I must admit that I thought some of our fans had been going over the top about Jack Moylan’s first few weeks as a Cardiff City player – he’d made a good start in his first few appearances, but his form had been a little like the team’s lately, with his second half miss last weekend as he scuffed a shot too close to the goalkeeper offering a microcosm of our display at Bolton.
Today, as City made an eighth attempt to get that first league win, they faced the prospect that a draw or worse would mean that it would be well into October with league season not far short of being into its third month before we had another chance to record our first three pointer.
It had the potential for things to get very messy for City and maybe what it needed in a team that was playing well in so many respects was for someone to seize the day with with a compelling individual display.
Step forward Jack Moylan with two fine goals, an assist and a general vibrancy which `lifted those around him as a smooth Cardiff City beat a Charlton Athletic side that was in the top six going into the match a lot more convincingly than the scoreline indicated.
With us playing a few hours before the rest (thank you Sky!), a rise up the table a few places on the back of another good performance can make you start looking up the table and wondering where this team could be headed.
A dose of reality is needed though. This time last week the mood was bleak as we reflected on what I would say was the fourth time out of seven where we didn’t get out of the game what we deserved.
And yet, I’d watched three or four podcasts about the Championship, as opposed to Cardiff City, during the week just ended saying our record of four points, and no wins, from seven matches was ridiculous given our underlying statistics.
I’d touched on this a week or two ago when I mentioned that early last season League One podcasters were in the habit of saying that Port Vale were in a false position in the bottom four because of what the stats were saying – of course, Vale were duly relegated.
However, from what I can gather, our stats are some way better than Port Vale’s ever were. While our defensive stats are lower, mid table, we’re at or close to the top in nearly all of the attacking ones – albeit, being four goals below your xg rating and being on top of the goal attempts table, as opposed to attempts on target, rather tells a story about our finishing so far!
When fixtures resume after the three week international break, we play Blackburn, then Watford. No offence to those two sides, but they allow a continuation of the line I’ve heard that we’ve not really played anyone of note yet and still we’ve been struggling for results.
That’s not quite true, we’ve played three sides in the top eight as I write this at half time in the three o clock kick offs. Fair enough, we could have few complaints about the outcome at QPR, but Stoke, who have now won four out of five, must still be wondering how they managed to escape Cardiff with a point and we were a lot better than a Charlton team that went to West Ham and won.
There had been some calls for one or both of Ollie Tanner and Yousef Salech to be left out, but it was no great shock to see BBM go with an unchanged starting line up – although, I’ll say once again that I find the continued absence of Cian Ashford as a starter a mystery.
It was good to see Dylan Lawlor involved for the first time since those Wales internationals at the back end of last season and BBM was even able to introduce him in place of Gabriel Osho for the last ten minutes or so today.
The first few minutes were spent with Charlton being what you expected them to be – big, physical with an aggressive pressing game and with a fair bit of attacking pace on what I, as an old curmudgeon, insist on calling the counter attack rather than the transition!
Having done so much attacking for so little reward in their last two matches, it was ironic that the first time City flexed their attacking muscles on seven minutes they scored.
It was a really good goal as well as Alex Robertson played a low ball into a central area which Moylan, showing great appreciation of what was going on around him, dummied to allow it to run to Salech whose return pass was perfectly weighted for the Irishman to move onto.
Apparently, there had been plenty of talk on the training ground during the week of the need for on pitch calmness and Moylan, showing none of the anxiety that crept into our finishing at Bolton, swept a first time shot beyond Arthur Okwonko from fifteen yards.
The on loan Wrexham keeper than had to turn aside a Chris Willock shot from twenty yards soon afterwards as City warmed to their attacking task.
If Salech’s confidence had been hit in recent games, his part in the goal would have helped matters, but it was a goal that he would really have wanted and that arrived on twenty four minutes when Moylan turned provider by flicking a short pass to the target man who, with his back to goal, shrugged his marker Tyler Bindon aside and hooked his shot past the helpless Okonkwo from eight yards.
Nathan Jones was scathing about his team after the game and although I’d like to think that the outcome was all down to our brilliance, the visitors had faded after their mildly encouraging start, so that as the half hour mark approached, they were very much second best.
It was then though that our inability to keep a clean sheet because of individual and collective errors caught up with us, although I must admit that bad luck played a part in it as well this time.
Nathan Trott’s kicking today throughout was not quite up to his normal very high standards and, trying to find Perry Ng in front of the dug outs he overhit his pass. With the benefit of hindsight, Perry would have been best off letting the ball go out for a throw in, but he almost acrobatically kept the ball in play and in doing so gave what turned out to a perfect pass to Bindon whose through ball sent Tyreece Campbell through a yawning gap between our centrebacks and he was able to roll his shot past Trott and just inside the post to halve the deficit.
The highly rated Campbell had temporarily switched from the left to right flank and so my immediate reaction was to wonder where Joel Bagan was. The answer was that our left back had been caught on his heels with his hand up appealing for offside. To be fair to Joel, it did at first viewing look like he had a point, but, having now seen a replay from a camera that was in line with play, it looks like a very close call which I can’t be sure about – if I had to make a decision, I’d say Campbell was just about onside.
City’s response to having their lead halved was impressive as Moylan was expertly picked out by Robertson I think it was who would have scored, but for a great last ditch block by Charlton captain Lloyd Jones which diverted the ball just past the upright.
An even better pass by Ng then sent Moylan through in the same position, this time he chose to pass to Salech who seemed to have a tap in, but Okonkwo having come out to try and close down the Irishman responded by flinging himself to his right to deny City a third goal with a great save.
It was a throwback to last week’s save by Bolton’s Bazunu to deny Salech from point blank range. Just as at what I still call the Reebok, my first thought was that Salech had done nothing wrong, but if he had put the ball to his left, not right, Okonkwo would never have been able to make his save.
Nathan Jones’ displeasure at his team’s display could be seen by the two substations he made at half time as he took off a winger and a centreback to bring on a full back and a defensive midfielder.
For a while, the changes looked to have improved things for the visitors and former City loanee Karlan Grant was sent clean through in the inside right channel from a throw in and a lucky deflection only to shoot wastefully into the side netting as Trott advanced.
City’s first meaningful attempt of the second half was a far post header from Joel Colwill which drew another sharp save from Okonkwo, but he was again left clutching at thin air when Moylan’s received a pass from Tanner which he hit right footed first time into the roof of the net via the near post from the edge of the penalty area. It was a second excellent strike by the scorer, but, just as with his first one, his cause was greatly helped by a perfectly played assist that ensured that he didn’t have to break his stride before shooting.
The visitors’ last big chance to snatch something from the game came and went when substitute Charlie Kelman was the latest Charlton player to be sent in on our goal seconds after he had come on as a sub, but Trott was very quickly off his line to block the shot when it came.
Okonkwo looked to have given up on an improbable Moylan effort from thirty five yards which flashed just over and Tanner saw his shot bounce off the outside of Okonkwo’s near post as the game was seen out comfortably with Lawlor being given a gentle reintroduction into things and, interestingly, Callum Scanlon being deployed on the right wing where he made a positive impression.
I can’t end on the game without mentioning referee Elliott Bell who was laughably bad – I can be so magnanimous about the official because we won comfortably enough for there not to be the usual tension in the closing stages, I dread to think what I would have been saying about him if we’d lost.
Somehow, MrBell managed to book two City players and their manager in the three minutes of added time at the end of the game. I can only assume Cian Ashford was cautioned for allowing himself to be attacked by Charlton’s Ivan Mesik and while Colwill couldn’t really complain about his booking for grabbing the shirt of an opponent, it did come seconds after Amari Bell had been allowed to grab hold of Scanlon inside the Charlton penalty area. It was at this stage BBM’s frustration boiled over thereby earning him his second booking of the season.
Mr Bell somehow booked five City players compared to three Charlton ones – I don’t like City’s propensity for shirt pulling which was responsible for at least three of the cautions, but Mr Bell was not consistent when it came to shirt pulling and frequently did not caution players who committed what I would call more serious fouls.
The under 21 team’s home displays so far this season have been a mixture of the excellent (e.g. Bournemouth) and the inept (e.g. Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday). Last night against Peterborough it was certainly a case of the former – last weekend, the under 18s beat Hull 7-0, this weekend, their seniors couldn’t quite match that, but they did score six unanswered goals.
A goal by the in form Jake Davies earned the under 21s a 1-1 draw at Sheffield United on Monday and he was one of the scorers last night. Davies had an assist in the only goal of the first half scored by Troy Perrett who’s really been among the goals so far this season.
Davies hammered in the second after Peterborough got in a mess trying to play out from the back. Captain Charlie O’Brien made it three with a near post header from a corner and when Posh again presented us with the ball forty yards from their goal, sub Herbie James ran through uncontested to easily score the fourth. Another sub, Hayden Allmark rivaled Davies for the goal of the game with a smooth finish from the edge of the area and when O’Brien hit the post with another header from a corner, centreback Thierry Katsukanya swept in the sixth.
A bit of a disaster last night for Cambrian in the Welsh Premier League at Caernafon. Ex City player Josh Beecher was one of two Cambrian players to be red carded and six of the goals they conceded came after they went down to nine men. The final score was 9-1 – all this happening after Cambrian had taken the lead after 15 minutes!
To finish off with Highadmit South Wales Alliance, Ton Pentre were 4-0 winners at Llangeinor FC in the Championship to move up to second in the table.
