So, there could be no complaints really about the result on the day – Italy deserved their 1-0 win, but, even so, the way Wales missed out on qualifying, even as one of the four best second place teams, surely needs some examination by UEFA. I say this not as someone who sees conspiracies to keep “smaller” countries from qualifying around every corner, but as someone who just thinks that the methods by which my country was denied a place in the Play Offs for the Finals of the tournament, to be played in Denmark next summer are both illogical and unfair.

In saying that, I accept that the rules were in place when the qualifying phase started and, I suppose, the time to complain about them was then. However, the rules would still have been illogical and unfair if they had enabled Wales to qualify and UEFA really do need to look at a system which is, frankly, a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, goal difference is ignored to determine who wins a group as UEFA instead decide to go by results between the teams that finish level on points to decide things, but it is hard to see any justification as to why away goals (originally a method to reward attacking football over two leg European ties) should count double in just two games of a group why sides play eight times as the next means of separating teams with very similar records. On the other hand, having decided that goal difference is not acceptable as a way to decide who wins a group, UEFA decided that it should count as the means to differentiate between second placed sides who finished equal on points.

This isn’t sour grapes and I go back to the fact that a Welsh win in Luxembourg right at the start of the group would have meant that it wouldn’t have mattered what rules were in place in determining who qualified. However, it is worth wondering what would happen if it was Italy who had our record and us who had theirs. If we had made the Play Offs despite having a worse goal difference and Italy missed out because Iceland managed a goal difference of 14-0 in two games with San Marino, would the same rules apply for qualification for the next tournament – somehow I think not!

The other current talking point in Welsh International football is who will be taking over from John  Toshack as manager? Stories began to emerge over the weekend that Toshack was looking to step down following Friday’s very disappointing defeat in Montenegro and a press conference on the matter is scheduled for tomorrow. There seems little doubt that John Toshack is going, but there is still the possibility that he will stay in charge for the matches with Bulgaria and Switzerland next month – I think this would be a bad thing as it would leave him looking like a lame duck manager and, even if it is a only a temporary measure, having someone like Brian Flynn in charge for those two matches would, surely, be the better option?

Better still would be to have a new man installed when we next play and it has to be said that, with his fine record with the Under 21′s, Flynn has done much to put forward his claims for the senior job. As for other candidates, well there’s Chris Coleman who, let’s not forget, did a very job at Fulham before blotting his copybook somewhat at Real Sociedad and Coventry, but with someone like Martin O’Neill looking very unlikely to me, Ryan Giggs probably ruled out by his playing commitments and Gary Speed newly ensconced at Sheffield United, there doesn’t appear to be a list of impressive candidates that would fall within the FAW’s financial means. Perhaps, the lure of managing exceptional young talents such as Bale and Ramsey at International level might be enough to entice some other high quality candidates to apply, but, if that doesn’t happen, then, maybe, Flynn (who, seemingly, knows how to get performances out of the younger elements of the senior squad) is the best bet?

As for Wales’ chances of having a say in the qualification group for the seniors, well England’s impressive 3-1 win in Switzerland has them looking very well placed to go on and dominate the group, but I think that we could have hoped for better from the Bulgaria v Montenegro match which had the visitors winning 1-0. On the positive side, Bulgaria are already looking like they are out of the running and a home defeat for Switzerland helps the cause, but yesterday’s result also makes a home win in the Montenegro/Switzerland game, which is played the same night we face Bulgaria, look more likely. If that were to happen then, even a Wales win at Cardiff City Stadium would give Montenegro a six point cushion over the other teams which would take an awful lot of hauling back – whisper it quietly, but we might have to start wanting England wins soon!

The match with Charlton was my first chance to watch the Under 18′s play this season and with a large influx of new recruits (the programme for the Doncaster match profiled sixteen new first year scholars) it was my first look at the majority of yesterday’s squad, but it was one of the older players, captain Ibby Farah, who got things off to a very promising start with a superb left footed volley from twenty five yards which looped high over the Charlton keeper and into the net. Sadly, the team did not kick on from here though and, carelessly, gave away a free kick in a dangerous area when keeper Reece Ottley picked up a back pass.

City survived that scare, but didn’t learn their lesson. Regular readers of this blog may remember that a recurring theme of reports on Academy matches last season was how the side diced with death by insisting on building from the back when it wasn’t really on – somehow, they got away with it last season, but they didn’t yesterday as a ridiculous penalty for Charlton came about by players passing sideways across the face of goal when being quickly closed down by the opposition (while it’s a good thing that City’s youngsters are encouraged to express themselves by playing passing football from deep positions, surely part of their education should include a recognition of when such an approach is on and when the “Row Z” option should be used?).

In the event Charlton duly accepted their gift and the scoring was completed with only about a fifth of the game completed. What followed was a pretty undistinguished battle for supremacy by two sides who, largely, cancelled each other out. For me, Charlton had the better of the first half, while City, perhaps, edged the second period – we could have won it if Al- Basith’s well struck shot from twenty five yards had been a bit lower and a header by centreback Nugent had to be cleared off the line in the second half, but the visitors could point to their own near misses (including a good save by Ottley right at the death), so, all in all, a draw was a fair result.

Despite all of the new faces, it was one of the “oldies” who impressed me most. Besides his fine goal, Ibby Farah got stronger as the game went on and was the player who drove the side on as they tried to find a late winner with the way he would somehow emerge with the ball from tussles with a couple of Charlton players reminding me of Seyi Olofinjana. Farah responded well to the responsibility of being a senior player in the Under 18 team and, on this evidence, looks a good choice as captain.

On to teatime then and, first, a thank you to the Cardiff City mad messageboard contributors who found a link to coverage of Wales Under 21 teams game in Hungary. With Italy winning in Bosnia on Friday, long time group leaders Wales went into their last two matches with not even the runners up spot guaranteed. Hungary had been thrashed 4-1 at Wrexham by a side which had a lot of players who had featured in the group winning team of 2008, but yesterday’s side had a much more inexperienced look to it as they faced opponents who were just a point behind them and featured highly rated players such as Newcastle’s Tamás Kádár and Liverpool’s Krisztián Németh .

Wales found themselves under the cosh for much of the first half and were forced to defend desperately at times, but kept their goal intact and went on to start create a few promising situations of their own which gave an indicator of what was to come after the break. The second period saw the home side becoming increasingly desperate for the goal which they knew they had to get to keep any realistic hopes they had of topping the group alive – this was reflected in the number of fouls they were committing and yellow cards they were picking up as the Portugese referee became an increasingly busy man.

It was from one of the many free kicks they were given that Wales broke the deadlock on sixty eight minutes when substitute Ashley Richards’ wickedly hit free kick from out on the right touchline was touched on by Hal Robson-Kanu whose header from a good sixteen yards out bounced down and flew high into the net. Perhaps, the vital touch came from a Hungarian defender rather than the Reading forward, but Richards’ free kick was of such quality that it deserved the reward it got and Robson-Kanu became increasingly prominent as opportunities arose for Wales to pick the home team off on the counter attack.

The best of these opportunities came late on when Wales were awarded a penalty for a foul on Robson-Kanu by Hungarian captain András Debreceni which saw him given a second yellow card, but keeper Péter Gulácsi saved the goalscorer’s poor spot kick to keep home hopes alive for a little longer. Wales’ response in the closing stages was impressive though as they did an excellent job of winding the clock down to see the game out with few alarms.

A great win has the table looking like this ahead of Tuesday’s decider in Italy. Although Wales’ better goal difference would give them a significant advantage in other competitions which would protect them even in the event of a narrow defeat in Pescara, the rules of this tournament (which are set out in Des Parrott’s post at 18.38 here) appear to indicate that a 1-0 win for Italy would see them overtake Wales and book their place in the Play Off’s – if Wales do lose on Tuesday they need to do it by a one goal margin while scoring at least once and, to that end, the drafting in of Neil Eardley, Andy King and Simon Church from the senior squad has to help their chances. If Wales do find themselves in second place though, then they need to be one of the four best runners up in the ten qualifying groups to make it through to the Play Off stage which they reached in 2008 before losing to England, but, to be honest, it will need three or four other results to go our way for this to happen and so I would say the odds have to be against us making it through if Italy overtake us – that 0-0 draw in Luxembourg in our first match might still come back to haunt us.

Whatever happens though, Brian Flynn and his team deserve tremendous credit for what has been another excellent qualifying campaign, it’s just a shame that it has been done with so little input from Cardiff City players. The squad for the current round of matches contained five players from Swansea (with two more amongst those named on stand by) and two on Wrexham’s books whereas our sole representative was Adam Matthews. Likewise, a recently named Under 19 squad had three from Swansea and two from Wrexham with just Alex Evans on stand being from City – to balance things up a little, a recent Under 16 squad had nine youngsters from Cardiff in it compared to one from Swansea and one from Wrexham.

In the event, Matthews came close to scoring from a free kick early on in Hungary before picking up an injury which saw him substituted after a quarter of an hour and so the only, tenuous, Cardiff City link after that was provided by our former player Aaron Morris (who signed for Aldershot in the summer) who gave a typically solid performance in the heart of the defence.  With players such as Ibby Farah and Nat Jarvis doing well at Cardiff, you would like to think that this would be reflected in their selection in one of the various Wales age group squads, but, to my knowledge, that has never happened and it is concerning that there is so little Cardiff representation at the older end of the Wales youth set up.

Given the build up beforehand, it follows that now Wales have lost this “must win” game, many are saying that we are as good as out of the tournament already, but, although it’s certainly going to be tough to finish in the top two from now on, I’ll be surprised if all of the other sides in our group are able to pick up the three points we missed out on when it comes to their turn to visit Podgorica.

It’s hardly surprising that much of the criticism for what, it has to be admitted, was a poor performance is being directed at manager John Toshack. Speaking as someone who has tended to be supportive of him over the past six years, it is becoming harder to argue his cause because last night’s setback was just another chapter in a recent history which, mass squad withdrawals notwithstanding, has seen no sign of his squad progressing. Up until a year or so ago, when Wales lost it was often possible to cling on to some good things which suggested that things will get better soon, but lately you look at some of the players who came in two or three years ago and think that they are not making the progress that they seemed capable of when starring for the Under 21 team.

To a degree at least, John Toshack has to take responsibility for that lack of progression, but it also needs to be said that last night the manager was let down by the experienced players who I would guess he would have thought he could rely on. Craig Bellamy was poor by his standards, Sam Ricketts was very bad in the first half in particular and I’m afraid James Collins had a real night to forget. The worst thing that happened to Wales all night was when Collins lost it with Montenegro skipper Mirko Vucinic after he had headed just wide around the twenty five minute mark. Something went on there which was not clear on the television pictures but the two players squared up to each other straight after Vucinic had missed the chance and from then on it seemed that he decided to make life as miserable for Collins as he possibly could and as, on this evidence at least, the Roma striker is a tremendously gifted footballer, that was very miserable indeed.

Within seconds Vucinic had skinned Collins down Wales’ right hand side and when he did it again a few minutes later, the striker this time fired in the goal which decided the game. Besides that though, Vucinic dominated Collins in a way you see few strikers do in the Premiership – maybe, like a few others in the team, Collins was lacking in match fitness to a degree, but it was surprising to see him taken to the cleaners like he was.

Virtually everywhere you looked in the Welsh side there were players who fell short of their best. Although he made some good saves, I thought Wayne Hennessey looked like someone who has seen little first team football in the past year and when a keeper is beaten on the near post like he was last night, you have to wonder whether he had got his angles wrong. I’ve already mentioned Ricketts and Collins at the back, but Chris Gunter also struggled and in recent internationals has looked a worse player than he did when he first came into the team three years ago. In midfield, Joe Ledley and Dave Edwards weren’t so much poor as anonymous and Bellamy was another who looked like he could have done with more games, while up front Steve Morrison battled away but achieved little (the service to him was abysmal at times though).

No, for me, the only Wales players who performed to anything like their capabilities were Ashley Williams, David Vaughan before he tired and Gareth Bale, while it was also good to see Earnie prove that he does have something to offer at this level with his lively contribution after coming on for the last twenty minutes or so. Another sub, Simon Church did hit the bar and have a goal, rightly, disallowed late on as Wales came close to exploiting Montenegro’s nerves as they sought to protect their lead but, truth be told, the home side could and should have been out of sight by then as they found it much too easy to create chances against opponents who were comfortably second best for the majority of the match.

In many ways Montenegro were an impressive side, but they also had a cynical side which I believe will cost them dearly when they play away. The referee who, beforehand, John Toshack thought would favour the home side was fair in his decision making much of the time, but that stopped short of sending off two or three of the home players who had already been cautioned, with Dzudovic’s assault on the unfortunate Collins being worthy of a straight red. Montenegro’s treatment of dangerman Bale was a throwback to the 60s and 70s when every side had their own hatchet man who played the man throughout (with the ball being something of an afterthought) and they were allowed to get away with it in their compact, noisy and intimidating stadium, but, as I mentioned before, they’ll suffer if they use the same tactics away from home.

So, can Wales still make that top two? They can do, but a timid looking Bulgaria (on last night’s evidence anyway) will have to be beaten at Cardiff City Stadium and, given what happened last night, I’m guessing that this will have to be done in a stadium which is some way short of being full to capacity. Even if Bulgaria are beaten though, the odds have to favour a Swiss win when Wales travel there a few days later and that would leave them having to get something off England, home wins over Montenegro and the Swiss and a victory in Bulgaria to seal that second place – if Aaron Ramsey and Jack Collison can come back at something like their best, the likes of Collins and Bellamy put yesterday’s performance behind them and some of the youngsters start looking like the players they promised to be a while back it could be done but is anybody prepared to bet on it happening?

There was some movement out of the club yesterday as Anthony Gerrard signed for Hull on a season long loan deal which means that he and Seyi Olofinjana will be representing their new clubs when they clash at Cardiff City Stadium in ten days time when club football resumes after the current International break. Gerrard’s departure completes a rapid fall from grace at Cardiff for someone who was, arguably, our best central defender last season and comes amid rumours of a falling out with the management and of him returning to pre season training above the target weight set for him by the club – as I say, this is all rumour, but he certainly didn’t look like his old self in the League Cup tie with Burton I watched and, apparently, he didn’t have the best of matches in the League Cup defeat at Peterborough either.

Gerrard joins Ross McCormack in heading out of the exit door at Cardiff with the striker cum wingers move to Leeds being completed in time for him to make his debut for his new club as a sub in their 1-0 win at Watford on Saturday.  Surprise has been expressed at the widely quoted fee of £350,000 that Leeds paid for McCormack, and, when you consider that a year ago Hull were bidding nearly ten times that much for him, then it has to be admitted that, potentially, Leeds have got themselves a bargain. However, at virtually no time in the intervening year has McCormack showed anything like the form which led clubs to think in terms of paying a seven figure sum for him. Yes, McCormack didn’t always seem to have a fair crack of the whip recently, but his reaction to being left out was disappointing – it’s all very well hinting at “dark forces” being behind his departure from Cardiff, but there was no one else responsible for the well publicised court case he was involved in last year or the personal fitness issues which, increasingly, seemed to effect his performances.

With all the comings and goings over the past few months, it’s easy to lose track of how much our squad has changed from the one that fell at the last hurdle last season in the race for the Premiership. In the transfer window just closed, we lost the following players who featured in the first team last season;- Peter Enckelman (St. Johnstone), Mark Kennedy (Ipswich), Tony Capaldi, Anthony Gerrard (Hull), Joe Ledley (Celtic), Kelvin Etuhu (back to Man City), Riccy Scimeca (retired), Warren Feeney (Oldham), Josh Magennis (Aberdeen), Aaron Morris (Aldershot) and Ross McCormack (Leeds). Coming in for them have been;- Tom Heaton (Man Utd), Lee Naylor (Celtic), Martin John, Seyi Olofinjana (Hull), Danny Drinkwater (Man Utd), Jason Koumas (Wigan), Craig Bellamy (Man City) and Andy Keogh (Wolves) with the last five named being loan signings.

So what do all these changes have our squad looking like currently? Well, firstly, eleven players out (as well as a number of youngsters and certain unlamented off field members of staff leaving) makes a pretty big hole in last season’s wage bill and, secondly, despite all of the talk of more options for Dave Jones this season, the truth is that, barring an amazing breakthrough by a member of our Academy this season we have fewer players to choose from than we did last season.

Compared to last season I would judge this year’s intake as follows;-

Goalkeeper – the replacement of the increasingly error prone Enckelman with Tom Heaton (who has done well in his two matches so far) represents a definite improvement in my book.

Defence – we’ll miss Mark Kenedy’s influence on and off the pitch, but with Kevin McNaughton looking back to his best (injuries permitting), Adam Matthews, hopefully, continuing to develop, Darcy Blake being used there more and Lee Naylor coming  in, I think we can be a bit stronger at full back than we were. As for centreback, Gerrard and Blake were the best combination we had last season in my book and with one gone and the other, possibly, not seeing much action in that position, we have to be weaker in this area than we were.

Midfield – although his stock has definitely fallen with some since he left us, I still think Joe Ledley was a quality player at this level, but I’ll readily admit that, so far at least, we are missing him far less than I thought we would. This is almost entirely down to the Drinkwater/Olofinjana axis which has made such an impressive start to it’s association with Cardiff City – concerns over our central defence have to be tempered by the knowledge that, up to now, our two new central midfielders are making it very hard to get at them. With Peter Whittingham becoming more versatile, last season’s most creative player still to make an impact this time around and another player in Jason Koumas who has, consistently, been one of the best around in this league when he has played in the second tier to be added to the mix, I can’t see any logical reason for arguing that we have a worse midfield this time around.

Attack - I’m sure there will be times when people will say “if only we hadn’t sold Ross McCormack” over the next few months. It’s also true to say that Andy Keogh has found goals hard to come by at this level in the past and it shouldn’t be forgotten that Michael Chopra will be missing for a significant portion of the campaign, but, even allowing for all of this,  we look stronger up front this season – Bothroyd’s scoring goals, Keogh is a quality all round player at this level and we have a midfield that looks capable of weighing in with the goals.

On the face of it then, we look a stronger outfit than we did last year and I think it is safe to say that not one City fan genuinely felt a month ago that we would be able to bring in the quality new players that we have done as well as keep all of the players whose contracts run out nest summer. It also needs to be said that in the one area where I feel we are weaker, the likelihood is that we will be signing new players. There is a reserve team match arranged this afternoon in which Chris Riggott the talented if injury prone former Derby and Middlesbrough defender will get the chance to prove he is deserving of a contract and you can’t help thinking that, barring further injury problems, he will be signing for us soon. Riggott (who turns thirty today) is an out of contract player whose availability is not effected by the transfer window closing and the same applies to Calum Davenport who has also been linked with City – surely, the decision to release Gerrard was made in the knowledge that one or both of these players would be signing for us?

My analysis above of the four main parts of the team shows that I believe that we have a stronger squad this time around than we did last year when we came so close to going up and you may have noticed that I made no mention of Craig Bellamy in that analysis. I feel that our squad is, arguably, stronger before you even consider the merits of a player commonly considered to have been right up there with the best in the Premiership last season and in the two games he has played so far, all of the signs are that Championship defences just don’t know how to cope with him – it could be argued that he created both of our goals at Portsmouth without touching the ball!

When you add the Bellamy effect to what already looks a pretty potent mix then it’s easy to understand why there is so much excitement around at present. I read articles like this one by Nathan Blake  and threads on messageboards about us not losing a single game all season and think calm down, all you are doing is ratcheting up the pressure and expectation, but then I stop and consider how our squad compares with others and I have to admit that as of now, even without the centreback I think we need, I wouldn’t swap it with any other in the Championship – we have a great chance this season.

The reason for that is that I paid my first visit of the new season to Spytty Park yesterday to watch County take on Kidderminster Harriers in what I suppose comes close to being a local derby for them this season. An excellent draw at Luton in their last match could not mask the fact that Newport had made a pretty disappointing start to life back in the Conference and three draws and a defeat in their first four matches must have led to some doubts as to their ability to compete at the higher level. After a win yesterday though, I am sure thoughts among their supporters will be turning more towards those four Play off spots now than the four at the bottom to be avoided come the end of the season.

After a gap of more than twenty years, I’ve watched County three times since Christmas. Each time they have won 3-0 and, truth be told, yesterday’s victory was more conclusive than the ones I saw over Dorchester and Dover at a lower level last season. With a header against an upright and a few efforts which forced good saves from the impressive Thompson in the County goal, Kidderminster probably deserved a goal or two, but with four efforts cleared off the line by some desperate last ditch defending by the visitors, it is also true that Newport could easily have ended up with five or six.

County again impressed me with their clever short passing when they pushed forward, but, unlike last season, they also had the option of a target man to aim for if they wanted to go more direct. At first glance, the gangling Robbie Matthews (one of five ex Kidderminster players in the County squad) looked like a typical lower league journeyman beanpole centre forward who doesn’t have a clue what to do when the ball is at his feet, but that conclusion was soon proved to be wrong as he revealed some nifty footwork which saw him score with a well placed free kick from about twenty five yards, force a fine save from the keeper with another dead ball effort and leave three visiting defenders trailing with a run that a winger would have been proud of.

With Craig Read (who looks to me like a player who could handle the step up to the Football League) adding two penalties either side of half time for, firstly, a very harsh handball award and then for a trip on full back Bignot, the game was effectively won with thirty five minutes to go and County their foot off the gas after that as they became a bit self indulgent with the chances that they were still creating, but that is a minor criticism of what was a very good performance which suggests to me that a top half finish is very much on for them.

As for City, well with me not watching the game and not even listening to it on the radio, I think it’s best I leave any detailed analysis to others, but I would like to make a few observations about yesterday’s 2-0 win at Portsmouth which means that only a superior goal difference is keeping QPR above us at the top of the table;-

1. Isn’t it great that wins at places like Derby and Portsmouth are now considered to be fairly routine affairs.

2. I see that, despite Dave Jones singling him out for praise, Peter Whittingham’s display yesterday has some messageboard critics on his back – if there is one player on our books at the moment capable of identifying the “get stuck in” merchants amongst our support it is Mr Whittingham!.

3. I hope no one in the Premiership has noticed yet that Jay Bothroyd has added goals to his already considerable armoury this season.

4. It is beginning to look as if Craig Bellamy is causing problems for opponents merely by being on the pitch as they spend most of their time with half an eye on him even when the ball is fifty yards away!

5. Although they have serious issues about the depth of their squad, that Portsmouth starting eleven is too good to be at the bottom of the Championship isn’t it?

6. I reckon Steve McPhail will replace Seyi Olofinjana for the Hull match, but will Jason Koumas also get his first league start as a replacement for the departed Peter Whittingham? I’ll probably end up looking like an idiot in a couple of days time for this, but I’ll say no because I think Whits will still be a Cardiff City player when we next play.

I was not a big Elvis fan in 1977 – being into punk rock, the “Los Vegas Cabaret” Elvis in that awful, white one piece creation he wore was everything I abhorred in music at the time (there were also all those truly awful films to consider as well!). However, even for someone who felt like that about him back then, it was impossible to ignore or deny that an iconic figure in the development of music as we know it today had died.

The first I heard of what had happened came when I switched my car radio after watching Newport County play Portsmouth in a First Round, Second Leg League Cup match at Somerton Park. I had two friends with me and we were in a good mood getting into the car, but the laughter soon disappeared and a sense of amazement took over when we heard the news of the death of the man known simply as “the King” at the age of only forty two.

The reason we had been in such a good mood was that we had just watched what, to a relative neutral like myself at least, was a very funny football match which included perhaps the worst goalkeeping performance I have watched “live” by Portsmouth’s Steve Middleton.

Middleton was the sort of mediocre performer who was turning out for Pompey in those days of decline which saw the club in another financial nightmare. Only a few years earlier I had watched Pompey play at Ninian Park when they were the “moneybags” team of the Second Division. A Chairman by the name of John Deacon had bankrolled a spending spree by manager John Tindall which saw them being widely tipped for a return to the top flight, but the expensively assembled team could only manage some very ordinary results and the predictable problems associated with an under performing highly paid side and declining gates soon became evident when Deacon’s money ran out.

While City were heading back to the Second Division from the Third in May 1976, Portsmouth were heading in the opposite direction and they were to end the 1977/78 campaign at the bottom of the table as they began a three year stint in the basement during which they got increasingly used to sampling the “delights” of the folly that was Somerton Park! Therefore, a game between Newport and Portsmouth at that time was not quite the David and Goliath affair that many would expect it to be nowadays.

After a 3-1 win at Fratton Park three days earlier, Portsmouth came into the Second Leg as favourites but, once Middleton starting performing, that advantage soon disappeared. An early goal by Brian Clark (thinking about it, it was probably the last goal I saw him score) courtesy of a goalkeeping blunder had County right back in the tie as what I remember to be a pretty large Pompey contingent began to fear the worst. With Middleton being a former Southampton player, I daresay he wasn’t the most popular Portsmouth footballer anyway, but his error ridden performance that night (maybe he was a big Elvis fan?) must have had their supporters begging for him to be injured or sent off as he spread confusion and panic in a Pompey rearguard (which wasn’t too brilliant anyway).

Portsmouth were able to find the net themselves in the first half courtesy of a goal by Maitland (the only professional footballer ever to have that first name?) Pollock, but Middleton presented County’s towering centreback Ronnie Walker with a second goal and when that was soon followed by comical own goal by full back Billy Wilson, County were level in the tie and went in at half time probably as favourites to make it through to the Second Round.

Portsmouth manager Jimmy Dickinson (who was something of a legend at the club with his 764 appearances for them and 48 England caps) probably tore into a set of players who would have got nowhere near the Pompey team which he had featured in that won successive First Division Championships just after the Second World War and it had the desired effect as, despite Middleton’s worst efforts, County were kept out for the rest of the match and a single goal by visiting  Peter Ellis settled the tie in their favour.

Ten days ago it was the thirty third anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death and I have spent the vast majority of that time as a fan of his. The plethora of re released singles, old films of his, TV documentaries and books which followed his death reminded me of just what a talent he was and helped me become less of a musical snob as I realised that something didn’t have to be by someone I considered to be “cool” to be good – Elvis Presley probably deserved to be called “the King” even though a part of me will always think pathetic Portsmouth goalkeepers when I recall him!

16 August 1977

Newport County 3 (Clark, Walker R, Wilson OG) Portsmouth 2 (Pollock, Ellis)

County Plumley; Derrett, Walker R,  Jones, Bell; Preece, Walker S (Villars), Relish, Byrne, Clark, Woods

Portsmouth Middleton;  Roberts, Ellis, Cahill, Wilson; Pollock, Foster, Green, Mellows; Kemp, Gilchrist

HT 3-1

Att. 3,200

In recent years City have done a good job of winning at grounds which had been considered to be bogy grounds – in the past three seasons we have won at Carrow Road, Bloomfield Road, Ashton Gate and Portman Road all grounds where we had gone forty plus years since our previous victories there. By comparison, twenty four years without a win at London Road Peterborough seems pretty small (Barry) fry, but seeing as how I cannot remember a single thing about Peterborough 1 Cardiff 2 on 1 October 1986, I’d rate it as one of our biggest bogy grounds now – maybe we should have been grateful for that 4-4 last season, because I just associate the place with us getting beat.

Nigel Vaughan and Paul Wheeler were, allegedly, our goalscorers that day in a match which, apparently attracted a crowd of 2,600. I use the words “allegedly” and “apparently” there because I must say that I am not 100% convinced that this game ever took place – maybe City didn’t fancy (or couldn’t afford)  a journey across country and so agreed with Peterborough that the game could be decided on the outcome of a Subbuteo match between a Peterborough supporter and a City fan who lived in that area?

Anyway, for the second time in less than a year, City went to London Road last night and completely dominated a first half which ended with them in the lead and for the second time they didn’t leave with the win. Credit has to go to the home side for their 2-1 win achieved by doing what so few have been able to against Dave Jones’ Cardiff sides (i.e. win after conceding the first goal), but, from what I heard on the radio at least, City should have made sure of their progress into the Third Round of the League Cup well before Posh were able to launch their second half fightback.

There were some positives from last night – Jay Bothroyd continued his fine scoring form so far with a header from a Jason Koumas cross, Koumas got a full ninety minutes and Steve McPhail and Aaron Wildig both got some match time in. It was also encouraging to see a continuance of a policy which has seen a lot more tactical flexibility from us so far this season (it could be argued that Dave Jones’ hand was forced into opting for 4-5-1 last night mind), but with some of those who are short of matches tiring as the game wore on and others, apparently, being unable to effectively clear their lines when defending, City became increasingly indebted to Tom Heaton for keeping their lead intact as the match approached it’s last fifteen minutes. Listening to the game on the radio though there seemed to be an inevitability about Peterborough’s equaliser and then, after that, their winner.

So, following an incredible week which has seen us the focus of so much national media attention, it was back to reality somewhat last night as an under strength team (which appeared to be disrupted by the first half loss of the influential Seyi Olofinjana with what  was, hopefully, a minor injury) , lost to a side who had scored eleven goals in winning their first three home matches – hardly a huge shock then and if it convinces a few people who have been going over the top about our prospects for this season that we aren’t another Barcelona yet, then there’s hope that some good will come off it.

If Ross McCormack and Gavin Rae had featured in City’s eighteen last night then, perhaps, there would have been a different outcome, but those two players were, apparently, up in Leeds discussing a deal which could, reportedly, net the club £750,000. When you consider that this time last year we were turning down multi million pound bids for McCormack, you can gauge how much his stock has fallen in the mean time. That said, McCormack is the type of player who may well come back to haunt us somewhere down the line and that fee might easily turn out to be a source of some embarrassment, but, especially, when you consider the players we have brought in recently, it’s hard to see him featuring much for City this season.

The notion that a move might be the best thing for McCormack is only emphasised further by the news that the Wolves’ Official website had confirmed that their striker Andy Keogh would be joining us on another season long loan deal. Dublin born Keogh has won twelve caps for his country and is a player who can operate in a variety of forward positions. Perhaps it this versatility which explains a scoring record which (if you include International appearances) works out at one goal every five games – he certainly had his critics amongst the Wolves fans, but is that based purely on the fact that he isn’t a prolific scorer?

It goes without saying that those who watch him week in week out at Molineux should be better placed to judge him than I am, but I have to say that Keogh is a player I’ve liked for some time. He strikes me as having a good all round game, is pretty quick and works really hard for the team’s cause. Perhaps he might not be the twenty goals a season man that so many teams are pining for these days, but you would like to think that, with our fire power, this isn’t the only consideration when Dave Jones is looking for a striker – Keogh appeared as a sub for Wolves in their opening day win over Stoke ten days ago and his manager seems to always have plenty of good things to say about him, I’ll take his opinions over his critics at Wolves for now.

It didn’t look like it would end up like that though in the opening stages as Doncaster, relishing their role as potential party poopers, enjoyed a supremacy which had a bit to do with an understandable nervousness on City’s part, but more to do with the fact that we were seeing a scenario unfolding which had become familiar over the past two seasons and more. In his post match press conference, Dave Jones defied the assembled hacks to name the formation that his team had used. Well, until Michael Chopra went off, I thought it was all too easy to identify how we were set up – it was with a very rigid 4-4-2 which seemed to me to play right into the hands of a side that values possession of the ball as much as Doncaster do.

City have struggled against some sides using 4-5-1 when the opposition are good enough passers of the ball to be able to exploit the three v two advantage they enjoy in central midfield as they work their way forward playing the ball around our two banks of four. When you consider that the one description that most supporters would probably come up with when asked to describe how Doncaster play would be “a good passing team”, the opening half hour turned out to be  all pretty predictable as far as I was concerned – if you are going to set up like City did against a team like Doncaster, then you have to accept that you are not going to get a fifty per cent share of the ball.Although City had their goalscoring chances in the opening stages of the game, they tended to come about through individual moments of good play which didn’t change the general theme of Doncaster dominance in the middle of the park and I don’t think I was the only City fan who wondered if the substitution of Michael Chopra by Chris Burke was a tactical switch even though it was still so early in the game. As it turned out, the change which transformed the game seemed to have more to do with accident than design, but, even so, Dave Jones deserves credit for ignoring what seemed to be the more obvious option of moving Craig Bellamy up alongside Jay Bothroyd while using Burke and Peter Whittingham on the flanks.

Instead of that though, Whittingham came infield and in the last hour or so, Dave Jones’ point about it being hard to pin down what our system was became much more valid. Crucially though it became three against three in central midfield and from that point on, it seemed to me that the result was never in doubt – the margin of victory may have flattered us a bit, but there could be no doubt who the better side had been. By making it an even contest in central midfield, we were able to see more of what Seyo Olofinjana and Danny Drinkwater can offer us – in Olofinjana’s case that included an ability to use those long legs to keep possession of the ball when it just looks to be getting away from him, good use of the ball and an ability to sometimes get forward in open play, while Drinkwater again showed good ball winning skills, neat passing and a very impressive ability to make runs beyond the front men in the dying moments of the game.

It is a big compliment to City to say that by the end of the match, they had outDoncastered Doncaster if you get my meaning – they had taken on and got the better of their opponents in the area of the pitch where they are strongest and it seems to me that in doing that, the Cardiff City 2010/11 model possesses options that previously models did not. Dave Jones more or less acknowledged this after the game when he said he hadn’t had the players to switch things around tactically so much in the past.

Dave Jones’ point about it being hard to pin down how we were set up after that was proven by the performance of Chris Burke really. He certainly played down the left and played down the right yesterday, but any more of the way he played against Doncaster and the words of the Cardiff City version of Sloop John B will have to be changed to incorporate the addition of the words “he plays down the middle” somehow. In a team which featured many fine performances yesterday, Burke’s was, perhaps, the most impressive with his cross from the right which, as was remarked on City messageboards yesterday, enabled Jay Bothroyd to provide a perfect memorial for Brian Clark with a classic far post headed centre forward’s goal, which showed him in his “normal” role, to his goal which had him charging through the middle to outpace centre halves like a Chopra or Bellamy might hope to do, Burke reacted in the best possible manner to his unlucky omission from the starting eleven after a good performance at Derby.

Others worthy of a mention were Jay Bothroyd who, again, looked the complete target man at this level and Lee Naylor who did well when coming on after the worrying early loss of Kevin McNaughton with what looked like another hamstring problem. With Darcy Blake having cried off with an injury picked up in the pre game warm up, Naylor, who had only signed for us on Friday, was a very late call up to our substitute’s bench and then found himself coming on with the match less than twenty minutes old. Despite his lack of match practice, Naylor did well enough defensively and put in one superb cross which suggested that he has not lost the ability he had at Wolves to provide a quality service to the strikers while he was up in Scotland.

However, if you are talking about individuals, it has to all get around to Craig Bellamy in the end and, after a start which he admitted reflected the tension he was feeling, he settled down to become a major factor in our win with two assists (the second of which was a sixty yard pass to Burke while he was back defending by the corner flag) and a stunning free kick goal from more than thirty yards out which was pure Roy of the Rovers. Bellamy left the pitch to a rapturous reception with three minutes of normal time left and that gave Jason Koumas a chance of a bit more match action.

Mention of Koumas’ very brief cameo brings me on to what yesterday’s performance means in terms of what we can expect from the team for the rest of this season. Well, going back a year this weekend, City came up with a brilliant performance in beating Bristol City 3-0 – to my mind, how we played that day compares well with anything I have seen from a Cardiff City team over the past forty odd years, but, watching it, you got the feeling that this was as good as it could get for that team. While, that display against the Wurzels was a more complete one, I left the ground yesterday telling myself to stop those thoughts that were circulating in my brain that I had just watched an automatic promotion team in action because all that does is ramp up the expectation levels that bit further. Having slept on it though, I’m afraid the feeling is still there and the main reason for that is that it seems clear to me that there is quite a bit more to come from this team yet.