It seems that this Cardiff City squad need to plumb the depths of ineptitude to find the formula to winning away. Was Tuesday night v Luton worse than Boxing Day at Oxford? I’d say it was just about because it was at home to a side with a truly appalling away record and the fact that the season is now more than eighty per cent over lends something of an air of finality which you can’t have when the campaign is only halfway done.
When City went to Watford and won 2-1 three days after the Oxford horror show, it was the first step on an eight game unbeaten run of four wins and four draws – how the beleaguered Omer Riza and his struggling squad must be hoping for a repeat of that run around the turn of the year following today’s victory by the same score at Blackburn!
It wasn’t just the shoreline which made City’s second league away win comparable with the first one. Just as at Vicarage Road, we scored very early on, were pulled back to 1-1 pretty quickly as the hosts took control, only for both home teams to lose their way in the second half as we held on to our lead fairly comfortably. Differences between the two games were that the decisive goal today came later than it did at Watford and that we had to come through a penalty scare in added time which would have made the furore after the one we had awarded at Coventry to rob us of a win in the ninetieth minute seem like a vicar’s tea party in comparison if the original decision to award Blackburn a spot kick had stood.
An awful Tuesday had been followed by a worse Wednesday as relegation rivals Plymouth, Stoke and Hull had all won to leave us a point above the drop zone. Furthermore, a seven minute soliloquy by Omer Riza at the start of Thursday’s press conference for today’s match which, no matter how well intentioned, only added to the sense that the wheels were coming off City’s fight for survival.
I asked earlier what was worse, Oxford 3 Cardiff 2 or Cardiff 1 Luton 2 and the decision I came to was not one I arrived at with much confidence, but I’m certain that the pressure was greater on City today than it was back in December.
As is nearly always the case these days, there were changes aplenty to the team with Andy Rinomhota, Joel Bagan, Joe Ralls, Sivert Mannsverk and Callum Robinson returning to replace Dimi Goutas, the injured Aaron Ramsey, Will Alves, Rubin Colwill and Alex Robertson.
The last named was not on the bench today which suggests he was injured (was he ever really over his hamstring injury?), but his absence was made up for by the inclusion of David Turnbull on his return from the injury suffered at Coventry in November.
I thought City lined up with a back three of Perry Ng, Will Fish and Bagan but the commentary on the stream I watched said it was a back four with Callum O’Dowda pushed forward on to the wing in a kind of 4-3-3 and they may well have been right.
Whatever the formation was, City started not with the defensive outlook many had predicted, but on the front foot. Not surprisingly, after what happened at Sunderland, there were no short goal kicks as City went more direct with Robinson close enough to Yousef Salech to suggest we were operating with a front two for maybe the first time this season.
Another surprise was the deployment of Mannsverk on the right and there was almost immediate justification for this decision on four minutes as the Norwegian worked himself acres of space down the wing to run into and when the cross came in, it was accurate enough to find Salech about ten yards out who guided his header beyond Ashley Pears and into the corner of the net.
With new manager Valerian Ismael making a poor start and the Blackburn fans’ somewhat tempestuous relationship with club owners the Venky’s going through a bad patch as the Play off bid stalls, Ewood Park became a tough place for the home team to play at for a while after that.
City may have sensed a chance to really turn the screw on the home team, but Blackburn began to win the supporters around as they showed some of the ability to pass accurately and at pace which had been instrumental in their impressive and comfortable win at Cardiff City Stadium in the first meeting between the teams.
Last weekend at Sunderland, Perry Ng had a torrid opening to the game as he was left to virtually fend for himself against a confident winger and the same began to happen here as Rinomhota, looking some way short of 100 per cent fit, had to contend with Emmanuel Dennis who gained an early dominance oh his battle with the City midfielder turned full back as he received help from left back Ribiero to make it a two on one contest at times.
Rinomhota was about ten yards away from Dennis on sixteen minutes when he received the ball after City had lost it in sloppy fashion in the middle of the park. From there, it became quite easy for Dennis to cross to the near post where Yuki Ohashi glanced in a header from eight yards as Ethan Horvarth was beaten on his near post.
The rest of the first half was played out with Blackburn pressing City back in a manner which appeared ominous, but didn’t really result in much of a threat on their goal apart from when a close offside call went in our favour as Thyrese Dolan shot across Horvarth and in off the post and then when the keeper made a good save to deny Sondra Tronstad.
By this time, City had lost Ralls to a recurrence of his calf injury and I think that, as with Ramsey, we need to get into a mindset where we always anticipate us being without the pair of them because of their inability to stay fit for a run of games over a decent period of time these days.
Rubin Colwill came on to play in the deeper role he filled against Villa and while he wasn’t as impressive this time around, you could not fault the effort he put in. Most of what Colwill did in the early stages of the second half was on the defensive side of things as the game continued along the path of Blackburn being in a slight ascendancy which had me fearing the worst.
However, the introduction of pace in the form of Alves and Isaak Davies for Salech,who must have been carrying some sort of slight injury surely, and Rinomhota signalled a change in approach by City as they switched to a 4-2-3-1 with Colwill pushed further forward that saw the balance began to shift.
The next changes saw like for like replacements as Turnbull came on for Mannsverk and, more surprisingly, Yakou Meite for Robinson as attack leader. The overall effect of the second half substitutions was that City were operating in a more attacking way and Meite, who may well go through his two year contract with City without scoring a single home goal, responding to Riza’s show of faith in him, by netting his fourth, and certainly most important, City goal within a minute of coming on.
It was a fine goal as well as O’Dowda beat a couple of opponents in a strong run down the left before finding Alves whose early cross was nodded firmly in from twelve yards by Meite as he got across the front of his marker.
Again, the atmosphere turned ugly among the Ewood Park faithful and it was City who had the best opportunity to score the game’s fourth goal as Meite, contributing one of those intermittent effective appearances off the bench which remind you what a handful he was for defenders when he was at Reading pre injury, sent Alves clear. At first, it looked like the winger, who had earlier shot just wide from twenty yards, had been over indulgent and held on to the ball too long as he cut around the keeper and beat a defender, but replays showed that, in fact, Pears had denied him with a very good save. The rebound from that save fell into Meite’s path, but he was denied his second goal as a defender cleared off the line.
Six minutes added time was shown and in the first of them, it looked like City had suffered heartbreak to match that at Coventry and Stoke where they lost 2-1 leads late on, when O’Dowda contested a cross to the far post with Makhtar Gueye and referee Adam Herczeg pointed to the penalty spot for what appeared to be a handball by the Irishman. However, replays backed up my initial impression that it was Gueye who had handled the ball. In fact, he came close to catching it in two hands, and, after consulting with one of his linesmen, the referee changed his mind and awarded City a free kick.
All of the hooha around the penalty call meant that the six minutes became closer to nine in reality, but City held on to record a win that became more important when confirmation was received that Derby had won at Plymouth to keep themselves within a point of us. Elsewhere, Luton drew 0-0 at home to Middlesbrough, so are now four points behind us, with Plymouth six adrift. Only Stoke’s superior goal difference is keeping them above us after a penalty in added time saw them lose 1-0 at Millwall, Hull continue to get good away results with a 1-1 draw at West Brom, while Oxford beat Watford 1-0 thanks to a late goal and I suppose Portsmouth aren’t clear of trouble yet following their defeat at Preston – maybe the same applies to the jacks as well after they were beaten 2-0 at home by Burnley.
Once again, the under 18s, under 21s and senior team all played on the same day. The under 18s were beaten 2-1 at Watford and there was another disappointing result for the under 21s as they were held to a 1-1 draw by bottom of the table Colchester – Adeteye Gbadehan scoring the goal.
In local football, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club recovered from last weekend’s thrashing to maintain their safe, mid table position by beating Ynysygerwn 3-2 at home Pride of place has to go to Ton Pentre though who, at the eighteenth time of asking, finally have a league win to their name as they went to Pencoed and came out on top by 3-2. Ton Pentre are still seven points adrift at the bottom of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division and it would take a miracle for them to stay up, but I’m pleased for all of those who are working so hard to keep a great old club going, best of luck to them for the rest of the season.
