Tim Hartley is a Cardiff City fan, journalist, broadcaster and author,.

A Welsh speaker, Tim is a former vice chair of Supporters Direct and the Cardiff City Supporters Trust and is a director of the Wales Football Trust.

He is the author of Kicking off in North Korea – football and friendship in foreign lands (Y Lolfa, 2016) and Merci Cymru ed. Hartley (Y Lolfa, 2016)

As well as authoring the book, Tim has contributed to the Guardian, When Saturday Comes, Late Tackle and various other newspapers and websites.

In his piece, he previews Welsh interest as the Championship draws to a close.

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It ain’t over till it’s over

If you had offered me this at the start of the season I’d have bitten your hand off.’ Having been dumped out of the Premier League after just one dismal term Cardiff fans weren’t asking for much at the start of this campaign.

But as that battle weary supporter told me excitedly, last weekend’s performance and crushing victory over Middlesbrough has taken the Bluebirds season to the very last game. Just one point against Hull City would mean a Championship play off semi-final and potentially a trip down Wembley Way, for the players at least.

It’s a tantalising prospect for a club which refused to gamble in the transfer market, but instead put its trust in Neil Harris an up and coming manager who had previously taken Millwall to two play-off finals.

Harris has moulded a team which exudes confidence in defence ably led by captain Sean Morrison who sets a fine example at centre half. Having ditched the former manager Neil Warnock’s sometimes negative approach to the game the Cardiff players are now enjoying a more expansive style of play. They are confident when in possession and are at last able to control the tempo of a game.

There has been a renewed vigour at Cardiff City following the enforced covid break. Lee Tomlin is back in form up front, though whether he can last 90 minutes game after game could still be a concern for Harris going forward. Goals however have also been coming from midfield with Joe Ralls chipping in and Josh Murphy also came good with a fine brace against Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Sitting at the bottom of the table Hull City are all but relegated. It’s been a dire season for them. Grant McCann’s side has won just one of their last 19 league games. Longer term too things are looking bleak. Eight of the current first-team squad do not have a contract with the Tigers for the 2020-21 season. Any slender chance of Jon Toral and Kevin Stewart staying at the KCOM Stadium will surely be ended by relegation from the Championship.

The way modern football is structured means that the way down can be faster than the way up. Cash will be in short supply if Hull fall into League One. Television money and solidarity payments fall from £7m to £1.5m when dropping out of the Championship and paying fans are not expected back in any stadium until October.

But never write a team off. Hull will surely play for pride and if you were a player in a team going down wouldn’t you want to impress potential new clubs to stay playing at this level?

There is a tantalising if farfetched prospect of both the major Welsh clubs, Cardiff and Swansea, making it to the play offs.

Connor Roberts scored his first goal of the season to help Swansea beat Bristol City, which has kept their play-off hopes alive. Speaking after that win Swansea’s head coach Steve Cooper said, ‘In the Championship we know that anything can happen. We’ve just got to take care of our business and try to win at Reading.’

As well as having a young squad in Steve Cooper, Swansea also have an inexperienced head coach. Cooper spent most of his career working in academy football and with England’s youngsters before taking the Swansea job in June last year.

The Swans’ star player is Andre Ayew, who is their top scorer with 17 goals and highest paid player. He has a year left on his contract but the club may have to let him leave for financial reasons should there be interest this summer.

To get to the play-offs the Swans would have to beat Reading and overturn a five-goal deficit to Forest who would have to lose to Stoke City. In this situation just one point for Cardiff would ensure both they and Swansea finish in the top six. The two Welsh teams couldn’t meet each other in the semis, only in the final, but that truly is a long shot.

Hull are 49/1 to avoid the drop to League One. Cardiff are 1/25 and Swansea 9/1 to finish in the top six of the Championship. If you are a betting man you might want to back the team from west Wales but to me the die is cast and I for one will be keeping my wallet tightly closed this time around.

 

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