My attitude while watching Wales’ 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland at Cardiff City Stadium was one of negativity and disappointment for about three quarters of the match and it was only when I began to think about what I’d just watched a bit more as I walked to my car from the ground that it began to change a little.
When the two players largely regarded as Wales’ best (Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey) are not in the team, it’s hardly surprising that people tend to focus on them, but it’s only when you start to list the other senior players who were not involved last night that you realise how depleted we were against a side which, by contrast, were only probably missing the injured Chris Brunt from their first choice line up.
Besides the two players already mentioned, Wales were also without James Collins, Ben Davies, Paul Dummett, Andy King, David Edwards and Hal Robson-Kanu, while Neil Taylor, Jazz Richards and Emyr Huws were all unused subs and Joe Allen only came on for the last twenty minutes.
So, that’s twelve players there who would all have realistic hopes of making Chris Coleman’s final squad of twenty three for the upcoming European Championships and five, possibly six if you include Collins, who would expect to be starters in Wales’ strongest starting eleven.
When you look at these factors, then my reaction during the match looks to be a harsh one. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more it begins to look as if the squad will not include a few names who would have regarded themselves as virtual certainties a year ago – a sentiment most Welsh fans would have agreed with I would have thought.
I don’t see the point in speculating on the make up of that twenty three just yet, because there’s still plenty of time for those involved to play themselves into, or out of, it yet. However, if you try selecting your twenty three this morning, I’d guarantee that you’d end up being surprised at how high profile some of the players you decide you could do without are.
George Williams has done well in previous Wales performances and he made a good impression again during the hour he was on the pitch last night,
Based on what he shows in a Wales shirt, it’s a real mystery why a club struggling as badly as Fulham are make so little use of him – he’s currently out on loan at Gillingham, having only appeared once for his parent club all season.*
Wales certainly do appear to have a bit more strength in depth at the moment than they have done for years. Of course, I accept this is all relative – for example, how many of those twelve players I mentioned would stand a chance of making it into Roy Hodgson’s twenty three for the summer?
For me, you are probably looking at two, with, maybe, two more (Davies and Taylor) who’d have an outside chance of being picked. If you stretched that to those who started last night, then Ashley Williams might well get in and Wayne Hennessey could sneak in I suppose.
However, I believe it’s probably too simplistic to look at things in such terms and to try and show what I mean, I’d like to mention two players, currently at a pretty mediocre Championship team, who wouldn’t get anywhere near England’s squad.
Whenever Wales have got close to qualifying for major tournaments in my lifetime, they have had players in their ranks who were better performers at international level than they were with their clubs. Going right back to the seventies, I’d say that was true of Arfon Griffiths and, possibly, Peter Nicholas, then during the next decade, there were players like Eric Young and Dave Phillips and then I’d say it applied to Mark Aizelwood (who’d be hopeless for City in Division Three on a Saturday and then look completely at home for Wales a few days later) and, to a lesser extent, Mark Pembridge.
I’d say this applies to the Reading pair Chris Gunter and Hal Robson-Kanu in 2016. Gunter now has an incredible sixty five caps (according to Wikipedia) at the age of just twenty six and in how many of those games could it be claimed that he has struggled on the international stage? Yes, we can all pick aspects of his game which are lacking when compared to the very best, but how many times could it be said of Chris Gunter ” he struggled today” in those sixty five matches?
Likewise with Robson-Kanu, whose cult hero status was confirmed last night by the fact that, even when he was nowhere to be seen, he was still the most sung about player in the Welsh squad! For a forward/striker, Robson-Kanu’s international scoring record (two goals in thirty appearances) is hopeless, but I’d argue that people have cottoned on to the fact that this shouldn’t be the main consideration when judging him as a Wales player.
Robson-Kanu, like Gunter, has made himself virtually undroppable by his country because he has become an important cog in a method of play which has allowed Wales to get the most of what they have as they get the better of teams which, on paper at least, look superior to ours. Countries like Wales have to rely on things like this and I’d say that the team we played last night have done an even better job a coming up with something which is better than the sum of it’s parts over the past thirty five years or so.
If there was one single reason why Northern Ireland won their qualifying group for Euro 2016, I would say it was that they had a striker whose performances were of a different class to what he was showing at club level every week. Kyle Lafferty was largely anonymous last night, but he consistently got the goals that ensured qualification when it really counted.
However, what the Northern Irish also have is a trio of centrebacks who start for their Premier League clubs every week and a classy midfielder in Steven Davis whose been a fine player at international level for a decade or more.
Therefore, even with Lafferty doing so little, the visitors still had a solid base which was going to make it hard for Wales to see the whites of goalkeeper Michael McGovern’s eyes. So it was, that much of what we saw provided backing for those who argue against the relevance of possession stats in modern day football.
In the first three quarters of the match, Wales had two thirds of the ball and barely created a chance with it. Our opponents seemed perfectly happy to let us play in front of them and so we ended up moving the ball from one area where the opposition didn’t mind us having it to another one where the same thing applied – all of this being done at no great speed as well.
When someone lost patience with this approach, there was the option of looking for Sam Vokes’ head, but, hardly surprisingly, the target man found it very tough going against that triumvirate of Premier League centrebacks, Johnny Evans, Gareth McAuley and Craig Cathcart.
David Cotterill did force McGovern to turn away a free kick and then Vokes headed a corner from the same player not too far wide in a goalless first half, but, with Andrew Crofts on for Joe Ledley and Danny Ward of Liverpool making his debut in place of Hennessey, Wales struggled after the break.
Ward was forced into the sort of save Hennessey hadn’t had to make when he beat out Lafferty’s effort and when Wales fell asleep at the back and allowed Northern Ireland to work a short corner routine which wasn’t properly cleared, Cathcart shot home from fifteen yards with the poise you would expect from a striker.
With Wales continuing to be laboured in their passing, it was disappointing to see so little of them as an attacking force when you consider that they had looked pretty good going forward without Bale and Ramsey against the Dutch in that friendly in November.
However, it was easy to forget that Wales did have another very important player missing who was there against the Netherlands and, when he made a belated introduction last night, he, along with two other subs, made a big difference.
Joe Allen was able to do the things others had been doing in Wales’ central midfield, but with more dynamism. He also passed the ball with that bit more vision and quality and this, in turn, brought Johnny Williams into the game more. With the Palace man out on loan to MK Dons becoming more influential, the introduction of the more mobile Simon Church for Vokes gave the Irish defence (weakened by the withdrawal of Evans) a new set of problems and when Church moved on to a neat Crofts pass and went down under McAuley’s challenge, a penalty was awarded.
I’ll admit I thought Wales had got lucky with the decision at the ground, but, having seen the incident on television now, it looks like it was a correct one and Church (one of those whose place in the final squad is far from assured) showed no nerves in putting away the penalty as the game went into added time.
So, in front of a crowd of 21,000 with Tan’s Folly, thoughtfully, left closed again so all of those red seats could add to the atmosphere, Wales played their last home game before moving on to Ukraine on Monday, then to Sweden in May before the big event in France a few days later. In the end, a draw was probably the right result, but I’d say that, rather than being the waste of time I thought it was when I was watching it live, the match left Chris Coleman with more of what he calls nice selection problems than he had before.
Before finishing with Wales, just a quick mention of the Under 21’s very important away matches over Easter in their qualifying group for the European Championships. Wales currently top the group, but face fourth placed Bulgaria today and third placed Romania on Tuesday – it’ll be easier to get a better idea of how realistic their chances of qualifying are after that.
Returning to City matters, the hectic programme of matches at Under 18 and Under 21 level continued this week. On Monday I watched the Under 21s record a 4-0 win over Crewe that was as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.
With first team squad members Sean Morrison, Kagisho Dikgacoi and Sammy Ameobi all in the starting line up, City wasted no time in finding the net – Robbie Patten (who I’d very mildly criticised on a messageboard for his lack of goals only a few hours earlier!), got the first with a shot from the edge of the area and then Rhys Healey punished a Crewe mistake to make it 2-0 inside ten minutes.
In the 3-2 win over Colchester last week, Healey’s shot had been touched over the line by Theo Wharton and the same thing happened in this game when the striker’s shot may have been going in anyway before the captain made sure.
That happened just before half time and the visitors offered a stiffer challenge in the second period when their efforts could easily have been rewarded with a goal. As it was, it was Healey who scored the half’s only goal with a neat finish after City had done well to press a Crewe player into an error very late on.
The very young Under 18s squad which drew 2-2 at QPR on Tuesday.+
The following day, what was probably the youngest Under 18 side City have fielded since they gained Academy status took the field at Queens Park Rangers. At least three members of the team that had beaten Sheffield United on Saturday had been released by the club in the intervening period and so, the side which played in London included seven players still qualified to play at Under 15 level.
The youngsters did themselves proud by drawing 2-2, with the only slightly disappointing aspect being that they had got themselves a couple of goals in front, but, with so many of the side being more used to forty minute a half football, it wasn’t altogether surprising that they couldn’t quite see things out for the win. One of the “old hands”, Mark Harris, was aided by some comedy goalkeeping in scoring the first goal, before one of the “under 15s”, Sion Spence, doubled the lead.
Finally, the Under 21s were also in London yesterday as their run of five straight wins came to an end with a good 1-1 draw at runaway table toppers Charlton. The home side scored first, but Kadeem Harris got an equaliser that ensured City are in the second Play Off position in the table ahead of what looks like a very important home match with Millwall late next week.
Here’s the latest Under 18 table as well.
*picture courtesy of http://www.walesonline.co.uk/
+ picture courtesy of https://twitter.com/hashtag/7u15s?src=hash where you can see the reaction of some of the players involved.
Fine, thoughtful piece Paul on a game I saw on TV here in Grimsby.
And you were kinder on the game than me.
I found it largely a yawn.
I do agree with you though on the one bright spark of the night…no, not George Williams, but the decision to close Vincent’s Vision, and thus remind us of our national colour.
Due to Platini’s political nous (or lack of it), we have this extraordinary number of countries making the finals this year…and it seems easier to get OUT of the opening groups than ever.
And so probably both of these poor teams will.
But then they will both hit the wall.
Yes Wales too…even with our one and a half superstars.
I have never been persuaded by the manager’s tactics, even though Cookie is clearly a very nice fellow and a fine man-manager.
DW.
So currently, even Wales cannot fill the Folly Dai – it’s become a pointless decoration, nothing more, nothing less.
I’m not that hopeful of us qualifying from the group, but, if we do, then I’d say it’s mission accomplished for Wales – I can see us maybe drawing a couple of our games, but I’m not sure where a win will come from.
Fair play, Paul…you make a good point about Vincent’s Vision.
All I would say though in defence of the missing Welsh fans is that …
1. The game was live on BBC TV…in contrast to all the home qualifying games, which were on far-from-free satellite.
2. It was a meaningless game against a team even more unattractive in its tactics than…(wait for it…)
…than CYMRU.
3. We lacked the only two players who could get into an England x1. (I say two…but in truth there is only one…Bale. Ramsey though is a strong possible…and Ashley Williams a remote possible.)
4. It was pouring with rain.
With those factors taken onboard, I think it amazing that 21,000 masochists turned up.
As for those red seats on display…
It has always puzzled me why soccer stadia need seats the colour of the club. I have been on official tours of a few stadia in the past 6 years.
Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City and one or two others.
I found that the soccer stadia’s seats always mirrored the shirt colour.
But, that said…
The stadium tour I enjoyed most, was that of a rugger stadium.
Twickers.
(Maybe because I loved the droll humour of the public school wallah conducting the tour, and his good natured quips at my expense when he realised I was Welsh !,)
That though, is by-the-by.
I mention Twickenham for a reason.
Just guess what colour the seats are in Twickenham?
No…not white…
…but GREEN.
I suggested to him that when Ireland come and their team has a pre-match stroll on to the pitch, with the stands still largely empty, they must feel they are playing at home.
He laughed it off.
The laugh told me everything.
It was code for “well, if they are simple-minded they do”.
And there Paul, we come to the nub of something…albeit, I am not sure of WHAT exactly.
I guess it is the difference between the two lots of supporters of the two codes of UK football.
I see that this week, West Ham United are busy putting claret and blue seats into The Olympic Stadium …(gee, are THEY going to be paid for by the UK taxpayer too…? *)
I cannot imagine a rugby club doing that, unless it was a newly-built stadium.
And rugger fans do not need segregating and can sit watching the game with a pint of beer in their hands.
Are they further up the EVOLUTION LADDER than us soccer fans, do you think Paul…? I am not saying we are Primitives or Pond Life exactly, but gee I reckon we have a lot to learn.
And do not get me started on Football UK’s attitude to Ched Evans…!!
Even if guilty, he has served his sentence.
Yet they will not allow him back.**
Contrast that with that West Bromwich Albion shaven headed striker (name escapes me…was it Hughes? …a common surname anyway) …with a particularly irritating goal celebration jig.
He kills another driver. Does not ring an ambulance, but rings a pal to pick him up and thus does a runner to avoid the breathalyser.
A heinous crime in anyone’s book.
After his prison sentence, he is immediately allowed back.
Yet Ched is seemingly a pariah…who if Foitball has its way, should walk into the sea with stones in his pocket.
Deep shame on Football UK.
I have studied this case closely, and know him to be innocent of rape, but guilty of huge disloyalty to his fiancee. And – black humour here folks – commiting the cardinal sin of not ensuring you are first in a consensual gang bang…and instead being a poor second, when the footballer groupie is more drunk and tired perhaps.
Maybe the Court of Appeal who reviewed his case on Tuesday, will side with the status quo. It will not surprise me if they do. I have very little faith in British justice.
And I – as someone who in 1999 was once foreman of the jury at Cardiff Crown Court – well know the power of the role of a jury foreman, and am sure in my bones that a twisted foreman browbeat his jury in the Ched case.
But I tell you this…(imitating Kevin Keegan here) …I would LUV it, really, I would LUV it, if Ched was found innocent just to take that smug smile off our Golden Girl’s face.
And then, were I a Blades fan, I would INSIST her name came off that stand at Bramall Lane.
Talk about kicking a man when he is down…
[End]
* i reckon WHU should be the second team of all of us, sice we have all heavily subsidised West Ham’s peppercorn rent for its long lease.
** Good on the Shampoo Kid who has just been pictured with Ched and their accompanying partners, all going away on holiday together.
DW.
PAUL,
With regards to my second country in this year’s Euro Championships…
Praise the Lord !! I cannot believe it.
The second half of the Germany v England game was something we have been praying for, all these Hodgson years.
Two men playing CENTRALLY up front…one just can’t beat it.
And the whole team playing the ball forward…not square.
True, there’s still a disturbing tendancy to play the ball out from the back, when the likes of Cahill and Clyne are so lacking in basic ball control, but we’ll forgive them that.
Hopefully the penny has finally dropped with him. Must be Gary Neville’s influence.
Now Cookie and our beloved Welsh team …please take note.
4-4-2 has never been beaten…it is what I grew up with all those years ago…albeit the two full backs now push on, and the midfield wingers fall back to cover, but it remains 4-4-2.
DW.
I must be one of very small number of football fans who does not know much about the Ched Evans case Dai – if I had to vote in a jury based on the little I do know about it, I’d probably opt for not guilty, but I’d rather abstain.
As for Twickenham, my only visits to the ground were back in the days when all of the stands were that dirty green colour and so I’ve always thought that the current seats were the colour they are “in honour” of those old stands. I was told that the stands were painted that colour during World War 2 so the German planes wouldn’t see the ground – not got a clue if that’s true, but it would make some sense because it’s always been a mystery why the RFU selected that colour.
Paul,
I love your basic decency. It shines through all your writing. And I thank you for your response.
I want to say two things: one on a lighter sporting point, and one on a much heavier matter.
First the sporting matter, and that is about Twickers. Interesting point you make about the seat colour being in honour of the old stands! I had not thought of that.
Some say that it is that emerald green colour because the stadium was built on the site of what had been Billy Williams’s cabbage patch!
Surely that reason must be apocryphal?
When I asked the guide on the tour, he was good enough to say that he did not know the answer. When I responded with “Well maybe the RFU had a good price on a job-lot of green ones”, he had the decency to smile and chuckle slightly (though in truth my joke went down like a lead Zeppelin amongst the other 20 or so in the tour party).
Whatever…
One thing is for sure. If that “cabbage patch” explanation was the reason, then judging by the shade, Billy must have grown Savoy cabbages !!
http://media.ents24network.com/image/000/019/717/236402e31d021ffd2af13c5fe94ed738eb00b14a.jpg
Before leaving this subject and the bizarre desire for soccer clubs to have seats in the club colours, let me add there was a very recent exception, of club colours vis-a-vis stadium colours .
You will recall that tour-de-force of a performance from our fellow countryman Michael Sheen in The Damned United. Now, when shooting the movie in 2008, the football scenes were nearly all filmed in a stadium that was thought to be closest to The Baseball Ground of the early 1970s. And coincidentally it turned out to be closest GEOGRAPHICALLY too: viz. the decrepit SALTERGATE Stadium in Chesterfield.
The town’s team were still there then: they moved exactly two years after filming to a newly built home, currently called The Proact Stadium.
But that old Saltergate was famous for the peeling dirty green paint which was …EVERYWHERE. All the walls and woodwork were painted that colour…a bit like a cheap and impure version of the green we see in the stands at Wimbledon tennis courts.
Now, I will take some persuading that a giant consignment did not fall off the back of a lorry 20 years ago, as so far as I know, blue has been the club’s colour since the present Pope was an altar boy.
Right. Levity over.
Let us get to the serious matter. The Ched Evans case. I regard it as a serious miscarriage of justice.
You say you would abstain. Fair enough: abstention can a noble position…especially in general elections.
But I suggest to you that when you know the undisputed FACTS of this case, there is only one verdict. NOT GUILTY.
Will the Court of Appeal so find? I doubt it. As I say in my earlier posting, I have little faith in British justice. Appeal Court judges do not want to overturn jury decisions: after all, the juries were often LED by judges into making those decisions.
Which may have happened in this case. ..but I have not read a transcript of His Honour’s summing up, so cannot say.
But having been a foreman, TRUST me, if the foreman took a dislike to Ched’s demeanour, or rather just had a hate for super rich footballers, that ALONE, could explain him leaning on his fellow jurors to find the “non star” Port Vale player innocent and Ched guilty.
From the getgo I queried this verdict. Then I looked into it. And it became clear.
A massive miscarriage of justice had occurred.
And I think all soccer fans have a bounden duty to investigate the undisputed facts. When they do, they will mostly arrive at my opinion.
One thing for sure: they will be ashamed of the way that the game they love has so bowed to Political Correctness*. Of course rape is a very serious crime, and a person should face a lengthy prison sentence. But when he comes out? It clearly is against all EU employment laws to deny him his lawful employment, especially since his job was not that of a photographer for Playboy and the likes, where nude girls might cause him to be a recidivist !!
And then for the Nation’s Sweetheart to grandstand like she did (pun unintentional, but I will take it, for its useful serendipity!) by threatening to take her name off the stand, well … she should have been ashamed of herself even if Mr Evans WAS guilty!!
What a Christian attitude of forgiveness on her part, eh? True shame on her.
Apparently, she was upset that he had not apologised to the “victim”. Why should he, if he was innocent? Remember, the very great Nelson Mandela could have left his tiny jail cell many years before he did, had he only apologised. But he refused on the grounds that he had nothing to apologise for: all he had done, he had done in the name of removing the stain of apartheid.
So I will love it in the unlikely event of Ched being cleared, just to see what she has to say for herself. Whatever she says, whilst I might still think her the most handsome physical specimen I have seen since Mary Bignall-Rand in her pre marriage days (with the same physical feature being pre-eminently beautiful: I won’t say more to avoid allegations of my indulging in sexism!!), the fact is I will now always loathe her for a kicking a good man when he was down.
If a man who committed a most heinous crime like Lee** Hughes can be rehabilitated, then I am sure that a footballer who committed NO crime (other than to have drunken sex with a girl who wanted to bag a professional footballer or two), can also be so rehabilitated.
And if they clear him – Please God that they will, even though I doubt it – then The Bluebirds must sign him immediately. I still recall that goal he scored against us for The Canaries !!
Right. I have been slaving over a hot typewriter for too long !! Time for a delayed siesta.
Please everyone read this webpage most diligently. And click along the left hand side of the page. Amazing stuff. Look at the photographic gallery especially.
http://chedevans.com/key-and-undisputed-facts
* What happened to Malky Mackay was assuredly not Political Correctness, any more than what Mr Mackay was indulging in was “mere banter”. But the reactions to the Ched Evans case is PC to the power of one hundred !!
** I have remembered his Christian name now!
DW
Morning Dai, first thing to say is that it needs to be remembered that the seats in Tan’s Folly are the colour City wore at the time of it’s construction.
As far as Ched Evans goes, my mind always goes back to the interview he gave on Sky after his hat trick had helped Wales Under 21’s beat France 4-2 in a brilliant televised match at Ninian Park in 2007 I think it was (a 16 year old Aaron Ramsey played). I say “interview”, truth is he was so shy, he was barely able to string two words together and I find myself feeling sad at what his life, which seemed so full of possibilities then, became.
I would like to think that if it is as obvious that he’s not guilty as you believe it is, then the verdict should be a simple one for the Appeal Court judges to arrive at, but, and maybe I’m completely wrong here, I would be concerned that the announcement of their decision has been put back a few weeks if I were Ched Evans or a member of his family/legal representatives because I find myself thinking that if they were going to quash the conviction, they would have just come out and said it without the delay.
Two things I agree with you completely on are the inconsistency between the not guilty verdict against the other player involved and the Evans verdict and the Lee Hughes case. That goal celebration of Hughes’ was embarrassingly naff, but that wasn’t the reason I felt sick whenever I saw it. Luke McCormick is also back playing for Plymouth, he was in their side on Friday and has captained them since his release from prison after causing the death of two children while driving with excess alcohol in his system around nine years ago – his reintegration into football has been more painless than it was for Hughes I believe (in terms of supporter reaction at least), but, you’re right, it’s hard to equate their treatment with that of Ched Evans once he had completed his sentence.
I’ll finish by asking if you remember this man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Streltsov
who played against City in the Cup Winners Cup for Moscow Torpedo in 1968?
PAUL,
Thanks for your very illuminative response.
A word on the Plymouth goalie.
Yes, I remember that case. I did not cite it, only because he had the decency to stay there did he not…and not phone a pal to drive him off, before the cops came?
He was I seem to recall, unforgivably driving at a colossal speed, while boozed up and short of sleep.
And it was right that they threw the book at him.
But why I reckon the Hughes case was worse, was that he left a man dying, and rang a mate instead of an ambulance.
Huge thanks for the Eduard Streltsov piece. It came as a total revelation to me.
I have just shown it to my wife Larissa. It came as news to her too. I should perhaps add that she is not a football fan.
But she is not shocked by the contents.
When she was a kid, it was quite common for people in her city to be sent to gulags. They were the lucky ones. A few years earlier under Stalin, people just “disappeared”.
Re this disturbing case…one can see the similarities with the Ched Evans case. Especially since Ekaterina Furtseva was involved.
You won’t believe it Paul, but for the 23+ years of our married life, when she teasingly bosses me about, I always jokingly say, “Okay Furtseva…go easy on me!”
Why do I do this? Because Furtseva is a name synonymous with heartless cruelty in Russia…such was that strong woman feared by the populace.
Poor Eduard made the mistake of jokingly calling her daughter a monkey to one of his pals, and disrespecting the mother…poor blighter. The walls have ears in Russia, and it quickly got back to the mother. And it looks to me – after years of studying the Russian psyche to the point that I can hold my own with the average Kremlinologist – that the mother arranged for that groupie girl to cry rape.
Golly….it is sooo redolent of the Chedwyn Evans case, eh…?
Except – thank God – Mr Evans was not sent to a gulag and forced to eat dangerous pigswill.
But that said, his life has been wrecked by his foolish drunken behaviour and far worse, a malicious groupie.
Btw, Larissa – who is so anti-rape that you would not believe – is even more convinced than I am that Mr Chedwyn Evans has been massively wronged.
And when I once recently was unwisely sexist enough to involuntarily shout out at my TV when the Nation’s Sweetheart momentarily stooped forward, exhausted after winning her race…”what a sublimely beautiful derriere!”, my wife quickly interjected with “but has she got a beautiful SOUL …?”
And my answer to that is…emphatically NO, she has not.
DW.
.