At 3 o clock last Saturday afternoon, Cardiff City had not won a match since 16 December. While a couple of draws had steadied things somewhat from the nightmare run of six straight losses that ended the Neil Harris era at the club, the thing I think should be borne in mind is that a loss at Bristol City with a match against in form Rotherham to follow would have meant that there would have been a strong chance that City would have been trying to improve their miserable home record today having not won in ten games.
Instead, the team that were struggling so much less than three weeks ago have not looked back since – Bristol were beaten 2-0, Rotherham 2-1 and today Coventry were dispatched 3-1. Amazingly, City are now seventh and what was a thirteen point gap to the top six just seven days ago has now been reduced to just six.
That Bristol City match now looks so important to how our season develops and I think there has to be an acknowledgment that City got lucky that day to some degree. I’m not saying there that the better side lost. Far from it, we were worth more than a two goal win and, truthfully, with Wycombe winning today at Huddersfield and the wurzels being trounced 6-0 at Watford, there might well not be a worse team in the Championship currently than our cross channel rivals.
However, I believe we were still somewhat lucky because we went into the match at Ashton Gate on the back of that very rare thing in this tremendously congested season – a week where we hadn’t played a midweek match.
On the other hand, Bristol had to face what may well be the toughest fixture there is in the division at the moment, Brentford away, three or four days before playing us and while I repeat that we were well worth the three points, that trip to London where they put in a big effort only to lose 3-2 must have had some effect on our opponents.
You may be wondering why I’m going over old ground here, but I believe it has a relevance to today’s game In that it was us this time who were in the Bristol position. in fact, our situation was slightly more testing than the one the wurzels found themselves in because Coventry had played well in drawing with Watford in a televised Friday night game a day before the Severnside derby, so they’d not played in eight days, whereas we had to come through a Tuesday night in Rotherham test in grueling conditions against an in form side.
Now, despite there being some very good things about today’s display, there were also questions raised which I’ll come to later, but any criticism I or anyone else directs at the team, should be tempered by a recognition that we went into the game under something of a handicap.
City led at half time thanks to a couple of Keiffer Moore goals and within a minute of the restart, Josh Murphy’s long overdue first goal of the season had us three ahead. Therefore, anyone who had not watched the game would look at the time of Coventry’s late goal and think of it as a mere consolation for a well beaten side, but a look at the match stats may offer the clue that this was not the routine encounter that a cursory glance might suggest.
For example, while we had eight goal attempts, our opponents had twenty one. Coventry had five on target efforts, whereas we were utterly ruthless in our finishing as we scored from all of our three on target attempts.
The foul count is interesting as well – Coventry committed eleven, while we were up at twenty four and I wouldn’t say that referee James Linington particularly favoured the visitors, I thought he was pretty even handed in his approach.
Tellingly, many of those fouls against us were given in the closing stages, when, frankly, we looked out on our feet as a team. The importance of that Murphy goal to take us three clear cannot be overstated because, without it, I feel Coventry’s domination of the closing stages could well have seen them cancel out a two goal advantage as City got the jitters to go with their tiredness – indeed a team with a sharper front line than Coventry’s (they’ve only scored twenty seven times in their twenty nine matches) may well have been able to escape with a draw from three down.
Jason Perry the summariser on the club website’s coverage got it right for me when he said that City won because they were better in both boxes. How Coventry must have envied us with Moore, Murphy and Harry Wilson up front, while, for all that our first and third goals were very easy on the eye if you were a City fan, Coventry will probably be questioning their defending for all three goals.
In fact, I see Coventry manager Mark Robins bemoaned his team’s defending while saying that it was their worst performance of the season. One of the reasons he gave for that was that his side, and the ref, allowed City “to kick Callum O’Hare off the pitch” – I believe Robins may be referring to a tackle by Joe Bennett at the end of the game there and, to be fair, it did look a naughty one.
Robins talked about a lack of fight in his team against a side that fights and, on one level, I think he’s being a bit harsh there because I was quite impressed by how Coventry knocked it about in midfield in a way that I don’t believe we can, but, then you think that, as Robins says, his side only really reacted in the last fifteen minutes in the manner he wanted them to and you know what he means – for all of Coventry’s pretty patterns, they got them absolutely nowhere as an attacking force for about eighty per cent of the game.
I would argue that, while 3-1 flattered us, much of Coventry’s superiority in the last fifteen minutes was down more to the fact that we were clearly tiring and yet, apart from bringing on Leandro Bacuna for Murphy on seventy three minutes, Mick McCarthy opted not to make any more changes until two minutes into added time at the end of the match.
Our manager’s reluctance to use his substitutes despite the fact that Moore (the one player City cannot afford to lose to injury in the coming months) especially was struggling to last the pace can I’m sure be put down to, Bacuna apart, it was, surely, the most inexperienced bench we’ve ever had for a first team league fixture.
With Alex Smithies still not over whatever it was which made him fall ill in the first few minutes of the Bristol match, George Ratcliffe was again second choice keeper and the most experienced of the rest on the bench was probably Ciaron Brown. Tom Sang, Joel Bagan, Mark Harris and Max Watters were in the group that had at least played some senior football and then we had Ruben Colwill and Isaak Davies who have been doing well for the Under 23s lately.
As it was, McCarthy gave Colwill a minute or so when he came on for Wilson for his first team debut – as the young player that our manager has spoken most glowingly about since he arrived, it was no surprise that Colwill was the youngster that got some game time, albeit a very small amount.
However, should more of our subs been used and used for longer than Colwill was? In our manager’s defence, I go back to what I said about this game not being as cut and dried as it might have appeared at first. Coventry scored after eighty one minutes and for those last nine minutes, plus the added three minutes, there was a definite feeling that, if Coventry got one, another one could easily quickly follow.
On the other hand, with Moore looking so in need of some sort of rest, none of the three most likely candidates to replace him in Watters, Harris and Davies had similar attributes to our top scorer, but they would all have been able to run the channels for balls knocked up to them and would, hopefully, have got us further up the pitch in those closing stages.
With us at Luton on Tuesday, I would just come down on the side that our manager missed a trick by not making more use of his substitutes. While I acknowledge there would have been a degree of risk involved, I can’t help thinking that there are similarities here to Neil Harris’ decision not to make changes during our last winning run late last year and we know how that ended up as far as Moore especially is concerned.
I suppose that bottom line has to be though that we found a way to win what was always going to be a tricky match given our recent schedule compared to our opponents and it would be churlish to make too much of an issue about the non use of substitutes.
As far as the game went, there’s not a great deal on the attacking front to comment on. Aden Flint’s finish from an early free kick was a good one, but he was, rightly, ruled offside. Then, on the half hour mark, it was great to see Josh Murphy chase back, win the ball cleanly, then burst forward to feed a fine pass into Moore’s path with the outside of his foot- from there, the player rated the best in the division according to whoscored.com showed his ability on the deck by stepping inside the last defender and scoring confidently from ten yards with an angled right foot shot.
Moore’s second eight minutes later was more mundane, but no less welcome as Coventry keeper Marko Morosi,, under challenge from Sean Morrison, made a mess of his punch from a Will Vaulks long throw and the ball eluded Murphy stood no more than five yards out, but found its way to Moore on the far post who tapped in from about the same distance with Coventry claiming a foul on their keeper -for what it’s worth, it looked a fair goal to me.
Murphy was not to be denied though and the second half hardly barely begun when Perry Ng showed quick and bright thinking as he took a quick free kick to Murphy while Coventry were preparing for the advance of City’s big men from the back and the former Norwich fan flashed a low fifteen yard shot across Markosi into the far corner of the net for a second high quality City goal of the afternoon.
Finally, just a word on a player whose form has definitely improved under Mick McCarthy, Curtis Nelson carried on the fine form he showed at Rotherham with a series of excellent, often painful, blocks which confirmed he’s now hitting the standards he set for himself last season again.
Finally, it’s now less than 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;-
At times the most entertaining performance from Cardiff I’ve seen in a long time.
Good morning Paul – Another splendid report and one that I am totally in accord. With the score at 3 – 0 in our favour just seconds after half-time thanks to the quick thinking Ng and alert Murphy, I was contemplating a few more to add to our positive goal difference, but tired legs began to be in evidence and Coventry’s impressive possession statistics added considerable pressure to a defence that had to show battling attitudes. I think in the end we “escaped” with a victory, but it could have been oh so different.
It is hard to argue with the tactics of a Manager that has seen his side be unbeaten in five after joining a club that has lost six on the bounce, bur surely he could see that Moore was cream crackered, and would have benefitted with twenty minutes of rest. Quite why he has not afforded Watters a run as a replacement is surprising as it would surely have helped both.
I agree with your views on the referee who I thought was reasonable and the foul count against the City I think was as high in this match as any other this season. From my vantage point, there were a couple of “naughty” ones, and many others mis-timed as a result of tiredness. And for me, that was a cause for MM to consider more substitutions to save potential more yellow and certainly red cards being shown against us. Bagan would not have let the side down as Bennett was looking a little vulnerable.
The star of the show for me was Nelson who took some absolute belters to his body during the latter stages, but shirked nothing. The three man defence seems to be working, but I hope they have a rest these next couple of days as there are some tricky matches ahead of them in the remaining days of the month.
We are shortly to enter the business end of this campaign, and whilst I do not see us as a top six side, a few more positive results will surely see us safe and perhaps MM will be persuaded to give one or two of our promising youngsters more than the 60 seconds he gave Colwill, for that was a really daft substitution and made no sense to me.
Hi! Paul and others.
I am still enjoying Paul’s excellent reports and the comments they have inspired.
As I am too much of a cheapskate to shell out for the live stream, I have seen no live City action since the Swansea debacle so it would be fraudelent of me to comment on a regular basis.
I have to say I was not enthused by McCarthy’s appointment but he seems to have solved the immediate problem, relegation seems unlikely at the moment.
Just a couple of thoughts. Nice to have a “proper” right-back, McCarthy is getting more out of Murphy than either Warnock or Harris, finally, on paper playing a back three of Morrison, Flint and Nelson frightens me.
In other news both my wife and I have had our Covid vaccinations.
Hi Paul and all.
Spot on again with your analysis and share your concerns re use of substitutes . As per BJA comments – Moore put in a hell of a shift again and was running on empty at the end.
I like the fact that Mick doesn’t do the same old obvious substitutions at the allotted time that the Neil’s used to do, but do feel we need to protect our main asset better.
Also agree that Coventry were only a goal away from giving us a very unsettling last period and grateful for Nelson and co for putting all parts of bodies on the line!
We definitely look better organised and prepared and I do like the touch line chatter between Mick and TC. They seem a real double act and offer constant encouragement . Sadly I felt that Harris looked a bit Billy no Mates on the sideline – and that didn’t inspire confidence when things were not going well.
Not going to pick fault as we were ruthless in front of goal and played well, but we do seem to give away more than our fair share of stupid fouls. I know that we often blame the refereeing, but there have been more than a few instances in recent games where we have lost possession or been caught out and had to take drastic action. I presume the yellow cards are stacking up and we have a few teetering on the edge of missing a game?
On a positive note, more of the same this coming week please!
Hi everyone – I’m not sure if you were aware but Robert Glatzel came on as a sub yesterday against one of the top German sides and scored with a minute to go when Mainz were two down, and a minute later his side scored again to achieve a most creditable draw.
I just wonder if MM could have worked some of his magic on him as I still believe that he has something to offer the City and if still with us, could allow the willing and hard working Moore some respite later on in our matches.
Good evening all. Thank-you, Paul for your reporting on yesterday’s game at CCS. There is a consensus that we did well to get to our 3-0 score-line but then appreciably lost steam in the final quarter of the encounter. Admittedly, with such a young bench, it was understandable why so few substitutions were made, but from here on in greater use of the five substitutes rule will have to be employed if we don’t want the good already achieved to peter out. The slog this season is relentless and players must be kept as fresh as possible.
City again went with our Manager’s favoured 3421 which quickly became 343 when we attacked, with both Wilson and Murphy going wide or joining Moore in the middle. However this was not the match to be without Ralls as we certainly missed his energy and closing down in midfield against a Coventry side that adopted a 3511. Generally we were one short in the middle so not surprisingly for much of the game they bossed proceedings in midfield. Oh that Pack was a yard or two quicker. Coventry’s 542 passes (City: 285) and 82% accuracy (City: 65%) rightly gave them a good foothold in proceedings. The visitors were well-drilled and had movement which caused problems yet lacked pace to open us up.
I would have to take exception to the WoL assertion that our display was both, “confident,” and, “sparkling.” We were certainly a division better than the visitors in both penalty areas but were chasing shadows at times in the middle of the park.
I have always been a fan of Josh Murphy, but have been perplexed why his undoubted talent has not manifested itself over a prolonged period in a blue shirt. On reflection, my simple feeling is that I felt Warnock coached it out of him due to defensive requirements placed on his shoulders leading to a crisis of confidence. At last, it appears, we have a manager who has breathed that confidence within him and is now making the opposition look like, ‘stiffs,’ as Arthur would say. The strange thing is that now confident we saw that very thing that Warnock craved. Murphy, chased back 5 yards outside his own box, beautifully won the ball, hared forward half the length of the pitch before slipping a ball to Moore, who scored with ease. Seven minutes later (38 mins) their keeper flapped despite three defenders surrounding Morrison on the 6 yards line. Murphy tried and failed to make contact with the loose ball before Moore got his second from a yard beyond the far post. In the first minute of the second period Ng’s quick thinking for a free-kick released Murphy who finished in a manner of a player in form. If it had not been for tiredness we may have got another one or two.
Mark Robins’ remark, the gist being, that we kicked his lot form pillar to post seemed somewhat misplaced to me. I didn’t think we did and how far do we have to get into this season before Wilson gets protection from refs? Some of the challenges on him during this 2020-21 have been, shall we say, crude? Ostigard’s assault on Wilson on 10 minutes was a straight red. Yet not even a yellow was deemed necessary by the official. It was an awful challenge and could have caused serious injury to the City #23.
City’s tiring legs managed to hang on to a 3-1 score-line that moved us remarkably into 7th position. I say remarkably about our position but I still hanker for the complete league table to be shown on line and in newspapers. I spent many happy hours in my youth studying them. Today’s: P, GD and Pts do not cut it for this fan. For those who are long in the tooth like me City’s full league record this season reads:
29 … … 5 … 3 … 7 … 23-19 … … 6 … 4 … 4 … 17-14 … … 40
How can a side that got to the play-offs last season have lost 7 out of its first 15 home games?
Though in some respects Coventry gave us a little bit of a football lesson this weekend we certainly showed them a thing or two of how to defend in our own penalty area and be clinical in theirs. I suppose Moore, Nelson & Murphy will get most of the plaudits for this 90 mins but essentially this was a team effort and all deserve praise for a performance that a few short months ago seemed a million miles away.
PS
Have to agree with Steve – no relation – comments above.
In this age of internet, mobile access etc I know that, in theory, tables are there 24/7 at the touch of a mouse or button. However, I too also miss the endless time spent in the past poring over all the league tables to try and predict what might happen in upcoming games, second guessing possible points and what if we win all the games in hand etc etc.
No printed papers for me since lockdown, but definitely a gap in my personal football fandom that digital access hasn’t filled.
Rant of ( not very) old man over?
Apologies for the late response, but I got there in the end! Anthony, good to hear from you again – I agree with you that there were moments of technical quality and quick thinking that you don’t normally associate with modern day Cardiff City on Saturday.
BJA, I don’t want to look as if I’m being critical of a manager who I was not too enthusiastic about being appointed just for the sake of it, but I’m on your side regarding the substitutions. While it wasn’t a purely black and white issue, I can’t help thinking that there’s a danger of us getting into the same position as we did during our last winning run under Neil Harris whereby we start to pick up injuries that were almost inevitable given how punishing the schedule and selection was when it came to some of our most important players and I think your point about player discipline is well made. As for our possible relegation, I was probably wrong not to treat it too seriously while we were losing six on the trot, but I’m not giving it a thought at the moment – the traditional cut off for relegation is fifty points, but it’s often been less than that in recent years, so, I’d say we probably need three wins from our last seventeen games to stay up and, honestly, if we can’t manage that, then we deserve to go down.
Good to hear you and your wife have your vaccines Colin – I turned sixty five earlier this month, so I was expecting to have to wait a while for mine, but I had a phone call yesterday telling me I could have it on Friday morning. I shared your misgivings about our back three, but, as BJA mentions, Curtis Nelson is playing much better lately and he is the one in the three who has a bit of pace and anticipation to his game, so, from the defensive side at least, it looks quite a nice blend at the moment, even if we don’t really have the mix right as far as the playing out from the back side of things is concerned – one other thing, if you want to watch some City football, the Under 23s match at one o clock is being shown free of charge today on the club website.
Huw, Terry Connor has been here as Assistant Manager for about three weeks now and yet I feel I’ve seen more of him in that time than I saw of Neil Harris’ assistant Dave Livermore in a year and a quarter! A lot of managers allow their assistant to take a post game press conference occasionally (Gary Rowett did after the recent match with Millwall), but I’ve not got a clue what Livermore’s voice sounds like and I never read anything he said in the media – it came over very much as the Neil Harris show! Regarding possible suspensions, we’re now past the stage in the season where five bookings equals a one match suspension now, so it looks like Bacuna is three yellows away from a two match suspension and Morrison four as the worst of our offenders.
BJA, I saw Glatzel’s goal, he played a big part in its creation and then out it away well, but his form for us when he filled in for Moore was so disappointing.
Steve, I agree about Murphy – for me, Neil Warnock paid a lot of money for him because he played a certain way at Norwich and then tried to change him into a “more all round player”. There was a while around this time last year when Murphy prospered under Neil Harris, but, from the outside, it looked very much like the relationship between manager and player then broke down for whatever reason some months before Harris left and you’re so right to point out that the first goal came about because Murphy did the exact thing that the two Neils wanted to see from him! Hopefully, this is more than just a short term thing with Murphy because if Mick McCarthy can get him playing to his potential at this level, we will have gone from having a player who I’d long thought we may as well try to get rid of, to having someone who would make our attacking play so much more potent.
Finally, can I say how much I agree with you about the apologies for league tables that have become the norm online in recent years and I’d take it further and say why have fixture lists change from the simple list that we used to get to the month by month crap we get on club websites and the BBC site these days? It’s not just that they do not give most supporters what they want from a fixture list, but also they’re awful to try to navigate on club websites as the page keeps on jumping about to things like squad details and ticket information!