CCFC 2 v 2 SUNDERLAND

OK, before we start let's recall how we got into this mess and draw a line under the crisis to date. So that we can move bravely forward, confident that the next one will be just around the corner...

• May 2010: Vincent Tan joins the Cardiff board as Peter Ridsdale moves on, with Dato Chan Tien Ghee appointed as chairman.
• June 2011: The club appoint Malky Mackay as manager, with Dave Jones sacked after a play-off semi-final defeat.
• May 2012: Tan then opts to change the club's shirts from blue to red, claiming the move is to drum up interest in the Far East where red is seen as a strong colour which brings good luck.
• September 2012: Tan replaces the club's chief executive, Alan Whiteley, with known associate Simon Lim.
• April 2013: Mackay takes Cardiff to the Championship title, winning promotion to the Premier League.
• August 2013: Tan tells Mackay, in no uncertain terms, to make good of the £35m he spent in the transfer window.
• October 2013: Mackay's trusted head of recruitment, Iain Moody, is replaced by unknown 23-year-old Alisher Apsalyamov, a friend of Tan's family.
• 16 December: Two days after a win over West Brom - after which Mackay said he wanted three players in the January window - Lim releases a statement on behalf of Tan which berates Mackay for his comments and tells him he will get "not a single penny" in the winter window.
• 19 December: Mackay is told in a letter from Tan, sent via email, that he must resign or be sacked.
• 21 December: Mackay says after his team's 3-1 defeat at Liverpool that he will not resign.
• 22 December: Dalman says in a club statement that Mackay will remain in charge for the "foreseeable future" and that he aims to facilitate talks between Mackay and Tan.
• 26 December: Cardiff City fans protest against the ownership of Vincent Tan before their 3-0 defeat by Southampton - Mackay's final game in charge.

• 28 December: Victory at the halfway point of the season with 20 points in the bag, OR
• 28 December: A morale-sapping failure against the bottom team confirms us as a club in crisis.

After 83 minutes it was the former but after the morale-sapping finale it's now very much the latter. How did that happen??

We started so well and played with a belief and confidence that the fans had no right to expect and had chances to score in the 5 minutes played before we took the lead. With Noone attacking down the right flank, Mutch and Kim pushing forward and a Sunderland defence completely on the back foot it was a rare example this season of us turning dominance into something tangible when Mutch forced the ball home via a deflection. 1-0.

Up in the directors' box Vincent Tan danced a jig to which the fans responded with a chant of 'That's for Malky, that's for Malky' putting the scoundrel firmly in his place.

There were a few anti-Tan, pro-Malky banners around the place and it's apparent that for the time being anyway the backlash has seen the traditionalists firmly in control of the club colours as the tyranny of the red has been pushed to the margins.

In an action that would have been fully endorsed by the Ministry of People's Security in North Korea or communist controlled East Germany's Stasi Secret Police the largest banner was chased around the family stand by Tan's uniformed goons as they moved in to quell any dissent. Their Keystone Cops incompetency as they chased down the heretics drew some of the biggest cheers of the afternoon.

Back on the pitch it took the opposition 30 minutes to have a shot on target as the impressive Ki - on loan from Swansea Town - drew a diving save from Marshall which he parried into the path of U.S. striker Dozy, sorry, Jozy Altidore who fumbled the ball past the post, drawing unfavourable comparisons with our own former American profligate striker, the fabled Eddie Johnson.

The first half drew to a close with the home side fully in control and continuing to carve out opportunities against a fairly demoralised Sunderland team who only two days previously had ended Everton's 12 month unbeaten home run. Things were going just swimmingly in Tan's post-Malky Year Zero winter wonderland.

During the interval I took the opportunity to browse for some end of year bargains and found some interesting DVDs in Mark Kermode's Bluebirds in Crisis Top 10 Films of All Time:

1. Vincent Tan: The Edge of Reason

2. The Agony & The Ecstasy

3. The Assassination of Malky Mackay By The Coward Vincent Tan

4. Bring Me The Head of Vincent Tan

5. Vincent Tan: Despicable Me

6. Dirty Rotten Scoundrel

7. Something's Gotta Give

8. Fear And Loathing In Sloper Road

9. There's Something About Vincent

10. How The Vince Stole Christmas

The start of the second half was a pretty scrappy affair with neither side settling. On the hour, shortly after temporary boss Kerslake was seen to pass around a piece of paper with written instructions, we doubled our lead. Mutch collected the ball on the edge of the box, skipped past a couple of defenders and fed the ball through to Campbell to slot home. 2-0. Just the buffer we needed to face the remaining 30 minutes with confidence.

The Black Cats responded positively. They'd brought on the experienced Steven Fletcher for Borini following the Italian striker's apparent collapse at half time and looked more of a potent threat going forward but we looked comfortable. We brought on Cowie and Gunnarsson for the tiring Kim and Noone, and surprisingly with 10 minutes to go Cornelius, ostensibly an out-and-out striker (although the evidence for that is fairly thin) when the object surely was to close the game down.

On 83 minutes Fletcher managed to lose Turner inside the 6 yard box to reduce the deficit and cause panic amongst the previously indifferent home crowd. Now, spurred on by a jubilant away contingent, Sunderland took the game to the City as we sat back unable to stem the flow.

The fourth official's board showed an inconceivable 5 minutes of extra time; the anxiety on and off the pitch was palpable. With just 40 seconds remaining we looked to have soaked up the pressure when the ball fell to the feet of T-C who instead of blasting the ball halfway down Sloper Road scuffed a clearance back to the opposition. A desperate last-ditch shot from Colback deflected off Caulker's boot and over Marshall to the despair of the wretched broken Bluebirds.

It was the cruellest and unlikeliest of denouements to the latest episode of the soap opera being played out in CF11. The plot is so far-fetched, the script so fanciful, that surely the time has come for the final whistle to be replaced by the theme tune to East Enders.

It's getting late so I think I'll just pop over to Melbourne to see if our heroes in white can lift the winter blues. Ah...

Best wishes for a prosperous and angst-free 2014.