Well, that was all a bit strange! Cardiff City made it four unbeaten under Mick McCarthy with a 2-1 win over an in form Rotherham United at a snowy New York Stadium to put more distance between themselves and the Championship strugglers, while at the same time, I’m sure there’ll be those who’ll be thinking that the Play Offs are on again now – I’ll hold fire on that one until we start winning a few at home.
Anyway, why did I refer to it as being strange earlier? Well, in the early weeks of the season, I had to get used to listening to matches but not seeing them as my streaming season ticket resolutely failed to work, but it came full circle tonight as my stream had a great picture (actually, I’ll come to why that’s not quite true later), but no sound whatsoever for most of the time. Therefore, I had no way of knowing something which became clearer in the second half – there was a virtual gale blowing from one end of the ground to the other.
City had Dillon Phillips still deputising for the indisposed Alex Smithies and young George Ratcliffe on the first team bench for the first time as second choice keeper, but were otherwise unchanged from the win on the weekend at Bristol City, although there was no Leandro Bacuna among the substitutes (Mick McCarthy said he’d injured his calf when he was running about like a “blue arsed fly” against Bristol City after coming on as a sub), so Ciaron Brown was given what I think was his first appearance in a match day squad for a Championship match.
A week or so ago, this was being held up by some as the match where our descent into real relegation trouble would be confirmed- the theory being that when Rotherham beat us they would have closed to within two points of us with a game in hand. The Yorkshire team had not done anything to dispel this notion in the meantime (indeed, the BBC’s match report on tonight’s encounter stated that no team in the Championship had taken more points than Rotherham in 2021).
The nature of City’s win at Ashton Gate had dispelled quite a bit of the pessimism that had built up among supporters in the last month or so though and now we find ourselves closer to the top six again than we are to the bottom three – albeit, if nine points clear of the relegation places sounds a comfortable cushion, eight points from a Play Off place tends to suggest that we’re going to spend the closing weeks of the campaign with little to play for.
If that turns out to be wrong and we get into a position where we could match last season’s feat of coming with a late run to break into the top six, then this Tuesday night at windy, snowy Rotherham will be seen as a test of character passed as City battled their way to three of their most hard won points of the season – Rotherham looked a well coached side with a bit about them who are too good to go down on this evidence.
After a misleadingly bright start to the match, City spent most of the first half on the back foot with the home side looking more confident and sharper as they won no end of second balls and, very unusually, the Championship’s kings of the aerial challenge even found themselves coming second in that department.
City had reason to be grateful to Phillips on a few occasions as he dived twice to turn away shots by the lively Michael Smith and then the keeper produced a great instinctive tip over from a header by the same player.
A lot of City’s defending had an air last ditch desperation to it and while it would be harsh to say they were being battered during the twenty minutes up to the final five of the first half, they were definitely under the cosh in a way that they hadn’t been before under McCarthy’s management.
A shot by Keiffer Moore which forced home keeper Victor Johansson into a diving save offered evidence that the siege was lifting though and within a couple of minutes, we had a lead which was very much against the run of play.
It was a goal fashioned and scored in Liverpool so to speak as Harry Wilson burst on to a loose ball some thirty yards from our goal and then picked out Sheyi Ojo who had started his run from inside his own half and found himself with a clear run in on goal. No one was going to catch Ojo, but, with about forty yards to run with the ball, there were plenty of ways it could have gone wrong for the loanee if he’d have let it. Ojo he made scoring look easy however, as he calmly placed his shot wide of Johansson and City had the lead with a goal of a quality which was far above the level they’d shown for most of the opening forty five minutes.
Although they were ahead at the break, City must have known that they would have to show more quality and resolve in the second period if they were going to hold onto their hard won advantage.
However, in truth, it was nowhere near as tough as it had been in the opening forty five minutes for them and, but for a tremendous save by Johansson from Sean Morrison after a mishit Wilson shot had fortuitously found its way through to him, it might have been pretty comfortable for them.
You only had to see how Johansson was struggling with his kicking to realise that Rotherham’s first half superiority was, partially at least, down to the strong wind they had behind them and, while City were not as dominant as their hosts had been earlier, they went on to have the better of the second forty five minutes.
Moore put a header too close to the keeper from a good position, but City were looking in charge now until the home team did something similar to what we had done as they came up with a goal out of the blue to level things up.
It only took an accurate pass down the line by Lewis Wing to take the left side of City’s defence out of the game, and when the cross came in from Smith, it was a beauty which left Matt Crooks with a simple tap in. As Mick McCarthy remarked after the match, it was a well worked goal from an attacking point of view, but he thought his team should have done a lot better defensively – for me, it was a good, well worked goal, but I suppose that shows I’m a simple punter as opposed to someone who is in employment in the game. .
By now, the light snow showers that had been falling for most of the match were developing into something more substantial and the snow got heavy enough to merit a change of ball from white to yellow – not that it made much difference because I was soon finding it impossible to see what was happening on the mostly silent screen in front of me. The situation wasn’t helped either by the fact that it appeared as if most of the yellow balls available were too soft which caused the game to be held up on two or three occasions while a search was carried out to find one that was acceptable – watching at home with little idea of what was going on at this stage, I was thinking the game was on the verge of being abandoned.
From what I could make out, City were having the better of things as they forced a series of corners and were also able to find some promising crossing positions behind a square looking home defence, only for nothing to come of them.
However, when it looked like both sides would have to settle for a point, sub Josh Murphy, on for Ojo, produced a peach of a cross and it was Joe Bennett of all people appearing through the snow on the far post to emphatically head in his first goal since his fine volley which began a recovery to gain a point from two down at Reading in December 2017
All of the delays while an acceptable yellow ball was searched for meant there were six minutes added on time. City coped well for the majority of that time, but in the last of those six minutes, a mad scramble in and around the City six yard box ended with Wing firing over from a good position and City held on to win successive away games for the third time this season.
Given the way the first half went, Rotherham had justification in feeling hard done by at the end, a draw would have been fair I thought, but we deserved praise for a resolute and hard working showing which was lit up by two very good goals. For now anyway, the 3-4-3 formation is working well as Harry Wilson is more influential and involved, Moore, who was constantly fouled by his markers, but still provided evidence of what a fine signing he has been, is not looking so isolated and players such as Curtis Nelson and Will Vaulks are playing a lot better than they were recently.
Moving on to what happened a few hours earlier, with nine goals scored in the previous two matches at Development team and Academy level, the Under 23s continued the free scoring trend with a 4-1 win over Colchester at Leckwith this afternoon. It was a result that makes it three consecutive wins for Steve Morison’s team with four victories and a draw from their last six games representing a strong recovery from their awful start to the season which saw them picking up just the one win and a draw from their first nine matches.
However, despite there being plenty to take heart from in the performance, it was something of a disappointing affair because a sending off inside the first three minutes for Colchester captain Billy Cracknell rather ruined the game as a contest.
As the only side from League Two in City’s division at this level, Colchester are often whipping boys in Under 23 competition, but, while not exactly setting the league alight, they have been competitive this season with just five defeats in their thirteen games before today and so they could have provided pretty stiff opposition for a City team which was missing Owen Pritchard, Dillon Phillips, Tom Sang and Mark Harris from the team that were very impressive in beating Ipswich 4-0 last week – another absentee was last week’s substitute goalkeeper George Ratcliffe who, with the doubts about Alex Smithies availability, was needed as a substitute at the higher level this time.
Jamie Cogman, Cameron McWilliams, Eli King and Oli Denham came into the team with the last two named alongside captain Jack Bodenham in a back three, McWilliams was deployed as a right wing back, with James Waite on the other side, Keenan Patten and Sam Bowen were paired in central midfield, while Keiron Evans and Ruben Colwill were either side of Isaak Davies in a front three.
City adopted a high pressing game from the start and there were only about two minutes on the clock when Colchester got into trouble trying to play out from the back, Cracknell was left with no alternative but to play the ball back to his goalkeeper Endurance Johnson, but his under hit pass left Evans with a one on one with the keeper – Cracknell hauled Evans down and with the Colchester player clearly the last man, the referee didn’t really have any alternative but to show him a red card.
City, realising they had plenty of time in which to make their numerical superiority count, set about their task patiently and probed for openings, the first of which arrived around the fifteen minutes mark when Davies burst clear of his marker, drew Johnson and knocked the ball past him, but only onto an upright.
Colchester offering little in the way of attacking play, we’re nevertheless defending resiliently and they made it to the half an hour mark with one or two signs emerging that City were starting to get a bit frustrated.
The player in this team that has got the most publicity in recent weeks is Ruben Colwill with Mick McCarthy making some very complimentary comments about him after naming him as a sub for the Millwall match, but here I thought he was disappointing in the first third of the game. However, although the side is full of good quality, technically proficient young players, it’s Colwill who, more than anyone else, makes things happen – that’s exactly what happened here, as soon as Colwill got more involved, City started scoring.
With McWilliams being a willing and effective runner from his wing back role, he and Colwill began to combine effectively and when the latter was put into space his cross was only half cleared to the edge of the penalty area where Patten hit a well struck low shot which Johnson should probably have done more with than divert into the corner of the net.
Within two minutes, City had the chance to make it two. More incisive play down the right created the opportunity for Patten to burst on to the ball in a similar position from which he had scored, but this time, he elected to drive into the box and was brought down for what looked a clear penalty. It appeared at first that Patten would take the spot kick, but Davies appeared at the last moment to grab the ball and although Johnson dived the right way, the shot was too well struck for him to have any chance of saving it.
Having already reduced them to ten men and then given a penalty against them, Colchester might have thought that the referee would be looking to even things up a bit, but when the increasingly influential Colwill fell in the penalty area just before the interval, the official pointed to the spot again and, for the third time when it came to the big decisions, it looked like he’d got it right. Davies again stepped up and this time as Johnson went the same way, put the ball in the other corner to make it 3-0.
Davies’ next direct impact on the game came soon after the break when he inadvertently blocked Waite’s shot on the line in the first instance of the wing back’s ultimately doomed effort to get on the score sheet despite plenty of second half attempts.
I’m sure the centre forward wasn’t subbed for denying his team mate a goal, but shortly afterwards, he was one of three City players withdrawn – Denham and McWilliams making way for Taylor Jones and Roland Idowu, while there was a first sighting this season of striker Dan Griffiths when he came on for Davies (presumably he’s been injured?).
However, before that McWilliams was involved in the incident which saw Colchester awarded a penalty of their own after Tom Stagg, who troubled City with his strong and direct running on occasions was brought down and he duly put the spot kick away himself by sending Cogman the wrong way.
After that, it was all City really as the near misses mounted up, notably when Colwill shot against the post at the end of a lovely, flowing move. Johnson also made some good saves to keep the score down, but was beaten for a fourth time after Colwill switched wings and drove over a fierce cross from the left. For a second or two, it looked like Griffiths had marked his comeback with a goal, but replays indicated that Colchester’s trialist sub had got the last touch.
That was the end of the scoring in a match that wasn’t as enjoyable as the earlier wins over Swansea and Ipswich, but that wasn’t really the fault of the City team who played well, it was just that that there was a sense of inevitability about it all after their opponents had lost a player so early on. There were a lot of good performances from the City team, but I thought Keenan Patten, who gave a demonstration of all of the assets expected from a modern central midfielder, was the pick of the bunch.
I started off by mentioning the word “strange” and it certainly is that when you consider that there have been times this season (e.g. the opening weeks and then in the period just before Christmas) where is has seemed like defeats all of the way for City’s senior, Development and Academy sides, but now those three teams have won two, three and two matches consecutively respectively – so much of this game is played in the head and, for now anyway, Cardiff City are a confident football club.
Finally, it’s now a month to the fiftieth anniversary of our win over Real Madrid in the European Cup Winners Cup Quarter Final First Leg in March 1971. To commemorate that anniversary, I’ve written a book called Real Madrid and all that – details of which can be found below.
Thank-you, Paul; for another excellent latest episode from : “On our Travels with City.” You make a good point about our, “misleadingly bright start to the match.” After an almost frisky opening 10 mins Rotherham then gained the upper hand until the latter reaches of the opening first period. It was not until mid-way through the second half that City regained the ascendency.
City, again settled for a 3421 formation against the Yorkshiremen’s 3511, though a more adventurous spare man was really required, coming into mid-field, to make three versus three in the centre. We know that Flint is not that type of player. We can but wish for a Gary Bennett in that role. Nevertheless it would be churlish to criticise our #5 for he has done well in the system. My point is that to get the best out of the sweeper system you need two glorified wingers who can defend a bit as wing-backs and that comfortable on the ball sweeper who is not all-at-sea when he comes forward into midfield with the ball.
So City adopted a good tempo to start the game, had a good 10 mins at the end of the first half and then a forceful 25 mins in the blizzard. This was enough to secure a 2-1 away win. I for one, would not be critical in anyway of the performance in the conditions that visited Yorkshire that night. I thought the ref, Mr Eltringham, did well in awful weather apart from, on 17 mins not giving a hand-ball in the penalty following a Ralls’ shot. This when the defenders’s arm was way above his head. That said, the later appeals from some Rotherham players for a penalty for minimal contact inside the box were surreal. The home player automatically threw himself to the ground when grannies in the former Mothercare store would have been able to remain vertical for similar. Mr Eltringham remained unmoved and rightly so.
City ended the first period clinically. After good work from Wilson, midway inside his own half, his forward pass found Ojo who raced 40 yds, defender in tow, before calmly placing the ball to the keeper’s narrow side. Morrison and Moore failed to add to the lead before the home-side equalised. As the snow began to stick City’s pressure began to tell and on 85 mins an exquisite left foot cross from the right wing found its onrushing recipient, left wing-back Bennett, to head home from 6 yds into the far corner of the net.
Some may feel justified in saying, in City’s present situation: “Never mind the quality feel the width.” However to believe that that quote summed up the Bluebirds’ night in wintery Yorkshire would miss the point. Wilson’s pass, Ojo’s finish and Murphy’s cross were all of the highest order. Ng and Bennett looked as if they had been wing-backs all their lives whilst Pack was a calming head in the last 30 mins.
Slowly but surely our new Manager is turning around the juggernaut that City had become. We are nowhere near the finished article but at least we are a little closer to dispensing with the bulk shipping containers on the deck for a major refit to begin.
Thanks Steve, as someone who has always thought that three at the back might be a way of solving some of the issues within our squad and yet has had to accept that it usually didn’t end well when we tried it, it’s good to see it working pretty well in recent matches (of course, it’s early days yet and more proof of its effectiveness is required). I agree though that to get more out of the system we need at least one of the three to be able to play in a more constructive manner. There was a reminder on the messageboard yesterday that Leggy had been used as a “sweeper” behind two centrebacks in 00/01 by Alan Cork and did well enough in the role to earn a recall to the Welsh team – we did let in a lot of goals that season, but we were the highest scorers in the country and having someone with Leggy’s range of passing was more of a positive thing than a negative. You mention Gary Bennett who had the advantage of being a very good defender to go with what he could offer on the ball, but the one I would love to see in the current team is my favourite ever City defender, Danny Gabbidon who would be just what we needed at the back to become a first step to redesigning the team to play in a more progressive manner.
I’m also in agreement that the system we’re playing currently seems to be allowing players like Wilson and Ojo to become more involved. My concern though remains central midfield where, besides the issues that have been discussed on here plenty of times before, we are likely to be outnumbered three to two quite often – that happened at Rotherham and, despite us playing better than we have done in many matches this season, I think we were fortunate to win.