Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds go for gold when they play Reading at home on Sunday. dai-sport journalist Terry Phillips has been reporting on Cardiff City for a quarter of a century. Here is part three of his reflection on the club’s promotion seasons following the Cancer Research Wales Legends Evening at Cardiff City Stadium.
Danny Shittu set out to intimidate Bluebirds players just before the 2003 League One play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
The big Nigerian international yelled: “Feed the beast. Feed the beast.”
His Queens Park Rangers teammates responded with chants of: “Be the beast. Be the beast.”
Motivational manager Ian Holloway certainly had his players fired up.
Cardiff City captain Graham Kavanagh and his team looked on in astonishment, but they knew big man Shittu was wasting his time.
Earlier in that same season Shittu had tried to show goals ace Robert Earnshaw who was boss.
QPR player Richard Langley, who later signed for Cardiff, said: “When we played Cardiff at Loftus Road the ball was played over the top and Earnie took possession.
“Danny, who was 6ft 4ins tall, 18 stones and yet so quick, ran over and challenged Earnie, who was 5ft 7ins, and ran over him. It was clear who the winner would be in that tussle and Danny stood over Earnie saying ’Stay down, stay down.’
“Yes, he was trying to intimidate Cardiff, but Earnie jumped up and scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 Bluebirds win.”
Earnshaw was taken off during the final against QPR, but still remained upbeat during a season when ‘Boom’ was the catchword.
“It started when we were playing cards on the way to away games and it started as a joke with players saying ‘Boom’ when things went their way,” says Earnie.
“After that whenever I scored the call from everybody was ‘boom’. When my 35th goal went in that was I pulled off my Cardiff City shirt and had a T-shirt underneath with the word ‘Boom’ on the front.”
City won the play-off final 1-0 and earned promotion to the Championship thanks to Andy Campbell’s extra time winner in front of 78,000 spectators.
Campbell will be at Cardiff’s final Championship match of the season on Sunday and he says: “Scoring the winning goal in that final was immense, fabulous.”
Lennie Lawrence was the man who led Cardiff to promotion and he recalled a conversation with manager Alan Cork on the coach journey back from a 4-0 defeat at Wigan in February.
Technical director Lawrence said: “If you want to stay on I’ll back you all the way.”
Corkie, though, said no and Lawrence was appointed manager.
Cardiff City lost in the League One play-off semi-finals at the end of that season following a run of 13 unbeaten matches to finish the campaign.
The Bluebirds followed that with a 2-1 at Stoke in the play-off semi-final leg, but crashed out at home.
A year later Lawrence steered Cardiff to the play-off final in Cardiff and, with the score at 0-0, he took leading scorer Robert Earnshaw off and sent on match winner Campbell.
“Supporters were asking ‘what is he doing’, while Sam Hammam said the whole national held it’s breath,” said Lawrence. “My thoughts were that we dare not lose the final on penalties.
“Winning that game was incredibly important to the club for financial reasons. We weren’t making chances for Earnie. I had to gamble and try something different.
“If it hadn’t worked the roof of the World would have crashed down on my head. I asked Butts (assistant manager Ian Butterworth) what he thought, but he wasn’t sure.
“When Earnie came off I told him ‘It wasnt your day today, but if it wasn’t for you wouldn’t even be here’.
“I have never lost a final of any sort in my managerial career and it worked out when Andy scored that winner.
“We walked from the Millennium Stadium to the Marriott Hotel; and it was fantastic. That journey would have been completely different if we had lost.”
The 2003 play-off final teams:
Cardiff City: N Alexander, R Weston, D Gabbidon, C Barker, S Prior, W Boland, G Kavanagh (capt), A Legg, G Whalley, R Earnshaw, P Thorne. Subs: M Margetson, G Croft, M Bonner, A Campbell, J Bowen.
QPR: C Day, D Shittu, C Carlisle, G Padula, S Kelly, S Palmer, K McLeod, M Bircham, R Pacquette, K Gallen, P Furlong. Subs: N Culkin, T Forbes, T Williams, A Thomson, B Angell.
Part four of Terry’s reflection on Cardiff City promotions tomorrow will focus on Ian Lanning, who was Cardiff’s kit man in 2003 and reveals some dressing room secrets.