Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

Let’s get the controversial bit out of the way first. Today’s game between Cardiff City and Oxford United was just a few minutes old when Oxford’s Przemyslaw Placheta grabbed Callum O’Dowda’s shirt during a City attack to concede a free kick by the corner flag. I can’t think of an occasion I’ve seen this season when such an offense did not see a yellow card being brandished by the referee, but, bafflingly, Farai Hallam chose not to caution Placheta – I can only think that the official decided he’d let the Oxford player off lightly because it was so early in the game.

About half an hour later,Placheta had switched sides and had become involved in a running battle with Perry Ng. Hallam had already lectured both players about their conduct, but this didn’t stop Placheta going in late on Ng as the defender was clearing the ball – it was a nasty foul which, arguably, merited a straight red, but, again, the referee was lenient and deemed it worthy of just a yellow – there could be no doubt that,one way or another, Oxford should have been left to play two thirds of the game a man short, but, instead, manager Gary Rowett was allowed to withdraw Placheta at half time with no harm done to his team’s prospects.

City have the right to claim they were robbed by the referee’s ineptitude there. However, I can’t get too worked up about the injustice of it all because, even if it had been eleven v ten for about an hour of this afternoon’s match, I can’t help thinking that this City team would still have found a way to draw the game 1-1 after having taken the lead. It’s what this City team do and, after Yousef Salech had nodded us ahead, we were pegged back by Oxford inside the last ten minutes on a day when all of the other sides down the bottom won.

A combination of us taking the number of points we’ve lost from winning positions up to twenty five and results elsewhere should mean we now need snookers to stay up given how unconvincing we’ve been since mid March. Incredibly though, we’re now left with games against the two most out of form sides in the Championship to finish our fixtures for this miserable season.

West Brom and Norwich can’t wait for this season to finish, they know they’re going to be in the Championship next season when the expectation for both teams back in August must have been that they should be contesting the Play Offs. Collectively, West Brom and Norwich’s record over their last dozen matches is won two, drawn one and lost nine. Of the other twenty two sides in the division, you would back twenty one of them to beat them both if they were completing their seasons with matches against them, but the fact that West Brom and Norwich face Cardiff City, now the team with the least wins in the division, in one of their final pair of matches will give the Baggies and the Canaries the belief that they’ll be earning a few more points yet in 24/25.

The appointment of Aaron Ramsey as interim manager has had an uplifting effect on the club and this was apparent in the way the crowd stuck with the team throughout (quite what it would have been like at the end with Omer Riza in charge does not bear thinking about). Everyone so wanted Rambo to succeed, but, for much of the game, I couldn’t get that old saying about silk purses and sow’s ears out of my mind – for all of the renewed enthusiasm and the increased vigour from the team, there wasn’t a great deal of difference from what we’ve all become too used to in recent months.

When all’s said and done, if we can’t keep a clean sheet against a team that as were as  feeble in their attacking play as Oxford were today, then when will we? 

Okay, okay, I know Oxford’s one on target effort was a tremendous free kick from over thirty yards out by Cameron Brannagan that you just have to concede was a stunner which you can’t blame any of the City players involved for, but you could ask questions as to why gaps were starting to appear in our midfield press in the areas in front of the back four where previously there had not been any. Sivert Mannsverk felt he had to give away what I still call a professional foul which earned him a booking and he would have thought it was far enough out not to pose a direct threat to our goal, but he figured without Brannagan.

In the minutes after Oxford’s equaliser, I couldn’t help but wonder when was the last time a City player hit a shot from distance really sweetly? Now, I accept that it was an exceptional shot, but Plancheta scored a beauty in the return fixture on Boxing Day as well.

In total contrast, I’m struggling to think of shots from distance by City players in league games that have even come close to scoring. I’m often surprised by how many goal attempts we’ve had in a game, but that’s because I’d temporarily forgotten about how much our players like having a go from distance. Most matches see a variety of Efforts from twenty five yards or further out which either go dribbling wide or into the keeper’s hands – failing that they have the fans in row Z diving for cover.

Seriously, I have to go back to Aaron Ramsey’s goal at Leicester last season for the last one I can remember in a league game that had me reacting with the sense of wonderment you get when you see your team score a really special long range goal.

As for this season, Rubin Colwill scored a ridiculous long range goal in the League Cup tie with Southampton. Now I don’t want to go starting yet another online debate about Rubin, but you contrast how easy he made scoring that stunning goal look with how difficult he finds it to replicate that shooting ability when there are league points at stake. 

I use Colwill as an example because at least he has been able to come up with a “worldie” to show he can hit long shots as cleanly as Brannagan and Plancheta did against us. Generally speaking though, our players are unable to conjure up the technique required at optimum moments.

This failure to operate with precision under pressure has more mundane consequences such as the lack of quality from dead ball deliveries that has dogged us all season and the necessity for extra touches when trying to perform what should be one or two touch passing.

I believe these failings are due more to a combination of tension and a lack of confidence than a lack of ability. Indeed, I think in terms of natural ability, this squad is stronger than many of it predecessors since 2003, but their failure to show that inate ability on a consistent enough basis, together with other weaknesses such as dreadful defending, lack of depth in some positions, an absence of what I’ll call streetwise qualities, eccentric selection and tactics and a lack  of leaders means that they are the weakest City squad since we returned to the second tier twenty two years ago.

Aaron Ramsey’s first selection saw just two changes with Perry Ng back at right back enabling Andy Rinomhota to switch into midfield so that Alex Robertson could push forward more. The change from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 saw Yakou Meite dropping out while the second, more straightforward, switch saw Chris Willock come in for Will Alvez.

Willock was to figure in virtually all of City’s significant attacking moves in some way. First, he shot carelessly over from ten yards early on following a lovely piece of play by Robertson which was at odds with the usual lack of creativity shown by the team. There was a better effort from Willock which curled not too far wide as City reached half time having been the better team as evidenced by their five goal attempts to Oxford’s none.

Willock then came up with City’s best cross of the afternoon after a subdued opening to the second half which Salech met on the far post to nod in from six yards. Sadly, experience has taught supporters that this team needs that second goal to start feeling confident about getting three points and so it proved again here. For all of the positivity his appointment has engendered, Aaron Ramsey is not a miracle worker (or at least i don’t think he is) – he’s not going to be able to sort this flawed squad, and club, out in a fortnight.