But that's nothing the trusted, battle-hardened deputy Dean Kiely can't handle.

A 2-0 defeat by one of the chasing pack, Cardiff City, more than anything represented a missed opportunity to hunt down leaders Newcastle who could now go seven points clear if they win at Coventry tonight.

But the cold light of day showed this night of calamity to feel far more wounding than it actually was. Albion are still five points clear in the second automatic promotion berth and in no need to start pressing any panic buttons or doubting their capabilities to get the job done.

Nevertheless, Cardiff became another of the Championship rivals who have managed to get under the Baggies' skin this season and that will occupy Roberto Di Matteo's review today.

Dave Jones's team did it so successfully that they were the better outfit in the first half, scoring a splendid first goal from Chris Burke in the 18th minute, before frustrating Albion so thoroughly it provoked Carson's crack in discipline in the 82nd minute.

Many fans – and all the TV camera crews – missed the keeper's flashpoint with Chopra because it came several seconds after Carson had dived to double-fist a clearance from a Burke cross.

But Chopra, having challenged for that centre legitimately, got up to be confronted by the Albion skipper who responded to a brief exchange of words by landing a clear butt on the striker which floored him.

Referee Paul Taylor had no option but to issue a red card and bring back play to award the visitors what would be a match-clinching penalty, taken and scored at the second attempt by Peter Whittingham.

Carson's actions were inexcusable and bring to an abrupt end a successful phase of career-rehabilitation by the rejected England keeper, during which he has been re-building his reputation as one the country's more promising goalkeepers.

But the incident probably said much about the success of Cardiff's shackling of arguably the Championship's most fluent team. That the final whistle was followed by a bit of 'afters' with Simon Cox and Cardiff keeper David Marshall needing to be pulled apart by team-mates, confirmed the image of an Albion team driven to distraction by their inability to break down the opposition.

But it would be foolish to read any more into it than that. Indeed, no sooner were the players' tempers cooling in the dressing room then came confirmation of another unpredictable night in what Jones described as English football's craziest division.

Middlesbrough soundly whacked at home by Blackpool then Leicester, thrashed at Forest on Saturday, now brought down to earth on their home patch by Bristol City.

But Albion will be aware of how Cardiff's high work ethic and skilful application repeated the stifling effect imposed by Barnsley and Crystal Palace, two other teams which have successfully derailed the Baggies this season.

After their uneasy first half, Albion monopolised possession throughout the second period but, for reasons Di Matteo will be eager to resolve, came up short of quality with the final pass, cross or finish.

Some woeful and ill-advised long range shooting were signals of panic rather than ambition while the trio of three-quarter chances which came the way of Roman Bednar went begging. The recalled Czech Republic striker needed a more certain touch to kill the first two and then got a poor connection with a header from the third.

Otherwise, two shots from distance by Graham Dorrans and then Chris Brunt, which arced agonisingly wide of the same post in the second half, were Albion's only other real threats to the Cardiff goal.

In many ways, it was a good night for the men who missed the game. There has been grumbling about Luke Moore's contribution in recent weeks but Albion's attack looked the less for his absence. Equally with Jerome Thomas injured to, the team's spark from the wide areas was missing.

There was further disruption for Di Matteo when a first-half knee injury to Youssouf Mulumbu forced a midfield reshuffle after 36 minutes which brought Dorrans, Albion's brightest player, back into the central areas and gave Filipe Teixeira an extended opportunity to reclaim lost ground out on the left.

But Teixeira, like so many of his colleagues, flitted on the edges. Even the previously immaculate Gonzalo Jara was seen to display errors in distribution and there can be no clearer evidence of Albion's discomfort than that.

Albion were already struggling to get into their stride by the time Burke was allowed an unopposed run through midfield before beating Carson with a well-directed angled drive from the edge of the area.

Carson's saves shortly after from a fizzing Gavin Rae drive and back-post header by Whittingham endorsed Jones's argument that his team's one-goal lead at the interval was a little under-subscribed based on their performance.

As the goalkeeper trooped disconsolately from the pitch, his replacement Kiely was given a hero's reception by the Smethwick End which, for a moment, thought he had kept his team in the game when diving to to get a firm hand on Whittingham's spot-kick. But the ball rebounded back to the former Villa man, who finished off the job.

By Steve Madeley