With our safety confirmed by the 1-1 draw between Reading and Wigan yesterday which relegated the Lancashire team and almost left Reading at the point where they need snookers, I was prepared to be in a forgiving mood if City turned in their usual timid and inept home display against Huddersfield today.
After all, Sky TV had deemed that we play on Thursday at 8 o clock and then midday on a Sunday against opponents who had not had a game in almost a fortnight. You also had to think that there would be some sort of understandable reaction to the fact that we had, in essence, now become one of those mid table teams with nothing to play for that sides chasing promotion or fighting relegation want to come up against at this time of the season.
However, forget the 1-2 scoreline, until we roused ourselves around the eighty minute mark to at least make Huddersfield experience a modicum of anxiety, this was embarrassingly bad by City. There was a spell reminiscent of our inspired three goals in ten minutes or so at Blackpool in the second half except it was us on the receiving end – we came out of it 2-0 down, but it could easily have been five or six as we completely fell apart.
Neil Warnock is now on the brink of pulling off another one of his managerial “miracles” and although I wouldn’t rate this one in the Rotherham in 15/16 class, youve got to give the old sod credit for that. He will get so much kudost for keeping Huddersfield up, as he no doubt will, but, in truth he didn’t need to do anything brilliant here because his team were up against probably the most disinterested and ordinary opponents they’d faced all season.
There was a meeting between Chairman Mehmet Dalman and supporters’ group after the game – I won’t be so naive as to say I expect Mr Dalman apologised on behalf of the club to supporters for three season’s worth of shockingly bad home results and performances, but someone at City should.
There was a very impressive near twenty seven thousand there today which means we have had crowds of over twenty thousand for each of our last four home matches – they’ve had one draw to “cheer” in that time and the other three have seen visiting fans celebrating victory because, in case we forget, Cardiff is “a tough place to come to” (where’s a laughing emoji when you need one!).
Add the game with West Brom to those four and we’ve not been in the lead for one of the four hundred and fifty minutes we’ve played in our last five home matches.
I’m sorry to keep on banging on about home performances and results, but I think it’s now reached the stage where time and effort need to be put in by the club over the summer to try and get to the heart of a recurring problem which is nipping any hopes of the team moving forward in the bud.
After all, a virtual total overhaul of the squad last summer has made no difference to our wretched home form and you think back to the start of the behind closed doors Covid season and there’s only Joe Ralls and Sheyi Ojo, in his loan spell, who would have been playing for the first team at that time.
20/21 saw many of the advantages of playing at home nullified and the results from that season reveal that away teams prospered more than usual. However, compared to what was to come, 20/21 seems like a fantastic home season now.
After all, the number of defeats did not get into double figures (there were nine) and there tended to be plenty of goals scored when we won (we scored three or more in seven of the eight home matches we won). Disgracefully, more than half of our home games were lost in 21/22, so ten defeats this season, seems to be an improvement on the twelve we suffered last year, but our pitiful six home wins this time around means that the number of points gained, 25, was the same as the long suffering supporters only had twenty City goals to celebrate.
This week finally saw the release of season ticket prices for 23/24 (no doubt, they were waiting for confirmation of what division we’d be in next season) and I must congratulate the club on keeping the same prices for what seems like a third or fourth consecutive season. However, although the decision is welcome, there was probably also a feeling that they could not put up prices when the fare on offer has been so uninspired and miserable for so long.
Anyway, let’s leave our home woes there and quickly go through today’s match. The first half won’t take long, it was your usual playing like an away side at home stuff from City – Jonathan Hogg ran true to form by injuring Kion Etete inside the first fifteen minutes and Sory Kaba, apart from one contribution, came on to play as poorly as he’s done for us in his loan spell so far. Huddersfield were committed and urgent in all they did and forced Jak Alnwick into a save inside ninety seconds. As halftime was reached with the game goalless, the visitors the better team and City’s only worthwhile attack saw Jaden Philogene play a lovely one two with Kaba which ended with the Villa man dinking his shot into the side netting.
The start of the second half at least saw City step things up as they forced a few corners, although there were still no on target efforts and visiting goalkeeper Lee Nicholls was still a spectator.
Nevertheless, I was just about getting to the stage where I was thinking we might just nick a win, when we presented Huddersfield with a goal around the hour mark. Alnwick had been more willing to throw the ball to defensive colleagues and there were occasional short goal kicks as a reminder to those early season days when Steve Morison was turning us into Man City. Back then, Ryan Wintle was the apex of the triangle that would see the ball shifted between central defender, midfielder and other central defender, today it was Romaine Sawyers whose form has somewhat fallen off a cliff since the last international break.
Granted, Jack Simpson’s pass to Sawyers wasn’t a good one, but the player often referred to as the best technician at the club should have been able to do more than feebly leave a back pass short which sub Joseph Hungbo took on to finish impressively past the helpless Alnwick.
City made changes and with Ralls having to go off injured in his three hundred and fiftieth match for the club, Ojo filled in at left wing back (Joel Bagan, who Sabri Lamouchi tells us he rates, played for the under 21s at Hull last night), but, in the short term at least, the substitutions only made things worse as Huddersfield swarmed all over us, only for City to strike back as Wintle glanced on a free kick and although a Huddersfield player got the first touch on the midfielder’s headed flick, Simpson stuck out a foot to jab the ball into the net from six yards.
Oh hang on, that was a goal for Huddersfield wasn’t it where City provided the both the assist and the scoring touch – sorry, it made the score 2-0 to Huddersfield, not 1-1. The ten minutes or so following this were amazing as City collapsed completely and Huddersfield looked like they could score every time they came forward – there was one amazing scramble where our woodwork was hit twice within a few seconds, but there were plenty of other times when the ball could have ended up in our net.
Insanely, things were then turned on their head in the last ten minutes or so as we managed to get out of own half and have a few attacks of our own. We actually managed to score our second goal from a corner this season when Huddersfield lost concentration to allow Wintle to play one short to Philogene whose fierce low cross was smartly back heeled in by sub Isaak Davies to give us hope following our first on target attempt of the game.
We only managed one other though when another sub, Rubin Colwill, let fly from twenty five yards to bring a good diving save out of Nicholls.
Colwill and Davies did a few things wrong while they were on, but, compared to most of their team mates, were at least trying to make things happen – you’d like to think they’d get another chance next week at Burnley in the season finale, but you can’t help thinking that they could and should have been used more this season,
I mentioned the under 21s game at Hull, which was lost 2-0, but, to balance that, there was a 2-0 win for the under 18s against Burnley thanks to a couple of Trey George goals – incidentally, Lewis Benjamin, the goalkeeper who was very impressive in a game for the under 21s in January and was expected to sign for Man City played in this game despite being linked with Wolves to create hopes that he will stay with us after all. Also in the Highadmit South Wales Premier League AFC Porth we’re beaten 8-0 by Aber Valley as Ton Pentre and Treherbert Boys and Girls Club had a free weekend.
Finally, there are still a few signed copies of my latest book “Tony Evans Walks on Water” available from the Trust Office (near Gate 5) on matchdays at the reduced price of £9 for Trust members.
Sabri Lamouchi has said “mission accomplished” and it has been that in testing circumstances: (a stat skewed by World Cup break) a side that had only won once in three months before he arrived, without our stats leader for goals and assists since mid February and eight league games to play in April.
One could argue that it’s been testing circumstances right since the stupid decision to play Isaak Davies returning from injury in meaningless game against Derby in final game of 21/22 season and seeing him go off injured. A shorter than usual summer followed, a huge overhaul of players needed, Tan not finding money for a starting striker until after seven games had been played…
…NG suspended for Reading away and Rinomhota coming off after 45 minutes, Kipre unavailable for WBA and Collins injured, Robinson’s missed penalty (first of many for City this season) against Huddersfield away.
Goodness me, if we went through every unlucky event going against us or self-inflicted bad moment we’d have a book for this year in your comments section.
It boils down to this, it’s extremely difficult to see how we’ve progressed between securing safety last season on 09/04/22 and this season on 29/04/22, we’ve had a terrible home record for three seasons in a row and (it seems) every time we have bumper crowd the club puts in one of the worst performances of the year. This summer is the first ‘normal’ one for a while (not impacted by covid or World Cup) and we need a good one or our ambitions for next year will be finishing top of the bottom 6, presumably, without anyone getting a point deduction to help this time. Oh, and thank goodness there are no more home games this season.
cardiff had there holiday heads on , they were basking in the sun all game, they should donate there wages to charity after that performance ,
Thanks both for your replies which I agree with completely – I go back to Steve Morison’s comment from about this time last year where he promised there would be no repeat of 21/22 in the coming season and, sadly, the only way you can see he was right now is that 22/23 turned out to be worse than the previous season! Will 23/24 see an improvement? I’m not hopeful as we seem to be on a slippery slope and, even if there were a genuine desire to arrest the slide by making more money available for whoever our manager is going to be this summer, the effects of the embargo and the implications of FFP mean that the recruitment section still face a very tough task. If Lamouuchi stays (I’m not wholly convinced about him yet), it would appear that we will be looking to bring in foreign Bosman signings – that really could go any way as a really well thought so-ordinated and thorough approach might bring rich dividends, but it could just as easily lead to real problems with things like a dressing room full of cliques and unhappy footballers finding it difficult to settle in their new surroundings. For myself, I’d like to see more emphasis put on the loan market because, despite the shambolic nature of the club in some respects, we’ve done well in that market in the last eighteen months or so – granted, our inability to pay loan fees will make the task tougher this time.
Hello Paul and others – For many different reasons, I have not been able to attend a number of our recent home matches but as a few have been available to watch by different means, it hasn’t mattered too much. And quite clearly, our performances have been so dire, that I do not appear to have really missed too much either. And because of these, I fear that it is unlikely that I will be renewing my season ticket which is a decision I am finding it hard for me personally, because whilst I will always, always be supportive of the team, there are decisions being taken at the CCS which I find difficult to understand. Wretched home performances are hard to take, but as has been hinted for a while, there are problems off the pitch.
I learn today that our Chief Executive also occupies the same position at Mr. Tan’s Belgian Club. Most strange.
On team selection, the Manager continues to use two players who underperform to such an extent that in other businesses they would be sacked. But they appear regularly.
The Sala situation is now with some foreign court and at which we continue to plead some form of innocence as to what happened four years ago, but our actions, or non actions, have created great costs to the City and a transfer embargo.
And last night I watched a Warnock inspired Huddersfield overcome a team bound for the Premiership with a second half display with a greater commitment than we can muster. How that resonated with the Huddersfield support.
I saw my first City game seventy-two years ago, have been in attendance on each of the four occasions that we were promoted to the top tier of the English football pyramid, was at Ninian Park when we overcame Real Madrid, and supported the City at countless away games, And if I feel in a few weeks time as I do now, then I will have made my last visit to the CCS. Not sure what is necessary to improve my disposition.
But I, like so many, really appreciate your own assessments of events, and am full of admiration for your continued reporting. Thanks.
Thanks BJA, I don’t think you’ll be alone in not renewing your season ticket BJA if you still feel the same way and decide you’ve had enough. The constant stream of gloomy news and performances is one thing, but when it’s backed up with ineptitude off the pitch and the sort of attitudes which produced a performance like last Sunday’s on it, you do reach the “why bother?” stage.
Touching on last Sunday, I’ve been quite surprised at the extent to which supporters I’ve been in contact with were were affected by that performance – it’s strange that it came in a game which didn’t mean anything to City, but it almost feels as if a line was crossed with people who’d been quite patient and tolerant with our abysmal home performances (I’d long since crossed that line and have also not been bothering attending lately – this version of the club aren’t worth the effort and so I watch all of our games at home where, in truth, I’m often better informed than I am when I’m at matches). I’ll buy a season ticket again in the hope that “my club” starts playing at Cardiff City Stadium again, but I’m not hopeful they will under this ownership.
There’s so much wrong down there currently, Ken Choo was not at the meeting with supporters’ groups after Sunday’s game and now we learn that he is not doubling up as CEO of a football club and a glorified car salesman, it’s two football clubs and a glorified car salesman! That’s typical modern day Cardiff City, at a time when things are as bad on the pitch as they’ve been in twenty years, we have a part time CEO and an owner who acts as if he knows best when it comes to appointing the Director of Football equivalent that could act as a much more efficient “buffer” between football staff and the Boardroom.
You mention the Sala case, let’s not forget that our defence, essentially, boiled down to “we cocked up” and we’re under a partial embargo for not paying the first installment of the Sala within a thirty day deadline. If City were still refusing to pay that installment, then at least they could be said to acting out if principle, but they have paid it and so you’re left with the feeling that they were either unaware of, or did not understand, the rules – being charitable, you could think the club have been poorly advised I suppose.
Yo finish, I don’t blame anyone who say’s they’ve had enough – especially if they’re someone who only gets to see us at home. You mention the Real Madrid game where the picture begins to break up on the You Tube video of it when we score because of interference from the noise the crowd were making. Okay, that game was exceptional, but I can remember stacks of games when Ninian Park (and Cardiff City Stadium) was absolutely rocking because of what the team were doing in front of us on the pitch – now, I find myself asking when was the last time it felt like that at a home game? Maybe it did for a few minutes after we equalised against Swansea, but, having done that, we then fell back, played for a point and ended up getting exactly what we deserved. That game apart, beating the wurzels was good, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I watched a home game and felt the sense of pride and excitement you get when your team comes out on top in an entertaining game – for me, entertainment (or at least my understanding of that word) is something that only ever occurs at the very occasional City away game these days.