Wales may not have been great to watch until their most recent game this season, but when the entertainment value is low, you can still at least take pleasure from the team you support grinding out the wins.
The fact that Cardiff City have only won three out of eleven (twelve if you count the League Cup no show at Northampton) rather tells the story that there hasn’t been much satisfaction to be had from admiring chiseled out victories from the club I support. Although the recent win over Barnsley was enjoyable and we played pretty well in an unlucky defeat by the wurzels in our last match, there is little doubt that I find myself on the side of my country in any club v country debate as to who I’ve enjoyed watching more in 20/21 so far.
Now though Wales have to be put on the footballing back burner until the end of March as we enter four months where it’s going to be club football all of the way.
To be honest, at a time when you would really like something from your football team to take your mind off the grim relentlessness of life in this miserable year, the thought of four months of watching City playing like they have been doing so far doesn’t fill me with excitement.
Furthermore, a game in south east London against a Millwall team that have been the closest thing to a Championship equivalent of Cardiff City in terms of style of play in recent seasons to start things going again was hardly something to get my juices flowing.
Earlier in the week, I did a piece on City’s season so far while also drawing attention to our recent record against Millwall which, if it is possible for something to be this, manages to be both remarkable and mundane at the same time!
I say that because, before today, Millwall had only beaten us once in fourteen games, but we’d only managed three victories ourselves during that time – furthermore, the previous five matches between the clubs at the New Den had finished all square.
There’s more to it than that though, I look back through the meetings between the clubs I’ve watched at Development and Academy team levels down the years and an awful lot have ended up as draws – as, indeed, have many of the reverse fixtures in London.
I can’t be sure of this, but my guess is that something like seventy per cent of matches between the clubs at those three levels since our senior side’s first promotion to the Premier League in 2013 have ended up as one pointers.
Therefore, if I were a betting man, I would have put a pretty heavy wager on today’s match finishing level and I would have favoured it finishing 1-1 – sure enough, that’s how it ended up, but I don’t claim any great credit for being right, it was simple law of averages stuff.
I’m afraid I cannot claim any great insight into what sort of match it was because it was another of those ones where, apart from the two goals which I’ve seen, I only had the Radio Wales commentary to go on and, on that score, Wales women’s team striker Helen Ward came across very well as both knowledgeable and insightful – being the age I am and having lived a life where for more than ninety per cent of the time, football was covered as a solely male sport by the huge majority of the media, I found it hard to adjust to hearing and seeing female pundits and commentators, but there are some very good ones around and today Ms Ward was a definite improvement on some of the male summarisers I’ve heard at City matches.
Based on what I heard from the Welsh women’s team highest ever scorer and her colleague Mark Poyser, today’s game was the slowest of slow boilers, but at least it was the better type of draw where your side comes back after falling behind.
With Lee Tomlin out until mid January at the earliest following an operation on what is a chronic groin condition and Jordi Osei-Tutu still a month away from a return from his hamstring injury, the only good news on the injury front is that Greg Cunningham is back in training, so, at a time when the number of substitutes has increased because of the reintroduction of the pandemic induced rule from last season which allowed five changes to be made, our bench included a few names that you would not really have expected to see used.
As for the starting line up, having reverted to the usual 4-2-3-1 for the wurzel’s game following the 4-4-2 used against Barnsley, it was back to the latter again with Keiffer Moore and Robert Glatzel up front, Harry Wilson and Junior Hoilett on the wings and Marlon Pack and Joe Ralls in the middle of midfield.
While that system worked well against Barnsley, I must admit to not being a great fan of it when City use it because, with two strikers who both not far short of six and a half feet tall, it can draw the team into playing in a manner which we are trying to move away from to an extent. Furthermore, when you consider what a coup Wilson was considered to be when we signed him, sticking him out on the wing seems a waste to me.
We struggled to get Wilson into the game against Barnsley and it was only when he moved into a number ten role and we reverted to 4-2-3-1 that he became an influence on proceedings – self evidently, 4-2-3-1 is not the complete answer to the problems we’re having this season, but I don’t believe 4-4-2 is either.
In truth, I don’t feel it’s a case of us discovering the right formation and then everything will be fine – it seems to me that, whether it’s because of instructions from the manager or it’s an attitude of mind thing with the team, we do start games timidly and yet, in the last ten minutes today we were really going for the win and could easily have lost the game when Millwall caught us on the break.
Suffice it to say, the first half was another tough listen with, seemingly, only two incidents of note. The first of these came on thirty five minutes courtesy of rare blunders by two of City’s most reliable players, Alex Smithies and Curtis Nelson, who both gave the impression they were going to deal with Shaun Williams’ cross, then decided to leave it to each other, thereby presenting the towering Matt Smith with a simple chance to score his fourth career goal against us.
Just before the break, Glatzel got his head to a Hoilett cross and was denied by the first of three very good saves by home keeper Bartosz Bialkowski in what was our sole worthwhile effort of the first forty five minutes and the opening half an hour or so of the second period offered little hope of a way back into things either.
Millwall didn’t sound anything special themselves, but Ben Thompson should have doubled the home team’s lead rather than head Jed Wallace’s cross over from close in and then the same player wasn’t too far away when he tried his luck from twenty yards.
The home side, with one of the better goals against records in the division, were comfortably coping with City and, given the chance to make five changes to his team, Neil Harris only chose to make two as Sheyi Ojo came on for Hoilett and Josh Murphy for Glatzel.
This was the crucial substitution for City. Murphy had only been on the pitch four minutes when he split the home rearguard with a lovely pass which sent Moore running on goal – there was some luck for the striker and his team in the end as home captain, Jake Cooper, slid in to try and block the shot and only succeeded in getting a slight deflection on it to help beat Bialkowski.
What had been a pretty miserable showing by City was now transformed – Murphy, showing the ability we all know he has, set up Wilson for what seemed a certain goal only for Bialkoski to deny him from close in and the keeper again performed heroics to keep out a Moore header.
There was a also a home clearance off the line well into added time, but it was Millwall who wasted the best opportunity of the closing minutes when sub Jon Dadi Bodvarsson ran from half way with desperate defenders in pursuit only to shoot wide.
So, yet another draw which leaves the teams with only two wins between them in their last thirteen matches – it’s a result which is no good really for either side and City really do need to record a couple of wins in their upcoming matches with Coventry, Luton and Huddersfield before what looks a tougher run of fixtures in the run up to Christmas.
Given the, hopefully, unique circumstances of this Christmas, it seems to me that we may see a much increased number of gift tokens/cards given as presents. Therefore if you’re a City supporting receiver of such a gift why not take a look at my new book “Real Madrid and all that” when cashing in your present? In fact, if you’re buying for a City supporter or are one yourself, you could do a lot worse than buying a book which has received excellent reviews (with one exception!) – here are details of what the book is about, what formats it can be bought in and where it can be bought, you can also read its mixed reviews!
Once again, can I finish by making a request for support from readers by them becoming my Patrons through Patreon. Full details of this scheme and the reasons why I decided to introduce it can be found here, but I should say that the feedback I have got in the past couple of years has indicated a reluctance from some to use Patreon as they prefer to opt for a direct payment to me. If you are interested in becoming a patron and would prefer to make a direct contribution, please contact me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com or in the Feedback section of the blog and I will send you my bank/PayPal details.
–
Count yourself lucky, Paul, that you didn’t watch the game – we seem to have become obsessed with keeping possession and I know that the other team can’t score if we have got the ball but nor can we score if we keep passing it across and back to each other in our own half .. too often the ball is passed back, sometimes straight back to the man who has just passed it, without even a glance towards the other side’s goal to see if there just might be a gap and near it one of our men. In the last 20 minutes we seem to have realised what we were there for – if only some of that creative effort had been applied earlier. As a London resident daft and committed enough to have had a Ninian Stand season ticket for years and so now having to watch all our home games on my laptop, it’s becoming more difficult to cope with forking out a tenner to watch the away games, but some habits are hard to break so I’ll probably do it again on Wednesday, but yesterday twice we nearly did reach breaking point – that will be when our throw-in in their half eventually is passed back and across and back and ends up in our goalie’s hands without any of their players touching the ball.
Good morning Paul – Thanks for your views. I am finding it very difficult to fathom out why it is that our lot have to wait until reasonably late in the game before mounting serious attacks on the opposition. Having secured the equaliser as a result of a “through” ball, and an excellent one at that, even if there was the slightest of deflection from Moore’s strike, we had three or four genuine attempts that on any other day would have brought reward. I have lost count of the matches we may well have won, or not lost, had we started our revivals sooner. However, on making decisions to become more attack minded, it does result in the defence becoming vulnerable and yesterday Millwall spurned two good chances to score with our defensive shape all over the place.
You were lucky that you did not have to listen to the two guys doing the commentary from the City’s streaming broadcast. Biased beyond acceptable, and dismissive of individuals in the opposition, they really disappoint. But I will continue to buy my streaming pass for away games, and for home games I have these free as a result of my season ticket, for it enables me to watch the City in complete comfort. And I can vent my elation/frustration without causing concern to others – well perhaps other than my lady and dog.
But back to yesterday for a moment, I thought that Glatzel was performing somewhat better than Moore, but if anyone was going to be hooked it was always going to be him. Moore then looked better. Wilson was ignored for long periods, but came into his own later on and Murphy’s arrival improved matters, Ojo not so much. Bennett’s marauding down the wing was encouraging if his delivery was not. Work on the training ground needed. Ralls had a good showing, possibly his best so far this term.
If we are to mount any form of challenge on the top six, then as you state, 9 points from our next three fixtures are a must. So I’ll be investing a further tenner on Wednesday.
Paul, I wanted to add just how much I enjoyed your book. An absolute easy read that just flowed and essential reading for any City fan. One of my recollections of that season almost 50 years ago was of the then 17 year old Nigel Rees’s performances on the left wing creating chances of the sort that our current man Moore must yearn for. So sad that he suffered an injury from which he never really recovered. And an Academy product at such a young age playing regular first team football. When will that happen again?
n
Hi Paul.
Thanks for the report. My following of the games was the same as yours – Radio Wales plus couple of minutes highlights/ goals online.
However, think Graham has confirmed that it was same old same old and we didn’t miss much!
This pattern becoming somewhat repetitive now . We struggle to take the lead and only seem to wake up when running out of time, leading to obvious criticism of being predictable and unable to control the game.
Agree with you in that the Barnsley and Wurzels games did at least show that we can play – despite the loss in the latter game. However, we are so maddeningly inconsistent and sure that, were we to be attending matches in person, the crowd would have given full vent to their feelings on this.
Not good enough as we approach a busy period and suggest that the next 6 weeks or so is pivotal to our success this season.
Must admit though that I am not feeling too confident about our ability to turn things round if we continue like this.
Good morning and thanks to each of you for your replies. There has been some comment on the nmessageboard I use about how City are not as bad a team as their league position indicates and, in fact, they are a top six team. While I think the last bit is taking things too far, I do have sympathy with the opinion that there aren’t fourteen teams better than us in this division.
However, having now seen the whole of the Millwall match, there is a temptation to just concentrate on what happened after we equalised when Millwall were forced onto defence and, although sometimes looking dangerous on the counter attack, would surely have ended up a well beaten side if we had seen something similar in the first eighty minutes. Instead though, what we got was possession, but pointless possession that was never hurting our opponents and little signs of players really trying to get into forward areas – even with two up front, it was clear we weren’t committing players into positions where we could hurt our opponents, we are, generally speaking, so timid in our approach during the opening forty five minutes of matches.
Graham, I favour us having more possession of the ball, but situations like the one you describe are so difficult to understand as we sacrifice possession of the ball by working it all the way back to our keeper who then belts it upfield in a manner which, more often than not, ends up with our opponents having the ball.
BJA, thanks for your kind comments about the book, it was a surprise to me when I read through the old papers in Cathays library just how influential and effective Nigel Rees was when he first broke into the side – I suppose the difference between then and now was that Rees, Ronnie Bird etc. did not have to do the amount of defensive work that our wingers are expected to do these days, but that doesn’t explain why a “winger” (i.e. someone who stays out wide) so often becomes just another midfield player as they constantly look to come inside on to their better foot. I’ve not seen enough yet to suggest the modern approach to wing play is more effective than the old one and it was so nice to see Dan James go past someone on the outside to cross with his left from the left for Keiffer Moore’s goal against Finland.
Huw, I’m confident to the extent that, as mentioned above, I don’t think we’re a lower half team, but, by the same token, I’ve seen little so far to suggest we’re a top six one either and, as I mention in my piece, once our next three games are done, our fixture list until we play Wycombe is a daunting one – Birmingham at home looks winnable, but I don’t see too many others that are unless we can get ourselves into a more confident frame of mine in the next week against Coventry, Luton and Huddersfield.