Scruffy goal, scruffy game, but Cardiff steal a march on other promotion chasing clubs.

14 Responses to Scruffy goal, scruffy game, but Cardiff steal a march on other promotion chasing clubs.

1. Russell says:

   February 22, 2018 at 9:05 am

   Thanks Paul for the summary a win which I thought was unlikely knowing our record at Portman Road and the make up of the side , think it does show the manager has resilance right through the squad.

   Like you it does worry me why our youngsters are not considered to be at least bench players during this dark era of fullback itist.

   Big decesion to put Marine on though , he caused chaos as soon as he entered the game and thats a big plus for us as is the returning Bryson .

   Brizzies next.
2. BJA says:

   February 22, 2018 at 10:43 am

   Thanks Paul – As ever a thoughtful piece of writing. I had not realised that the match was being broadcast, so received my news from “live” reporting on my I Pad, not the best way to stay in touch, whilst watching Derby and Leeds battle it out.
   What a remarkably good few days for us – both from our winning performances and our rivals losing ground. Some tough fixtures ahead, but surely, surely we can now make the play offs, if not better.
   Taking off Gruzic and replacing him with Madine seemed a master stroke, and one that I would not have envisaged. It gave the Ipswich defence a more difficult time. Was our Serbian injured? And as for the skipper, what has he done that required him to be substituted before the interval. We certainly need him back sooner than later.
   Surprised to see Mendez-Laing have a run out, but have no idea how he performed, just hope that he put in a good shift and that he was up to the mark defensively bearing in mind our injury problems. It would also be good to see him back to his early season best from an attacking perspective because we cannot rely on Hoillett every game.
   Amazing that we now have so many full backs out of action, but that NW seems to be able to shuffle our pack with great enterprise. No wonder he has been successful over the years. But he is not every player’s favourite. In this morning’s Daily Telegraph there is an article by the 45 year old Barry Hayles, still playing in some minor league and two games from a Wembley appearance if his team makes it to the FA Vase Final. Hayles, who played for a number of clubs in his League career, is scathing about his treatment by NW when at Sheffield Utd. and has no doubt that our supremo is the worst manager that he ever played under. I wonder what our current bunch think?
   According to our to the programme for the last home game against the ‘Boro, 32 different players have appeared for us in the league so fat this season, and only Joe Ralls joined us a youngster, although Kadeem Harris and Rhys Healey had fledgling careers before moving to us as teenagers. I do hope that one or two of our U 23 team have a chance before the season is over, if only to sit on the bench with a possible appearance when a game is clearly won. As ever, I think of young Spence.
   I note that our next four matches are against teams beginning with the letter “B”. Fingers crossed that they don’t prove to be “b…..s”.
3. Colin Phillips says:

   February 22, 2018 at 11:04 am

   Thanks, Paul.

   Yes a very important win however scruffy. When I saw the line-up I thought we would struggle, like you I had no confidence in Connolly as a left-back and I’m still not convinced by Manga at right-back. Very glad I was wrong and we were able to achieve another clean sheet. As everyone has said on the forum I read and on here the injury to Morrison is a concern. It would be a real shame if he had a spell out now.

   From what I’ve read we lived up to TV pundits expectations last night, except for winning. Watching Derby – Leeds and that annoying after-timer Andy Hinchcliffe took the opportunity to have a go at our style of play when they showed the Cardiff goal; they can’t help themselves can they. Mind you it’s quite strange watching a game between two teams you dislike intensely hoping that it is going to be a draw. Glad to say in the last couple of days my hopes have come to fruition.

   Are you living in Treherbert yet?
4. Anthony Evans says:

   February 22, 2018 at 12:23 pm

   Hi Paul
   Thanks for the game review. As an expat, a compensation for not going to the live games is that I get to watch pretty much all of them on iPlayer.

   To be honest, it was a bit painful to watch last night but considering the changes we had to make, it really was a fantastic result. I share the comments about the lack of youngsters coming through but is an away trip to Ipswich, at such a vital time, the place to blood the kids? I would side with NW on this and stick to experience as promotion must be the absolute key focus.

   Over the last few games, we’ve got a number of players not playing at their best but still pulling the results out of the bag, so this for me is a great omen going forward.

   If I recall correctly, Morrison had a bit of a heavy challenge just before he went off so hopefully this is a knock more than something more longterm.

   Gary Madine changed the game when he came on so big credit to NW for this change. Bit surprised that many see him as being behind Zohore in the pecking order, as I think his physical presence causes the opposition major issues. Just look at the way he was targeted by Leeds and Millwall.

   This little gap we’ve opened throws down the gauntlet to Derby and Villa and I think if we can keep our run going for the next couple of games, we’ll be looking good when the daffodils start coming up. We’re getting to the stage where we are counting down games now which will hopefully force the rest to take some risks to try and catch us.

   Fingers crossed we get some bodies back for the Wurzzles and even if not, I believe we’ll have too much for them.

   Major dissapointment is that we are not getting bigger crowds. What else does the club need to do?

   Anyway, exciting times ahead.
5. Richard Holt says:

   February 22, 2018 at 1:44 pm

   Thanks for the write up Paul. I suppose it was inevitable that once we began to build up Sean Morrison as THE indispensable cog in City’s machine then he would succumb to an injury which now threatens to put our (well my anyway) theory to the test for a few games. If he does miss some matches, it goes without saying I’d be more than happy for the theory to be firmly debunked but despite our defensive gallantry last night I’ve a feeling that Bristol City and particularly Brentford could pose a more severe test.
   Anyway what is certain is that we will enter March in 2nd place and I don’t think there are too many City fans who would honestly have imagined such a situation on New Year’s Day. Nothing is certain of course but I do think it would have to be a pretty disappointing run of form over our last 13 games if we were to miss out on a top six place. I’ve been looking at our points return from our final 13 games over our last ten Championship seasons and not since 2007/08 when we managed just 8 points from our last 13 games have we gained less than 17 points from those final fixtures (that was our total in the promotion season of 2012/13 and last season). Twice we’ve got 22 points (2010/11 and 2011/12) and our best return was 24 points in 2009/10. It would seem reasonable to expect therefore a final total of at least 80 points which should see us safely in the play-offs at least. Certainly it would need relegation form from now on for us not to achieve that – but then this is Cardiff City so who knows.
6. Adrian Lloyd Pickrell says:

   February 23, 2018 at 9:05 am

   Thanks for the report Paul, always grateful for them.
   I am always concerned about Ipswich away. I have no stats to back it up but like Russel I have it parked in my head that we are none too lucky at Portman road. I would have been happy with a draw, so scruffy goal or not.. I am really happy with three wonderful points at Ipswich.
7. Anthony O'Brien says:

   February 23, 2018 at 9:19 am

   The almost panic reaction to Morrison’s injury and possible time out misses the point that our poor results over Christmas were not necessarily due to his absence. To my mind they were due to our lack of forward firepower. While not discounting the value of our captain’s contributions, I’d like to point out that we have at least three or four very competent centre backs to rely on. The other encouraging augury is the fact that we now have a genuine and effective centre forward. In all the excitement that Zohore actually scored a goal at long last, little praise has been forthcoming in respect of Madine’s contribution which. in addition to his all-round display, gave Zohore a comparatively easy chance (which he almost failed to take). As my namesake Anthony Evans states above, Madine is — or certainly should be — ahead of Zohore in the pecking order. If Madine does not lead the attack on Sunday it must surely mean that he has an injury problem. I can think of no other reason why he will not be our first-choice centre forward in the weeks to come.
8. HarryKirtley'sGhost says:

   February 23, 2018 at 10:03 am

   A lovely detailed positively FORENSIC analysis from you Paul. I have read it three times all the way through, and luxuriated in your thought patterns.

   Without being a Jeremiah, I have to say that it is not so much the two Bs we encounter in the next week that worry me, so much as the trips to Villa Park and Bramall Lane. But hey, as you say, it is great to be positioned where we are, and we surely now stand a very good chance of making the playoffs…and there, as we all know, if Lady Luck smiles, she smiles…and we can make it to the EPL.

   One trivial point though before signing off…
   Your headline mentions “stealing a march on”.
   Is that really fair…?
   A scrappy goal, for sure, but nothing sly or unfair in gaining that advantage, surely?
9. The other Bob Wilson says:

   February 23, 2018 at 12:27 pm

   Once again, thanks for a great set of replies – a few quick points from me in response.
   Russell, I watched those two full backs yesterday in what was a miserable 3-0 defeat by Blackburn, but they were among our best three players in my view.
   BJA, regarding Barry Hayles, Neil Warnock is a “marmite” type manager among supporters and I daresay it’s the same with players. As for Grujic, he wasn’t mentioned in Neil Warnock’s report on injured players (Bennett should be back, Paterson might be, Traore is out for a week, Peltier for at least a month and Morrison will be missing for “days, not weeks” and has a chance of making it for Sunday), so, presumably, he was taken off for tactical reasons at Ipswich.
   Colin, no I think I’m still a few weeks off moving yet, but at least everything seems to be progressing smoothly.
   Anthony, I think it’s easy to fall into a trap with young players whereby you keep on saying now isn’t the right time to use them if you’re close to the top or bottom of the league you are in and you end up only giving them a game or two in non competitive end of season mid table encounters where you learn little about how they’ll fare in the heat of battle. Of course, these youngsters need to be good enough first and foremost, but at the moment it’s hard to see a way into the first team squad, let alone team, for any teenager on our books.
   Those are encouraging figures Richard – once we get our next two games out of the way, we have a run in which has a very tough three game spell in the middle, but, Derby apart, what comes before and after that seem to me to be games we’d be looking, and maybe expecting, to win – anything less than the early eighties would be a very disappointing return now.
   Adrian, I think we’ve won at Ipswich three times in the last decade or so, but it looks like we have to go back all the way to 1946 for the one previous to that – I know they were saying it was our first double over Ipswich in seventy one years on Radio Wales.
   Anthony, I’d like top see more of Madine before coming to a decision about who should be first choice (I can see us playing two up front sometimes, but I think we’ll stick with a lone striker in most matches). So far, we’ve had a very good win and a battling draw in the matches he’s started (I thought he was pretty quiet at Millwall), while we definitely played better after he came on in midweek. On the other hand, Zohore is playing a lot better now and we won a couple of matches while Madine was absent. I think it may well depend on horses for courses – Bristol have the giant Flint at the back and played a couple of centrebacks at full back on Wednesday, so would an aerial approach be suitable against them? I’d like to see us try to move them around a bit.
   Dai, probably wrongly (I suppose “steal” is a bit of a clue!), I’ve always seen, and used, “steal a march” as meaning to gain an advantage, which doesn’t have to be by unfair means. Although there was some dispute about our goal, I don’t think we did anything dodgy to secure our win.
10. Colin Phillips says:

    February 23, 2018 at 2:12 pm

    steal a march on sb. ? If you steal a march on someone, you get an advantage over that person by acting before they do: Our rival company managed to steal a march on us by bringing out their software ahead of ours.

    Just saying!
11. Grange Exile says:

    February 23, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    Really enjoyable blog–thank you.
    With NW’s Sheffield background, could it perhaps be steel/steeling a march?
12. HarryKirtley'sGhost says:

    February 23, 2018 at 8:15 pm

    It is the way language has changed, I guess Colin.
    It now means what you say it does.

    All languages change …and they all follow the line of least resistance.

    If enough people make a mistake, the dictionaries eventually print it.

    I can remember when I was a boy “disinterested” was a special word meaning “having no vested interest”.

    Now, alas, this past twenty years it has merged with “uninterested” in the minds of many.

    And I can give you a hundred other examples.

    Now, when I was a boy, “steal a march on” meant to gain an advantage by clandestine – and often unfair – means. I was simply pointing out that there was nothing clandestine about the Portman Road result.

    But that said, I do take your point, Colin. Language changes…and seldom for the better.
13. The other Bob Wilson says:

    February 25, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    Nice one Grange Exile – a great first contribution!
14. The other Bob Wilson says:

    February 25, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    Apologies for my tardiness in approving your message Dai – I thought I’d already done it!

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