It’s getting beyond a joke now, For what was definitely the third game out of seven, Cardiff City were clearly the better team (we were slightly the better side against Derby and also probably worth a draw in the end against Wrexham as well) and it’s only against QPR and Portsmouth that we’ve been second best.
If football was decided by boxing style judge’s marking, I reckon we’d have eleven points now and I daresay some would say I’m being harsh there and it should be thirteen.
Yet, here we are with no wins and just four points out of a possible twenty one and I’m thinking that if we can’t beat a side as limited as the Bolton Wanderers that we’ve just lost 1-0 to, who can we beat?
Once again, I’m finding myself thinking that a neutral watching a City game for the first time.would be thinking “how on earth did they not win that?”, but, with each passing match, those who watch every game their team plays feel like answering “quite easily actually ”.
It is true that City are not getting any luck at all – little things like double connections as winger and full back challenge for a ball and whether a ball hitting a corner flag goes for a City corner or a throw in invariably go against us this season.
Another example of this is, just like with Bailey Peacock-Farrell at Blackpool on two occasions last season, a goalkeeper with a fairly dodgy reputation decides to have a blinder against us!
Gavin Bazunu was regarded as a very promising keeper three or four years ago and i’m pretty sure BBM had him on loan at Rochdale when he was their manager, but the intervening years have not been kind to him and there was plenty of criticism of him following his part in West Ham’s winning goal in midweek on his Bolton debut.
However, Bazunu was a clear winner of the Bolton man of the match today with one save to foil a close range Yousef Salech header falling into the superb category.
It was really telling though that, when Bazunu did mess up, it only served to show one of the main reasons why City are where they are for all of the slick passing and attacking intent which makes them such an attractive watch.
Bazunu’s error came when, in attempting to play out from the back, he presented Alex Robertson with the ball about thirty yards out with no covering defender close by and a pretty simple to execute overload with City players in attacking areas if he wanted to use them. However, Robertson, who I thought was our best player on the day, took a terrible first touch which saw the ball end up some five yards or more in front of him and what should have, at the very least, been a shot on goal was snuffed out at source.
If I had to describe our attacking play in terms of finishing and the final ball this season in one word, I would say “unconvincing”. I’m labouring the point again, but the match stats
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c6y4znek19y4t#MatchStats
tell a story which is not backed up by the play of our attackers in front of goal. The stats tell the story of a team in control. A team that should be confident and assured in its attacking, but, instead, as the wait for a win goes on and on and our scorelines don’t reflect the flow of our games, the limitations of a set of players who, despite their ninety goals last season, have very few natural finishers among them become all too apparent.
When the word unconvincing can equally be applied to a defence which just cannot keep a clean sheet, then the things that we are good at become not as influential as they should be.
Equally, a bench which includes two keepers, a sixteen year old plus a seventeen year old, correctly hints at a lack of squad depth. Of course, five established first team squad members out injured doesn’t help but, to cover old ground, it needn’t have been like that if we’d had a decent transfer window.
City went with an unchanged line up and for twenty minutes were far better than a home side that had given West Ham such a tough time of it on Tuesday. Chris Willock, Salech and Joel Colwill all had efforts kept out by Bazunu with the last save being the best of them, but in each case, that word unconvincing came to mind again in terms of our finishing.
A couple of positional switches by home manager Steve Schumacher helped nullify City’s control and Bolton had their best spell of the game for the rest of the first half as Nathan Trott made something of a meal of Ruben Rodrigues’ swerving shot.
The biggest talking point of the half occurred when Bolton broke at speed and Kylian Dong was suddenly through on goal. Dong went down as he tried to go around Trott and I assumed the referee had blown for a penalty. Instead though, Thomas Parsons showed a yellow card to the Bolton player for simulation and, to his credit, replays proved the ref to be right.
Bolton made a couple of half time substitutions to illustrate how City were causing them problems, but after a fairly even quarter of an hour where neither side threatened much, the home team became distinctly second best again. By this time though, I had little faith in City coming up with the one goal that would surely win the game. Yet, when Willock put over his one good cross of the afternoon to find Salech ahead of his marker just five yards out, Bazunu reacted to the diving downward header with a blocking, sprawling save which stifled Cardiff celebrations everywhere.
I’ve still got mixed feelings about this miss because I didn’t think Salech did much wrong with his header, but then the logical part of me is saying a header from inside the six yard box that he could see all the way as the ball was coming to himshould have been buried.
Ng went down in the Bolton area and became the second player booked for simulation – again, replays proved the ref right. Jack Moylan had been one of our better players, but when the ball rolled Invitingly into his path about sixteen yards out, I won’t use that word again, I’ll say instead that his finish lacked authority as Bazunu made one of his easier saves.
Sub Cian Ashford (why has he been dropped from the starting eleven in our last three games during which we’ve scored once?) brought another diving save from Bazunu as that neutral watcher would have been thinking there was only one team that could win this. However, with left back Max Conway driving the home side on as he was exploiting a wilting and disappointing Ollie Tanner, Bolton roused themselves for one last effort and, just like last year, they won it with a single goal scored very late on.
Rather like against Stoke, City had defended well, Gabriel Osho, Krystian Bielik and Joel Bagan had been in charge in their individual battles and although I’m thinking Perry Ng is finding the return to the Championship a bit of a struggle, i didn’t think he played too badly today.
Unfortunately, the passage of play which led to the goal began with a miscontrol by Osho and then the other three members of the back four were too far from the action to influence things as two subs combined with Theo Baur crossing to the far post where Thierry Gale was left in glorious isolation to head home from eight yards – what’s the word I’m looking for to describe the defending? I know, unconvincing!
Still there was time for one more Bazunu save from a well hit volley by another sub Callum Robinson, but City had to accept another poor result which wasn’t a fair reflection of the balance of play and, to be frank, it’s becoming harder and harder to feel much sympathy towards them as the attempts directed towards the centre of goal, as opposed to the corners, continue to pile up.
While the first team struggles in front of goal, the under 18s hit seven unanswered against Hull at Leckwith today, Keanu Conaty, then Jack Sykes and Leo Papirnyk with two each, Gruff Evans and Taono Nyakuhwa got the goals.
In Rhondda Valley football, Cambrian were 2-1 winners over Holywell Town in the Cymru Premier last night. This afternoon, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were 2-1 winners at Aber Valley in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division and Ton Pentre were beaten 1-0 at home by Dinas Powys in the Championship.
