Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

The signs weren’t good before tonight’s game with Stoke at Cardiff City Stadium, morale among fans had dropped to the lowest level seen since our relegation sixteen months ago on the back of ineptitude on and off the pitch and a wait for our first win. 

The news that Rubin Colwill had joined Isaak Davies and the three centrebacks we’ve not seen all season on the injured list only added to my sense of foreboding against a Stoke side that had reportedly spent £43 million on new players in the summer and had blown away early season table toppers Charlton with four first half goals on Saturday to add to their win four days earlier against Norwich.

In the event though, City responded admirably as they followed up their twenty eight goal attempts in their previous game with twenty six more tonight.

There are still problems to face which I think we’ll really struggle to overcome mind – getting a few more players fit would help, but, even then, I’m not sure these areas of concern will ever fully go away.

For a start, we’re still awaiting that elusive win because of a 1-1 draw in which we conceded the sort of goal a Sunday League parks side individually and collectively suffering the worst hangover of their lives would have been embarrassed to let in.

Secondly, we have four points from a possible eighteen despite being the better side by some distance in our last two home games and being slightly the better team against Derby.

Thirdly, while you could argue that we only made one substitution tonight because we were playing well, I’d say it had as much to do with the fact we had a fifteen, sixteen and seventeen year old there and someone in their thirties in Callum Robinson who BBM was only going to use as a very last resort.

So, all’s not perfect by any means, but, for a second straight home games, a neutral would have looked at the match stats and wondered how on earth Cardiff had not won. If anything that applied even more tonight than against Sheffield in light of Stoke keeper Viktor Johansson being voted Man of the Match on the BBC website and stats skewed heavily in our favour 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cm5yep0472vqt#MatchStats

At half time, the aforesaid stats showed both teams having had nine goal attempts each, but, critically, not one of ours was on target. Johansson’s Man of the Match vote tells you things changed after the break with seven on target efforts and that doesn’t include the three times we hit the woodwork. 

The point gained from a losing position lifts us out of the bottom three above Lancashire trio, Preston, Burnley and Bolton as well as Derby who have played a game less than us and at the end of the night’s limited Championship programme, I find myself thinking that nothing has really changed in how I feel about us except that I’m slightly reassured that we went a long way towards showing the Sheffield United performance wasn’t a one off and for much of tonight’s game we looked anything but a relegation team. However, there were also those brief moments when we made basic mistakes that our opponents just don’t seem to make.

Joel Colwill for David Turnbull was the only change from Saturday as City started in encouraging fashion with all of our chances falling to the much maligned, in some places, Ollie Tanner. He was the first City player to hit an upright as he took a touch and then hit a shot which rebounded off the outside of a post following good work from Yousef Salech and Jack Moylan. Then, when Salech put Johansson under pressure, the keeper’s mishit clearance left the winger stood out on the right touchline about thirty five yards out with an unguarded goal to aim at, but his effort was disappointing as it flew high and wide of the far post.

Stoke for their part were pretty ordinary I thought and, having played with a fair amount of ambition in the first half while forcing Nathan Trott into a couple of decent saves and having a shot deflected just over as they looked to add to their lead. However, I thought they were negative in the second half and, in part, that attitude helped us get a bit more confidence and positivity – all that money spent and, on the evidence of the second half in particular, not a great deal to show for it.

Tanner’s third opportunity saw him get on the wrong side of his marker to find a similar position to the one he missed from against Portsmouth seconds before we went 2-0 down. 

This time Tanner lunged to reach a Chris Willock cross, but was unable to get a clean touch on the ball. I thought it was a tougher chance than the Portsmouth one, but, amazingly, the result was the same as the opposition had the ball in our net less than a minute later.

On Saturday for the first goal, I thought Trott rather than Krystian Bielik, should have dealt with the long ball forward which led to the  throw in from which Pompey took the lead and when Robert Bozinik hooked a speculative ball forward he remained rooted to his line again. Yes, you can say Joel Bagan was bullied out of it somewhat by Ben Johnson, but as the Stoke loanee from Ipswich got free of our left back he was only five or six yards from the goal line with Trott still stood no more than a yard off his line – even at this late stage, it felt like the goal that was coming could have been stopped if Trott had acted more decisively.

In the end, Johnson was probably no more than five yards out when he scored, but to be fair to our keeper, he made a good save to deny George Hurst not long afterwards and then, in Stoke’s only second half attack of any significance, he saved with his foot from an offside looking Hirst in a one on one.

With Tanner getting the better of his marker to the extent that he was withdrawn just before the hour mark, Willock on the other wing prospered after the Hirst miss as City took a grip on proceedings for the rest of the game and it was he who crossed for the younger Colwill, who I thought had one of his best ever games tonight,  to direct a header from ten yards beyond Johansson and in via the post.

Within a few minutes Willock and Colwill combined again, but this time Joel’s header bounced out off an upright.

The Stoke keeper was a busy man after that with his best save-coming when he was quick off his line to deny Salech after a lovely reverse ball from Moylan. However, he should have been left with no chance when, just as against Sheffield United, Salech took a great first touch, only for him to make a complete mess of his second one – this time, the Dane worked himself clear of the last defender, but then scuffed wide from fifteen yards.

Moylan became the third City player to curse the woodwork when a free kick dropped to him and his angled shot across goal got a slight deflection which send it against the far upright and out.

City replaced Willock with the unluckily omitted Cian Ashford late on, but could not break down opponents who, long since, had settled for a point and so it’s on to Bolton on Saturday to face opponents who gave West Ham a fright tonight before succumbing at home by 3-2.

Finally, the under 21s recovered from their dismal display against Sheffield Wednesday by beating Plymouth at Home Park last night courtesy of three second half goals in eight minutes in their Premier League Cup game. The home side began and ended the scoring, but we were able to make it two wins out of two thanks to goals from Isaac Davies, Troy Perrett and Jake Davies.

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