Two shots against the woodwork and a good claim for a penalty ignored. If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the manager is going to pull off the kind of great escape he delivered as a player then he might have to do it without luck. And Craig Bellamy.

Yet the Norwegian knows his problems run deeper than that.

So much is obvious when you can’t edge past a Villa side that waited nearly an hour to show any attacking intent. More so when you consider his side were left hanging on by David Marshall’s fingertips in the final stages.

That is what happens when confidence drains so blatantly from a team as it did to Cardiff here; a game Solskjaer went into without Bellamy because of apparent inconsistencies in the FA’s handling of retrospective punishments.

Solskjaer was less than impressed with the decision yesterday to hand Bellamy a three-game ban for swinging at Swansea’s Jonathan De Guzman, while Yaya Toure escaped sanction for his misdemeanour against Norwich.

Solskjaer said: ‘Everyone can see the difference. One gets three and one gets away with it.

‘I think Craig’s reputation has gone before him. See him in training and in games, he is a top professional. He has been outstanding for me. There was no violence in his collision.

‘We have to accept it and don’t want it dragging on. Look at what they didn’t give Toure and what they did give Craig and you are very disappointed. It’s his reputation that’s gone before him.’

Against Villa, Cardiff failed to shake theirs. They are seen by many as prime relegation candidates and results like this won’t help.

Solskjaer was right in his post-match briefing that his side’s first-half performance was as good as any they have managed in his six Premier League games in charge. That is not hard against a backdrop of four defeats. And it is true that they should have had a penalty when Kenwyne Jones was hauled down by Nathan Baker after 20 minutes.

‘It should have been a penalty,’ Solskjaer said. ‘Kenwyne is a big lad and it took some force.’

Paul Lambert rejected that view.

Prior to that incident, Cardiff had two efforts clatter off the woodwork within the space of a minute, first when Fraizer Campbell ran on to a Wilfried Zaha through ball and had his shot nudged against the far post by Brad Guzan.

Then, after collecting the partial clearance, Craig Noone cut inside from the right and side-stepped Ashley Westwood before shooting. Westwood recovered to get a toe on the ball, which deflected against the bar.

It remains one of the unanswered questions of Malky Mackay’s reign why Noone, all energy and tricks, wasn’t used more in the opening months of the season.

But in the second half, Villa dominated. It said everything that the man of the match was a coin-toss between goalkeeper Marshall and centre half Ben Turner.

The resurgence started with Leandro Bacuna going through after an hour and dragging his shot wide. It continued when Marshall made fingertip saves to stop Fabian Delph and Andreas Weimann.

Lambert said: ‘I thought second half we were fantastic and only one side looked like winning it. ‘Marshall kept them in it with two world-class saves.’

Such is the table that Villa could yet find themselves fighting the same battle as Cardiff, but Lambert doesn’t see the urgency at this stage. His side’s impressive haul of 17 points from away games has gone some way to providing comfort.

‘I think there are so many games still to play,’ he said. ‘There will be a lot of back and forth. But we are a threat and we can score. We were well down there last year and got out. We keep going.’

So must Cardiff. But the games are running out.

—Daily Mail