By the time Cardiff City take to the field against Chelsea on Sunday, it will be twenty two days since they last played a game. City cannot afford a repeat of what happened in February when they restarted fixtures after a FA Cup induced break of a fortnight and played like a bunch of strangers against Watford, Everton and Wolves. Our next two matches will, in all likelihood result in defeats, but it is important that there is a repeat of the pride, commitment and no little ability we showed against West Ham to keep optimism up that we can garner enough points from the six matches to come after that.
While, of course, there can be no guarantee of progress in the competition if City had approached their FA Cup fixtures with the attitude that the tournament was important to them, I find myself again questioning our priorities during a season in which we’ll play the least number of competitive games in a completed season since we joined the Football League ninety nine years ago.
What’s done is done now though and it is only at first team level at Cardiff City that fixtures have ground to a halt for most of March – all of the other teams followed by this blog have continued to play and this piece is an update on what’s been happening to them in that time.
Yesterday I watched what is almost certain to be my final City Development team game of the season when the Under 23s entertained Crewe at Leckwith (there is only one home game left now and, as that is a 7 o clock kick off, I’m not currently feeling any desire to go along to it given what I watched yesterday and what I have been seeing from the side representing the club at the this level for the last couple of seasons).
I’m going to take a don’t say much if you haven’t got much that is good to report attitude to yesterday’s match. City fielded a side that included Matt Connolly (who went off injured just before half time) and Stuart O’Keefe to give it some experience, but, apart from that, it was a mixture of very young professionals or Academy team players and, not for the first time, I left a game at this level wondering who out of the fourteen players used by City had benefitted from the experience?
To be fair to them, Crewe are having a good season in the Northern section of the competition and have an outside chance of qualifying for the end of season Play Offs, but it needs to be emphasised that they are a Fourth Division club and Cardiff are in this country’s elite division – they should not be losing games to sides like Crewe as feebly as they did here.
The match was over as a contest within ten minutes as the visitors scored three goals of varying quality. A few weeks ago, Coventry (whose senior side play in what I still call the Third Division) strolled into an early 3-0 lead at Cardiff City Stadium against our Development team, but at least on that occasion City responded positively by getting things back to 3-2 in a manner which made them unlucky losers by the end. There was nothing approaching that yesterday and the way their solitary goal came about tended to sum things up.
City were awarded a penalty after Keiron Evans was brought down and while he was down receiving treatment, no player advanced to take the spot kick which made me think Evans would be taking it himself, but, eventually captain O’Keefe came forward and, to be fair to him, he made a good job of things as he sent the keeper the wrong way with a shot delivered high to his right.
O’Keefe was one of two City players to have a shot in a non event of a second half which saw Crewe’s level of performance drop dramatically (not that it did them any harm). The former Palace man forced the keeper into a routine save and there was a better effort from sub Siyabonga Ligendza in the dying minutes which was well turned around the post – apart from that, the only incident of note was the second yellow card shown to City’s Lawrence Wootton.
In the early years of this site, I would name my player of the season at Under 18 and Under 21/23 level based on the games I’d seen those sides play. It’s a tradition which I have allowed to lapse for some reason, but if I were trying to name one for the Under 23s this season, I would be unable to do so because there has again been no sense of continuity in selection for the team.
Through the first part of the season when there was what is generally regarded to be a Craig Bellamy inspired decision not to field Academy team regulars, there was the same ragbag assortment of trialists, a few of the said trialists who had signed pro contracts with the club, youngsters who were not first choices for the Under 18s and a handful of young pros who had come up through the ranks.
Since Bellamy began his voluntary break from duties while bullying allegations against him were investigated, selection policy has changed with more of the club’s youngsters being included and there has been something of an upturn in results as a consequence, but I still find it hard to answer the question what serious purpose does our Development team fulfill at the modern day Cardiff City?
At Under 18 level, City still lead the Southern section of their league competition, but their lead has now been cut to a single point by Ipswich. However, this has more to do with the fact that the East Anglian side have played more often than us and they only have four matches left to play now compared to our five.
City’s final seven matches are against teams from the Northern Section and when this run started they faced successive fixtures against the teams occupying the top three positions in that league. Third placed Nottingham Forest were beaten 3-2 in a match I wrote about a fortnight or so ago and the weekend before last we gained a very impressive 2-0 win at second placed Leeds (who took over at the top a few days ago) thanks to a couple of Keiron Evans efforts.
On Saturday, City entertain Sheffield Wednesday who are now a point behind Leeds with a couple of games in hand and have only been beaten in two league matches all season. Therefore, the possibility certainly exists that we could be knocked off the top of the table this weekend. However, at least that will happen with the knowledge that defeat for third placed Millwall last Saturday means that ourr Play Off place is almost assured as we are nine points clear of them with only fifteen more to play for.
As for the two local sides I’ve been watching this season, their hopes of promotion in the case of Blaenrhondda and avoiding relegation when it comes to Ton Pentre are not as bright as they were.
Blaenrhondda only drew on the weekend and so found themselves overtaken by Cornelly who moved up to third with a win, while second placed FC Cwmaman were thrashing bottom club Penrhiwfer AFC 6-0.
However, seeing that Blaenrhondda were up against top of the table Porthcawl Town Athletic FC who, until recently, were dominating South Wales Alliance League First Division as completely as Blaenrhondda had done the Second Division last season. Blaenrhondda won twenty nine and drew one of their thirty league games in 17/18 and for the first two thirds of this season, a solitary draw was the only blemish on Porthcawl’s record, but a couple of defeats (one to last but one in the league AFC Whitchurch) since the turn of the year has shown that they are human after all – they still appear to be assured of the title though.
About forty years ago, I formed the opinion that low scoring matches at that level Blaenrhondda and Porthcawl play at are very often a sign of quality rather than of poorness and this was certainly the case in the 1-1 draw I watched on Saturday.
It was, by some way, the best of the five matches I’ve seen Blaenrhondda play this season and the visitors’ Twitter feed has called them the best side they have faced this season – certainly, the fluent and effective football the home side played in the first half was very easy on the eye.
Porthcawl were certainly second best during the first forty five minutes and only got to half time with the score 0-0 thanks to a combination of luck and resolute, often last ditch, defending.
The previous time I’d watched Blaentrhondda play, against Cardiff Airport, a 2-1 interval lead had turned into a 2-3 defeat thanks to a second half fade out and, once again, the home side found it difficult to sustain the level of performance seen in the first period.
Credit for this should go to a large extent to Porthcawl who were shading the second half when they took the lead around the hour mark. I often think goals scored direct from a corner have an element of luck to them, but I have to say that, in this instance, the one taken by the visiting number nine was perfectly hit and went into an area which was very hard to defend – I see that it has been recorded as an own goal, but I didn’t see a touch by a defender and, if there was one, I don’t think it was decisive.
After that, apart from one incident, Porthcawl showed exactly why they are Champions elect as they frustrated Blaenrhondda with their organised and resilient defending. When the home side were able to threaten, they were foiled by confident and assured goalkeeping and it looked for all of the world as if Blaenrhondda were going to fall to another defeat on their own ground until a rush of blood by a defender who, needlessly, bundled over a forward, who had received a throw in on the bye line and was going nowhere, gave the home side a chance to equalise from the penalty spot.
Shane Davies, who had troubled Porthcawl throughout with his balance and skill, confidently put away the spot kick to rescue a point for his team with a couple of minutes left.
A draw was the least Blaenrhondda deserved from a match which I thought they just about edged, but a point apiece was a fair outcome and I would like to thank both sides for a very enjoyable afternoon’s entertainment.
Blaenrhondda who, curiously, have a a much better away record than home one, travel to Cornelly on Saturday and have to face Porthcawl again in their remaining fixtures. At present, they find themselves three points behind their next opponents with a game in hand and a better goal difference, so defeat will make their task that much harder – as for second placed Cwmaman, they are eight points in front, but have played four games more.
Finally, Ton Pentre, whose poor goalscoring record is, I would say, the main reason why they are at the bottom of the Welsh League Division One managed to find the net three times on Saturday, but could still only pick up a point in a 3-3 home draw with Undy Athletic.
While Ton have certainly been more competitive this season than they were in finishing bottom last time around, things are still looking pretty bleak for them I’m afraid as they find themselves two points adrift of Taffs Well having played two more matches than them and four behind Goytre from the same number of games. The only other team they can possibly catch would appear to be Pontypridd who are seven points ahead of them, but have played a game more – with none of their remaining matches against sides around them, Ton Pentre have to be favourites to finish bottom of their league again.
