Anyone else agree with me when I suggest that if the half time score today had been City 0 Birmingham 2, as opposed to Birmingham 2 City 0, I would have accepted that the game was lost? By contrast, unlikely as it seemed at the time, I felt that a comeback was still on for us simply because we were playing away.
Two of our four away wins have come from positions of 1-0 down, but, more impressively, we were two down at Peterborough very late in the match and three down at Stoke early in the second period and returned from both of them with a draw. Now we’ve made it a hat trick of away comebacks from at least two down as we made it four unbeaten away matches now under Steve Morison with our two today making it nine goals scored in those matches.
In a season where so much about City gives their supporters cause for concern, it is mightily impressive that we have now picked up nine points in five away matches that we were losing at one time, but, what has to be seen as a freak result against Huddersfield given our abysmal home form apart, we lose every time we go behind at Cardiff City Stadium.
Certainly, under our current manager, there’s a never say die attitude in the team when they play away that supporters have cottoned on to which, clearly, is making us a hard team to deny once team and supporters are almost acting in unison, but it’s just not the same when we’re playing at Cardiff City Stadium.
Why this is, it’s hard to tell. There was about fifteen to twenty minutes at Stoke when we were 3-0 down where it sounded like the fans had started to take the piss out of the team. I can’t think of anything more soul destroying for a player or team than that, but as it seemed like we were on our way to a ninth straight loss that afternoon, it was, I suppose, understandable. The point is though that for ninety nine per cent of the time it has felt like the away support has been right behind the team.
It’s not the same at home, but, then again, supporters who only get to home games are not seeing the City side that are turning so many potential defeats into draws and wins, they are seeing a pale shadow of that team that is giving them little or nothing to get excited about.
So, we get into a viscous circle whereby the players know that the home support may well turn on them as they’ve done before this season and this makes them nervous and overly cautious as they choose safer options than they’d use in away games. This only makes supporters more frustrated and so a situation whereby half of the away team’s work is already done for them arises.
The thing which offers hope is that, not too long ago, the situation was the same away from home. As mentioned before, having those who are supposed be behind you taking the mickey out of you instead must be terrible – I’d find that far worse than the boos and catcalls that have been heard at many home matches this season.
However, from somewhere, the team found a way at Stoke to get their support right behind them by the time the match had finished and, if they can, do that from such a position, they surely have it within them to break out of the destructive home rut they are in which is ensuring that they are not gaining the benefits that their away results merit.
On to the game today then, City, predictably, replaced suspended captain Sean Morrison (who is only out for the one game following last week’s sending off) with Aden Flint. Equally predictable was the return of Rubin Colwill and Keiffer Moore, although I was disappointed that it was the pair of young forwards who did well last week, Mark Harris and Isaak Davies, who made way for them.
All of this meant that the Moore/James Collins striking combination was given another rare outing and it was the latter who was prominent during an encouraging first few minutes as he couldn’t quite get in to the right position to volley captain Joe Ralls’ cross and, instead produced an air shot. Within seconds, Collins was sending over a good cross himself which Moore maybe should have done better with than shoot over from six yards while somewhat off balance.
Gradually though two things began to happen. First Birmingham established a parity in the game and, second, the stream I was watching became more and more unreliable, resulting in me only being able to watch about a quarter of an hour of the first half.
The bits I did see showed Birmingham dealing well with our aerial threat from dead balls and winning too many second balls and fifty/fifties. I didn’t see the first goal until after the game and, when I did, I was struck by how, once again, a single pass played through the middle caused consternation in our defence. This time though the pass, played by Australian international Riley McGree, didn’t completely split us open, because when the ball reached Troy Deeney, he still had Perry Ng around on the cover to go past. However, the veteran was easily able to brush Ng’s weak challenge aside and shoot past Alex Smithies from around fifteen yards.
It was yet another poor goal conceded in a long line of them this season. Next week’s home match with Derby will see us reach the halfway point of our league campaign and, at best, we’ll get there with a total of two clean sheets earned! It’s also worth noting that we let in two in both of our League Cup matches and that Birmingham, who are fifteenth in the table and so are hardly setting the world on fire themselves, have had nine of them so far.
In the couple of minutes leading up to half time, my stream starting to work and did so for the rest of the match, so I saw home defender Kristian Pedersen head over from an unmarked central position six yards out, but when a long throw from Marlon Pack was cleared by the home defence, they were able to break quickly against our lumbering back line and midfield as McGree found Ivan Sunjic was shot past Smithies easily to finish off a very quick and effective counter attack – credit to Birmingham for striking so quickly, but they were helped along the way by some dozy defending. Lee Bowyer had talked pre game about his side standing up to our aerial threat and physical power and in that first half they did more than that, they dominated for the whole half in terms of physicality.
City did little in the early stages of the second half to suggest a change in the game’s momentum and they would have needed a comeback of Stoke like standards if Deeney’s early header had not passed a foot or so wide of the upright.
City eventually brought on Harris and Davies for Collins and Curtis Nelson as they switched to a kind of 4-3-3 with the two subs taking up wide positions in what could be equally be described as a 4-5-1. It wasn’t too long afterwards that Morison made a further substitution as Will Vaulks came on for Pack who had found things something of a struggle with the sort of performance his critics feed off.
The difference the three new players made was instantaneous. Davies’ pace caused two Birmingham players to be cautioned and won opportunities to test Birmingham aerially from the free kicks gained, while Harris helped ensure Ryan Giles, still getting forward as much as he could, was more of an influence.
For most of the game, Birmingham had coped well with our aerial threat, but Flint was able to guide a far post header across goal to where former City loan player Dion Sanderson got into a spot of bother as he directed his header straight to an unmarked Davies eight yards out, but, possibly not up to match speed yet, the youngster could only send his header straight at Matija Sarkic in the home goal.
Harris and Davies were making a difference, but, hardly surprisingly, City’s desire for the goal that would give them a chance of getting something from the game saw them take more risks at the back and the home side came close to what would probably be a match clinching third goal on a few occasions, but when Colwill hooked a long ball forward, City suddenly had a three on two advantage which they took in somewhat lucky fashion as the ball hit Harris and bounced into the path of Moore who finished emphatically and impressively from just outside the penalty area.
The striker soon had another of those half chances from close in where he looked off balance as he fired well over after Flint had glanced on a Vaulks throw as we slowly began to overturn Birmingham’s earlier dominance of set pieces in their defensive areas.
I thought our opponents were still getting too many important touches on the ball in our defensive areas though and we were lucky when sub Chuks Aneke missed a good chance within seconds of coming on, while Smithies made a decent save from a well struck free kick from full back Jordan Graham.
City were making the game into one which suited them more though as, still without looking too clever in midfield and at the back, they began to start getting more crosses into the box.
Davies and Harris had also given us qualities which Birmingham were finding harder to cope with and just as the stadium announcer was giving details of the five minutes of added time to be played, Mark McGuinness showed great determination and strength to make himself first to Ralls’ corner and crashed home an unstoppable header from six yards.
Yes, the equaliser, and much of our recovery, was based on the old Cardiff City and not the new one, but I see no need to ditch the parts of the old approach which have generally worked well for us in the past and, self evidently, we still pose a threat from attacking set pieces.
We looked the more likely winners in the time which remained, but the game ended with us having more of the ball and a lot more goal attempts on and off target, yet I couldn’t help thinking that we’d drawn more because Birmingham had thrown away two points than us being fully deserving of our point. Things still don’t look right defensively and with Pack this time finding it a struggle, we still look weak and inconsistent in midfield as, as it’s been all season, experienced players failing to live up to the standards they’ve set in previous years.
The impression still exists that it is the younger players breaking into the team who are doing most to make you think we can stay up this season – Morison is turning watching us play into a more enjoyable experience akin to an adventure, but it’s still an adventure in which you can’t predict with any certainty how it will end.
Yesterday saw the end of City under 23s one hundred per cent winning adventure this season as they went down by a single goal at Millwall with a slightly weakened team (for example Olly Denham was missing as he was needed on the bench for the senior team and it looks like Isaak Davies’ days of featuring regularly at this level may now be over).
It must have been something of an anti climax for the under 18s to face the same Watford side which had beaten them in the Youth Cup on Wednesday and it was probably no surprise to see the game at Leckwith end 1-1 as Cian Ashford levelled things within the opening twenty minutes following an early goal for the visitors. City wasted a great chance to get the win late on though when James Crole fired over from the penalty spot after he had been fouled in the box.
No game for Ton Pentre in the Ardal Leagues South West this weekend, but a mention for Porth who last week gained a first win of the season last week with an impressive 1-0 home win over Ynysygerwn who were third in the table at the time, but it was back to normal for the bottom team this week as they went down 3-1 at Dinas Powys.
Blaenrhondda we’re also beaten 1-0 at home by the leaders of Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier League Baglan Dragons, while Treherbert Boys and Girls Club won 3-0 at Cogan Coronation on a day when second placed Aberfan were being beaten at home to strengthen their grip on top spot in the Second Division.
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It was really interesting to see Birmingham exploit one of our strengths (attacking corners) into their 1st goal with one good pass from their keeper bypassing 8 of our outfield players. Several comments about NG not doing well enough in the attempted tackle but the unidentified player at RB (Giles?) and his positioning seem off before that so NG ends up marking two players alone before aforementioned missed tackle on Deeney.
2nd goal again saw us too open at the back (another counter attack from our attacking corner?) with it being four on four in our defensive half. Walesonline rankings say Neslon was done for pace but he keeps up with the man he’s covering and it’s i) Pack who loses his man due to lack of pace and ii) Giles left alone to mark two Birmingham players.
You can wind the tape back even further on 2nd goal to show that they had four players sprinting into our own half whereas we weren’t showing that energy or that two of our players were drawn to one of their men without being able to win the ball.
Our 1st goal is a counter-attack from their set-piece with one hoof bypassing 9 of their outfield players and us having a three on three in their half, our 2nd goal is an attacking corner. The football God’s giveth and taketh away to both sides.
Next week is a massive game – we’ve unfortunately struggled in those thus far this season – with a Derby side clearly better than the table shows in town. They’ve been resolute defensively so far and have scored some nice goals on the break so we need the home crowd to act as away fans have been doing and support the team from minute one all the way to the end.
Even when I finally got to see Birmingham’s fist goal DJ, I couldn’t tell whether it was a good pass by their keeper or just a hopeful punt upfield because there was a jump in the picture which meant that the trajectory of his kick was bot shown, but there’s a different shot of it on the extended highlights on the club website and I agree that it was a well executed kick which reached its intended target.
There was a messageboard discussion yesterday about whether it was time to ditch three at the back or not, I argued that there was nothing wrong with the system and that the likelihood was that players such as Morrison and Nelson would be struggling this season even if we had four at the back. For me, our defensive problems this season are not down to systems, they’re down to previously reliable players at this level not being able to perform to their normal levels for whatever reason. On Saturday we had Ng doing exactly what he should have done in a position like the one he found himself in where he came across on the cover to deal with a threat in a central area, but then was easily brushed aside by Deeney – Ng knew what to do and, to a point, he reacted as he should have done, but then you get the individual error part where he puts in a weak tackle for another example of the sort of error which is costing us dearly.
I agree with you about the second Birmingham goal – this time the error was more a collective one than an individual one, because, as you say, Birmingham players were able to sprint past ours and, once that had happened, we were always in trouble.
As for Saturday, I can’t help thinking that, given Derby’s defensive record, the most likely way we can win the game is by 1-0, but I’ve lost all faith in our ability to achieve shut outs and so I’d say we need to hit Derby’s old, not aging, defence with pace, which means Isaak Davies and, possibly, Mark Harris starting – I think Keiffer has a big role to play if we are to win.