You get to Thursday in a week where we’re not playing on a Tuesday or Wednesday and start looking forward to the weekend’s game. The sense of anticipation builds into the Friday and then you find out that Bobby Madley (the man who does videos mocking disabled people) is going to be refereeing the game and all of that enthusiasm ebbs away.
Leaving that video to one side (everyone deserves a second chance and he paid a high price for his mistake etc), anyone who saw Madley’s disgraceful performance in the Newport County v Morecambe League Two Play Off Final in 20/21 would have to doubt his suitability for such an important game. I’m sure his favouring of Morecambe that day was down to nothing more than incompetence, but that’s no consolation to the club just down the road from Cardiff which is getting far too close to the bottom of League Two for comfort – if Newport were to go down this season, it would clearly be wrong to blame it solely on Bobby Madley, but his handling of that match would have been one of many contributory factors towards it – the man should not be refereeing at that level.
Well, today City were the Newport to Coventry’s Morecambe in a game where Madley was one of its two central figures. The other one was Coventry’s centre forward Victor Gyokeres who scored the only goal, gave Cedric Kipre one of his more uncomfortable afternoons of an impressive season, missed an absolute sitter early on and was lucky to stay on following an elbowing incident with Perry Ng.
At the time, I thought the yellow card he was shown by Madley was sufficient punishment, but, having now seen a replay where Gyokeres looks around to see exactly where Ng is when the ball is coming towards him, I’m wondering whether he should have been shown a red.
Gyokeres’ goal was a tap in at the end of a neat Coventry build up which culminated in Jamie Allen getting in a shot that Ryan Allsop could only palm into the path of the striker stood some eight yards out.
There appeared to be nothing wrong with the goal on first viewing, but, again, replays of the incident raised questions because it look like Gyokeres might have been offside. The linesman on the Ninian Stand side was hopeless throughout the ninety minutes and seemed to only work out how to signal offsides in the second half when he was ruling on City attacks. Therefore, it was no surprise when the flag was not raised in the build up to the goal – although, if I’m being honest, I think he probably did get that decision right.
The hopeless linesman was also involved in the game’s main talking point – a disallowed Callum Robinson goal early in the second half. The linesman didn’t flag when Robinson calmly side stepped former City keeper Ben Wilson and rolled the ball in after Joe Ralls had headed a half cleared corner back towards the Coventry goal.
My first instinct was to think Robinson may have been offside, but then those replays again led to more questions as they clearly showed Coventry defender Kyle McFadzean making contact with the ball as he tried to clear it. So, at this stage we had no flag from the linesman and the ref seemingly happy with the goal as the City players celebrated an equaliser.
However, Madley then decided to go over to consult the linesman before coming to a decision to disallow the goal. Maybe the fourth official made Madley aware of the possibility of an offside, but, in his post match comments, Mark Hudson said that he spoken to the ref about it and, in essence, he was told that as it was a deflection off the defender, he wasn’t playing Robinson onside.
If that is the current interpretation of the offside law, then that’s news to me, although, to be fair, I’ve long since given up on trying to understand the current offside interpretations – if that really is how the modern day offside law is implemented though, it’s an absurd situation.
Even if that is the law now, there are two possible reasons why it should not apply in this case. First, Hudson was adamant that at no time was Robinson offside. I’m not 100 per cent convinced of that myself, but I am certain that the Coventry defender tried to play the ball and so I cannot see how anyone can claim that it was a deflection – he tried to play the ball and miscontrolled it.
So, I’d say there’s no doubt whatsoever that Bobby Madley was his usual inept self this afternoon. Furthermore, he robbed us of a point (Mark Robbins the Coventry manager was honest enough to admit his team “got away” with one when it came to the disallowing of City’s goal), but would it have been a deserved point if the goal had stood?
I’d say you could make a case for saying it was, but I’m unconvinced. For me, this was a return to the bad old days of last season where we lost no end of games 1-0 at home and they all seemed to involve the away side scoring quite early on and then seeing things out with few alarms as we demonstrated our lack of creativity and flair.
That disallowed goal apart, Coventry, who are a lot better than a bottom of the table team on this evidence, were comfortable against attacks which became more direct and desperate as time went on and one legitimate on target effort (which I can’t recall at the moment) from fifteen goal attempts tells its own story.
Having looked dangerous and confident counter attackers last week at Wigan, we have struggled all season long to score goals at home – five goals in seven games (eight if you count Portsmouth in the League Cup) and we’re still waiting to score more than once in a match at Cardiff City Stadium.
Coventry on the other hand had that bad miss by Gyokeres as early as the third minute when Allsop came charging out for a through ball, missed and the Swedish striker was left with the goal guarded only by a couple of defenders in front of him, but, from eighteen yards, he shot high and wide.
Allsop did well to turn over a Allen header late on and there were other near things for a City defence that was not as secure as usual on their own pitch.
Yes, I’d say that on balance Coventry deserved their win – they were grateful for a poor set of officials, but the right side won today. Now, having looked secure in his caretaker role this morning, Hudson faces two away games where I’d say one point would be a decent return – defeats against QPR and Swansea will surely mean that Vincent Tan and co will have to actually start doing more than going through the motions when it comes to looking for a permanent successor to Steve Morison.
It was double defeats for Cardiff today as the under 18s went down 2-1 at Leckwith this lunchtime to QPR with Tanatswa Nyakuwha scoring our goal.
There was a mixed set of results for the teams this blog follows in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance. In the Premier Division, AFC Porth gained their first point of the season with a 3-3 draw at home to fellow strugglers Garw, while Ton Pentre suggested that they might be ready to take a first step back towards their former heights when they beat a Llanrumney United side that had been top of the table 2-0 at Ynys Park. In Division One, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club had a disappointing 4-2 home loss to second placed Caerphilly Athletic and are slipping down the table somewhat after their good start to life in a higher division.
I must also congratulate Merthyr Tydfil for their 2-1 win over Folkestone Invicta this afternoon to secure a place in the First Round proper of the FA Cup – the draw is on Monday with Merthyr, apparently, hoping for a Welsh derby against Newport or Wrexham.
Finally, as has been the habit at the start of a new season in recent years, can I ask readers if they’re willing to make a donation towards the running costs of the blog. I say running costs towards the blog, but, that’s not really true this time because this year any donations will go towards costs incurred in the production and publication of the book I aim to have out for sale by October.
As mentioned this time last year, I decided to do another review of a season to follow on from Real Madrid and all that which was about 1970/71. This one is about the 1975/76 season and will be called Tony Evans walks on water. I finished writing the book over the weekend and now it’s a question of tidying it up, proof reading, inserting a few photos and designing a cover before sending it off for printing.
As always, the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation towards its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site because there will never be any.
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“I’ve spoken to Bobby [Madley]. He says he gave offside because of a defender not being in control of the ball but the main point is he [Robinson] is not offside at any point in the move.” (Mark Hudson).
A difficult decision to make without VAR allowing for multiple views. I’m more concerned with the chances we created (or rather didn’t) and chances given up before and after this contentious moment than the goal ruled out itself. Call it the opposite of the Wigan game where Ojo’s goal created the separation between the sides on paper but we played well enough to win before and after that moment.
Our first poor performance since Huddersfield? I don’t think Coventry will be in relegation places too much longer so won’t be distracted by their current placing when reacting to the result; however, a home game against a side who have won once in four? If we look forward to next 7 games, then you might be able to work out why Hudson was making such a big deal about 1 point becoming 0 today.
We’ve got quite a small squad really but also missing a coach with Hudson yet to bring in his choice, well we’ll see where we are in 7 games time, but November looks difficult from combination of sides we’re facing and number of games/lack of recovery time. We need to try and pick up points before then but remaining games in October look tough as well with QPR and Jacks away before what, in theory, is slightly easier game with Rotherham at home.
Every point matters in this division this year.
I’ve received the following comment from BJA:
“Thanks for your summary of event on Saturday in what turned out to be a total disaster following three good results, probably even three good performances. I watched in complete disbelief at the inadequate passing by our lot in their attempts to find colleagues and at one time late on in the second half was almost tempted to shout “we’re playing in blue” such was my dismay.
Yes, the referee and his assistant on your side off the ground were poor, but their deficiencies were not the real reason why Coventry went home with three points. Just one shot on target and that came from a right footed effort from Joe Ralls in the first half from twenty yards or so that Wilson saved quite easily. One shot on target in the whole game!! And we are at home!! Regardless of our disallowed goal ( I thought Robinson was offside at the time before any deflection ) that solitary target statistic sort of sums up our season really – a total lack of consistency.
Far, far too many of the selected eleven and substitutes having on off day putting it kindly, or being more blunt, seemingly not having any real desire to “put in a shift”. And much as I wish Mark Hudson to be a success in his new role in view of his past performances as a player, he was not exactly demonstrative on the touchline other than when our “goal” was chalked off. Oh for a bit of passion. I can but hope that he condemns all of his players to view the whole game and subject them to acknowledge their mistakes.
I commend the Coventry fans. They were terrific. With that support and their team’s commitment to the cause, they will surely make progress up the league table. Just hope they do not pass us going in the opposite direction.”
A thank you to him and DJ for their replies. Starting with DJ, I wonder if Hudson will get the chance to face Rotherham if we lose tomorrow and on Sunday (something which would hardly qualify as a shock if it did happen). In fact, a draw tomorrow followed by the usual surrender against Swansea might not be considered enough. My view is that you cannot look too far beyond the next two or three matches, because the Championship is always a league where about two thirds of the sides have at least two runs which get their fans dreaming of a top six finish and two others which have them dreading relegation. That applies even moreso this season and much will depend on how the fixtures drop – for example, Hull at home looked a very good chance of a City win before it got called off, it still does in fact, but it could be that they will have turned their form around by the time we face them – another example, Birmingham looked hopeless when we played them, yet they’ve had some excellent results lately, will it last for them though?
BJA, you and DJ re in agreement regarding the ref and the disallowed goal and, as the annoyance with Madley subsides, I’m more willing to accept that it was a distraction (that’s not to say I won’t be fearing the worst when we next have that man, who should not be refereeing in the EFL in charge again). Thanks for jogging my memory about our one on target effort – I’d forgotten it. Unless you’re a title or promotion challenger, you’re going to get the occasional game where a side has two or less on target efforts per match, but we’ve had far too many of them so far – we seem to be having more shots from distance this season, but all that is doing is highlighting a lack of ball striking technique in many of our players, Sawyers has a decent shot on him, but is not influencing games and the way he mishit the volley from about fifteen yards late on was suggestive of a lack of confidence to me, Ralls has a decent shot on him, but not yet this season I’m afraid, but it’s hard to think of anyone else among our midfielders and defenders- even Robinson “drags” a lot of his shots from about fifteen to twenty yards.