Cardiff beat Manchester 2:0 in the Elite League on Saturday evening. It was a match the home side had been building towards since their heavy defeat to Sheffield the previous week. They put the game to bed early and did not let their visitors back into it.
The result checks with what we were giving before kick-off: a home win at 68 per cent confidence. The prediction came in because Cardiff had been searching for consistency after a string of high-scoring games. Manchester, by then, had dropped points in three of their five matches and were looking for a way back to winning ways.
Cardiff now sit third on the table with two wins from two. Manchester remain sixth after five games, with two victories and three defeats. Both sides carry zero points on the board, which simply means the league has not yet started awarding them.
Cardiff's recent run before this match was a mixture of results: a 4:2 win over Manchester on September 18th, followed by a 2:3 loss to Coventry, then a 1:5 hammering from Guildford. They bounced back with a 5:3 win against Nottingham before falling 1:3 at Sheffield. This result ends that particular cycle of inconsistency.
Manchester have been more active this season with five matches played. They beat Glasgow twice and Guildford, but lost heavily to Nottingham and twice more. Their away record will need to improve if they want to climb out of the lower half.
