Cardiff City, looking somewhat complacent at times, are the only Welsh side left in the Carabao (League) Cup after scraping past Swindon Town by 3-2 in their First Round tie this afternoon at Cardiff City Stadium.
For me, Swindon can feel hard done by – they looked the team that wanted it more, they came out on the wrong end of a debatable penalty decision and hit the post late on. City started both halves poorly and could have few complaints as to the deservedness of Swindon’s goals when they came as the visitors were the better side at the time on both occasions.
City can take heart from Jack Moylan’s fine winning goal scored within a few minutes of him coming on and they played some very nice stuff leading up to half time. You can’t help thinking that the second half would have been a lot easier for them if Cian Ashford, who again played well in the number ten role, had scored, as he should have done, to make it 3-1 instead of shooting against the crossbar.after being put through by David Turnbull.
City lined up with Ronan Kpakio and Joel Bagan at full back and Gabe Osho and captain for the day Perry Ng at centreback in front of Nathan Trott. With Dylan Lawlor, Will Fish and Calum Chambers missing from the squad, I can only assume that they’re all injured. This is very concerning in Lawlor’s case as he’s not played at all in our pre season and it’s hard to see him featuring too much in our opening two or three Championship games.
As a postscript to this, BBM confirmed after the game that all three players, plus Rubin Colwill, were injured and, although the news on Rubin wasn’t too bad in that he’s expected back soon, Fish is to have a hernia operation and has been ruled out for three months, Chambers has a knee issue and, like, Lawlor, there is no date set currently for his return.
Alex Robertson and David Turnbull were paired in midfield with Ashford in front of them and, as mentioned above, the older Colwill brother was again missing. Rubin has played some football in our warm up games, but, like Lawlor, his pre season has been a mess.These are two players who you’d think need to have big seasons if we are to settle seamlessly back into the Championship and, with them both having missed so much time so far, it reinforces my feeling that we should have been looking to sign players sooner rather than later – especially as we now appear to be in a position where we have just one fit senior centreback going into our first league game.
Frankly, it’s disappointing we only have one new outfield player at present (and that in a position where we are probably strongest) – we should have had at least two more in by now and, for the first time I can remember, BBM acknowledged his squad was very short on numbers in his post game comments .
Ollie Tanner and Isaak Davies were on the wings with Yousef Salech leading the attack and with Chris Willock and Callum Robinson on the bench, we at least look like we have a bit more strength in depth up front compared to other areas of the pitch.
If City flew out of the blocks last week against Roma, the opposite was true here. Swindon were winning most of the fifty fifties as they enjoyed a physical advantage which, if anything, grew more marked as the game went on.
Just as in the second half before Swindon scored, you felt a goal was coming and it arrived on nine minutes when they moved the ball from left to right just outside our penalty area to free up Louis Millard whose cross shot looked to be going wide until it got a touch off Osho on the near post and flew in giving Trott no chance.
City hardly burst into life after this setback, it was more a slow burn with Tanner on the right offering the most encouragement that they could find a way back into the game. Tanner played some intelligent crosses which went unrewarded, but when Ng’s neat pass played him into space, his cross found Davies beyond the far post. Whether it was an intended pass or shot by Isaak was unclear because the ball hit Swindon right back Mitch Clark on the hand and, after a brief delay, referee Gavin Ward pointed to the spot.
Swindon contested the decision in the same way that I would expect City to if it had been awarded against them. After all, Clark was stood very close by Davies and clearly it wasn’t an intentional offence. However, Clark’s hand was slightly raised and, under current interpretations of what constitutes a handball, I can understand Mr Ward’s decision.
If FIFA ever decide to make me the Donald Trump type dictator of world football, handballs such as Clark’s would not be punishable by the awarding of a penalty, but I fear things may well have changed for good (or should that be bad?) and the game restarted with Salech placing his penalty perfectly as goalkeeper Connor Ripley dived the right way and came very close to pulling off a save.
City now entered their best period of the game as their short passing around the opposition penalty area began to click into place and you could see why many pundits say that, no matter where we finish in the table, we shouldn’t lack for goals.
Swindon were hanging on somewhat as the game inched towards half time, but they didn’t make it to the break without conceding as City scored a really well constructed and executed goal on forty three minutes. Bagan and Davies were involved before Ashford bent a lovely cross into the path of Salech who got in front of his marker to guide a left footed volley in from ten yards.
It was classy stuff, but it all looked so simple a few minutes later as gaps started to appear in the visitor’s back line as Turnbull easily found Ashford who whacked his shot on to the bar.
At half time it looked to me as if we could run away with the game, but after the restart, it was the same lethargic stuff seen at the start of the first half.
Swindon sensed they were very much still in the game and grew in confidence. The introduction of Joseph Hungbo to play on the left wing gave them someone who could deliver a telling cross and, on sixty two minutes he hit a beauty into that ”corridor of uncertainty “area which took Ng and Osho out of the game to leave Paul Glatzel free to score from six yards on the far post.
The game could have gone either way at this stage, in fact it could be said that the introduction of Joel Colwill and Willock for Turnbull and Davies left City looking even more off key compared to last week.
It was the introduction of another sub, Moylan, for a fading Tanner that proved decisive as within five minutes he’d begun his Cardiff career with another fine goal. It was a very unlike BBM type goal as Salech got ahead of his marker as they contested a long ball forward by Trott, but with his road to goal blocked, the striker rolled a pass back to Moylan who guided a twenty yard shot well beyond Ripley. Moylan showed great technique to open his body up and make the side foot connection so pure that you could tell the ball was destined for the top corner virtually as soon as our new signing hit it – as far as goals on your City debut go, it was right up there with the best I’ve seen.
Ollie Palmer shot against a post following another cross from the Swindon left, but the game was effectively put out of the visitors’ reach when, in an encounter which did not see it’s first yellow card until the eighty second minute, sub James Debayo was shown two yellow cards for fouls on Colwill and Ashford in short notice and this time the visitors could have few complaints about either decision.
Therefore, City go into Monday’s draw for the Second Round and I suppose that, having seen so many games in the early rounds of cup competitions where City have been embarrassed by lower league opposition, I’m probably being a little harsh in my criticism of a side which, not only managed to win, but also provided a fair bit of entertainment along the way.
A very inconsistent pre season in terms of results for the under 21s ended with a 4-0 loss to Fulham at Leckwith today – City’s team included Rocco Simic and Kion Etete who, surely, will only play first team football in the Championship this season if we’re unable to add any more to our squad before the transfer windows closes.
The Highadmit South Wales Alliance League started today with Treherbert Boys and Girls Club back in the Premier Division following their relegation and they got off to the worst possible start with a single goal loss at Porthcawl, while it was also 1-0 in Ton Pentre’s home game with Cardiff Cosmos, but this time it was in favour of the Rhondda Valley team. It was a comprehensive 4-1 defeat for Treorchy Boys and Girls Club in Division One East though at Llanrumney United.
I’ll finish by repeating the message I’ve given readers at the start of seasons in recent years. While donations from readers were very much needed in the first ten years or so of the blog’s existence, my circumstances have improved lately and so there is no longer any need for readers to provide me with any financial assistance. Of course, I fully appreciate and welcome donations from those of you who still choose to support the blog with a monthly or annual contribution, but I’m happy to say that I can now afford to provide a free service which does not carry any adverts, so there is no necessity for any one to feel obliged to contribute financially.
