Cardiff City now need to win three out of their final six matches to get beyond sixth placed Reading in the race for Play Off places and that’s assuming the Berkshire side lose all of their next three. That might be possible if we were on the sort of run we were about a month ago, but, one game apart, we’ve been like a boxer taking punishment on the ropes since the draw at Middlesbrough and on Monday, it all got to much for us as we were deservedly thumped 5-0 by the team that was bottom of the table. Once a boxer has taken a shellacking like we did, there is most likely no way back for their career after it. Therefore, I think we can look forward to a gentle wind down to the season from now on with, hopefully, any interest being generated by the inclusion, and use, of some of the good crop of young players who have generally done very well in the Under 23 side in the second half of this season.
Whatever the rest of the season holds for us, the seven decades quiz will continue to the bitter end – next up is Blackburn Rovers, so here’s seven questions on them which I’ll post the answers to on Sunday;-
60s. Born in a town known as “Little Scotland” at one time (it also had the fastest growing population in England ten years ago), this man, who started off up front, ended up being able to play in any position through the middle of the pitch bar goalkeeper. He did not have to move too far from home to join his first club and it took a while for him to earn a regular place, but, when he did, he was in at the final stages of a remarkable ascent, which soon turned into a very rapid descent. His club’s decline did not stop Blackburn paying £30,000 towards the end of this decade for him though and he was able to rack up over two hundred appearances for them before a return to his first team. In all, he made around four hundred and fifty league appearances and only played for two clubs, but do you know his name?
70s. . Born in a place in south Wales with a “lofty, illuminated town clock”, this midfielder was soon bamboozling Blackburn players on his debut with a move he really should have patented. He played on many of the better known grounds in this area during a long career which only saw him move further afield twice – once to the middle of our country and then overseas for a very short stay in a capital city with a club he never played a game for, who is he?
80s. This veteran with over 600 league appearances in his career didn’t make one of them in the country of his birth. He got off to what could be called a shaky start, but, nevertheless, he helped secure a promotion in the few matches he played before he went kind of green in the midlands. It was when he moved to Yorkshire to play in red and white that he really began to rack up the appearances and a hat trick against Newport County helped add to his growing reputation. He wore the same colours when he moved south to hook up with a former manager of his who would go on to work for City as a coach. Having played a hundred games plus for his two previous clubs, he was to double that number at Blackburn and, on the whole, tended to enjoy the better of things in his meetings with us. Leaving Blackburn at the end of this decade, he played in a valley for a short time before a brief spell in claret and blue prior to his retirement from the full time game in 1991, can you name him?
90s. Rock swindler?
00s. Dull and flat area in the east midlands?
10s. Bail mailer shambles ends up in Blackburn (6,4).
20s. Suitable name for a ferry from south Wales to Irish Sea destination?
Answers
60s. Corby born Don Martin was joint top scorer for Northampton in the season when they completed their climb from Divisions Four to One in record time. When the Cobblers were relegated to the third tier on their way back down again, Blackburn signed him and he was in their team in five of the six fixtures against us between 1968/69 and 1970/71, scoring once. Martin returned to Northampton and, playing more in midfield or at the back, was able to take his career league goal record to one hundred and twenty six, before retiring in 1978.
70s. Tredegar born John Lewis, of the very distinctive stepover which you knew was coming, but were unable to stop, made his debut for City in a 2-0 win over Blackburn in September 1978. Lewis played for fourteen different teams (he had two spells with Merthyr) and only Rhayader Town and Bohemians of Dublin could be said to be non south Wales clubs.
80s. Ian Miller left his native Scotland to sign for Bury in 1973, before he signed for Nottingham Forest a couple of years later. He never played a game while with Forest though and moved to Doncaster as part of player exchange deal where he made the PFA Division Four team of the year as a reward for his performances. Reuniting with his old boss at Bury, Bobby Smith (who was a coach at City for a while), Miller moved to Swindon next and then on to Blackburn for most of the eighties – he finished his full time career with spells at Port Vale and Scunthorpe.
90s. Craig Skinner.
00s. Matt Derbyshire.
10s. Amari’i Bell.
20s. Barry Douglas.
