By SCM Staff Writer
CARDIFF CITY STADIUM – It was meant to be a showcase for the future, a night for the Bluebirds’ bright young things to shine under the powerful lights of the Cardiff City Stadium.
Instead, this stunning 33,000-seat arena became the stage for a spectacular, five-goal mugging as AFC Wimbledon ripped the Welsh side to shreds in a frankly embarrassing 1-5 EFL Trophy defeat.
In a ground built for Premier League thunder, the atmosphere was more library than football fortress.
A paltry 2,107 souls turned up, leaving the vast, silent blue seats as stark witnesses to the home side’s complete capitulation. The stadium, a symbol of Cardiff’s ambition, ended up magnifying the defeat, turning a simple cup exit into a high-definition humiliation.
The evening belonged to one man and his magnificent boot: Aron Sasu.
The Wimbledon forward treated the turf of the imposing stadium like his own private shooting range, netting four clinical goals that simply silenced what little noise there was.
Sasu opened the scoring in the 29th minute, but it was after the interval when the Dons really put on their Wild West show. Sasu struck again just seconds into the second half (46’) before Omar Bugiel added a third (49’). Sasu completed his hat-trick five minutes later (54’) and, for good measure, drilled home his fourth in the 76th minute.
Cardiff’s youthful defence was left chasing shadows in their own cavernous backyard.
The vast, modern stands seemed to close in on the shell-shocked youngsters, who managed nothing more than a late, consolation free-kick from Luey Giles in the 88th minute—a strike that only served to register their presence on the scoreboard, not their resistance.
Wimbledon’s demolition job was clinical, ruthless, and highly enjoyable for the travelling faithful.
For Cardiff, the embarrassment of a five-star pasting in a near-empty stadium is a result they’ll desperately want to sweep under the blue carpets of their magnificent, yet mortified, home ground.
