The 25/26 league season started for Cardiff City in a new division with a new Manager/Head Coach and a team selection that certainly set the tongues wagging.
Brian Barry-Murphy’s team for his debut competitive game in charge was definitely the youngest fielded by the club in the twenty first century and, with an average age of just over twenty two, it’s hard to imagine that the club has fielded a younger team than this one in it’s history. Also, in a real throwback to the days when I first started supporting the City, six of the starting line up were Welsh born, as were two of the five substitutes used (that was not a throwback, I’m ancient enough to have watched my first City game back in the days before substitutes!).
Perhaps the biggest shock BBM came up was to include Matt Turner in goal for his first team debut. The impending arrival of Nathan Trott (presumably he’s hitching his way from Copenhagen to Cardiff because the club have told him they won’t pay for a flight) means that neither Ethan Horvarth or Jak Alnwick are going to be number one choice this season, but I would have expected one of them to fill in here while the Trott loan signing is taking so long to complete.
Ronan Kpakio’s inclusion at right back was predictable with Perry Ng out injured, as was Dylan Lawlor’s at centreback alongside Will Fish in light of new captain Callum Chambers’ suspension and Joel Bagan, as the only experienced left back in the squad, was always going to start.
Ryan Wintle saw off the challenge of Eli King for the number six role, captain Rubin Colwill was the number ten and City started with brothers in their line up for the first time I can remember since the days of Gary and Dave Bennett in the early 80s. Yousef Salech led the line up front, with Cian Ashford on the left and Ollie Tanner (a little lucky to start I thought after a quiet pre season) on the right.
As it was, Tanner had a strong game as City predominantly attacked down his side with Kpakio and Joel Colwill offering him plenty of support.
It was the right side that was to the fore in a first half that City enjoyed the lion’s share of yet went in at the break a goal down to a Peterborough side that was getting on top somewhat after they taken the lead through a controversial penalty awarded by inconsistent referee Ben Speedie, who I thought favoured the visitors throughout.
Before that though, Salech volleyed over, Rubin Colwill wasted a good chance set up for him by Tanner, before shooting just wide from the edge of the penalty area and our Danish striker was crowded out as another fluent move down the right opened up the defence only for City to want to take another pass, rather than get a shot away.
Peterborough had been able to probe away on occasions and, in a league in which we are told more teams than we’ve been used to will play a physical, more direct game, they were very build from the back and pass patiently based.
In saying that, they had a big unit up front in Bradley Ivionvien who gave the much touted Lawlor quite an awkward afternoon. Referee Speedie’s interpretation as to what constituted a foul seemed to vary depending on which colour shirt was being worn, but he was right to caution Lawlor for a foul on the Posh striker,. However, he was wrong not award another free kick against the young centre back minutes later when he brought down Ivionvien just outside the penalty area. Instead, he allowed play to go on as Declan Frith went down under a challenge from Fish whose poor pass had started the Peterborough attack.
After a slight delay, Speedie pointed to the spot – the replays I’ve seen suggest that was a wrong decision, but I suppose it’s balanced by the feeling that Lawlor may well have seen a second yellow card if his earlier foul had been spotted.
Ivionvien’s spit kick was a good one, struck right into the corner as Turner dived the right way and City found themselves in the familiar position of being 1-0 down at home. It could have got worse as Turner dived to divert an Iyionien shot wide after Bagan had carelessly conceded possession and there were a couple of late corners to defend before the half time whistle was blown.
For all that City might have been happy to reach the break just one down, they still were having chances of their own, such as when Salech probably should have scored when he met a Tanner cross six yards out, but his header was too close to goalkeeper Nicholas Bilokapic who palmed over the bar and then Rubin Colwill’s header from the resultant corner was blocked by his marker’s shoulder and the ball flew about a yard wide.
Somewhat cruelly, I found myself thinking at half time that it had been typical Rubin Colwill (much less influential when there’s league poinats at stake) so far, but it didn’t take long into the second half for him to have me eating my words!
City were awarded a free kick at around about the corner of the penalty area two minutes into the second period as a run by the younger Colwill was blocked. It was the wrong side of the pitch really for a right footed taker, but Rubin’s shot was perfectly placed as it flew in at the near post to enable his entire league goals output from last season to be equaled within the first hour of this one.
More importantly, it brought City level and in the following quarter of an hour, they played BBM ball in the enterprising and entertaining manner our new Head Coach wants with its high energy and press to the fore.
City had been unlucky to be behind after forty five minutes, but they were getting close to the heights reached in their pre season game with QPR now and it felt like a second goal was coming – although, when it did on the hour mark, I’m pretty sure no one had predicted the scorer!
Rubin Colwill was again involved. This time, his clipped ball inside a defender was perfect for Bagan to run on to and he delivered a lovely cross which just eluded Salech and Joel Colwill. However, the ball did find Tanner who rolled a pass into the path of Kpakio from the bye line and the 18 year old, stood at the same sort of angle as Rubin’s free kick had been, but a couple of yards closer to goal, delivered a fine first time shot into the net via the underside of the bar. However, perhaps the best thing about the goal was that replays showed there were six other blue shirts in the box at the time for a move from open play.
BBM sensibly replaced Lawlor with Jesper Daland rather than run the risk of going down to ten men and City were pretty comfortable for the next twenty five minutes or so while occasionally putting together some eye catching attacks such as when great work by Joel Colwill set up Tanner for what might have been a hat trick of fine City goals were it not for Bilokapic’s best save of the game.
However, a better City move which should have seen them make the match safe was the signal for a sea change in the game. Chris Willock, on for Ashford, started it off with a clever ball to Colwill who picked out Callum Robinson, who’d come on for Salech, and his attempt to beat Bilokapic on his near post only found the side netting.
It was the sort of chance you’d expect last season’s top scorer to take and the fact he hadn’t seemed to serve as a reminder to City of how hard they had found it to see out matches they were in front in during their relegation campaign.
City now began to lose the composure they’d displayed for eighty odd minutes and Peterborough would have left with a point were it not for the best save of the match from debutant Turner who palmed away substitute Gustav Lindgren’s shot after Kpakio’s one mistake of the afternoon when he lost possession by the corner flag.
There was a further panicky moment to endure when the ball bounced around six yards with no attacker able to get a decisive touch, but City were able to record an opening day win which I think was a bit more conclusive than the 2-1 scoreline suggests.
Nevertheless, it enabled us to go to the top of the league for a few hours before all of the other games were played and it was clearly a more entertaining watch than we’ve become used to in recent years.
Nevertheless, I still can’t help thinking that all of these youngsters need more “old hands” in there than just Wintle who, at 28, was almost five years older than anyone else in today’s starting line up – clearly Callum Chambers will be one of them once his suspension is over.
Another more experienced player who could have played is Ethan Horvarth, but I can only consider that he’s on his way out of the club following his absence from today’s match day squad. I assumed the same applied to David Turnbull who was also conspicuous by his absence from the squad, but after the match BBM stated that the Scot had been left out following some sort of breach of training procedure – it was a show of force by the new boss who confirmed that Turnbull will be available for selection on Thursday at Port Vale.
The other news to emerge today came from Chairman Mehmet Dalman who spoke to the media and supporters’ groups before the match thereby ending the Board’s silence on take over speculation.
Here’s what the Chairman had to say
Mr Dalman’s dismissal of there having been any meaningful discussions on a takeover of the club does at least deny the club hierarchy the chance to use that as an excuse for their lack of action over the course of a summer where you might be excused for thinking that the three men at the top had been off on holiday for the past three months.
It’s hard to argue with Mr Dalman’s logic when he says they’d get more for the club if they can get City back in the Championship again , but can anyone who has watched how the club has been run since our previous relegation in 2019 in particular really see us going up under the present ownership?
Away from the first team, I’m somewhat confused as to what to make of our under 21s. On the one hand, they had no trouble scoring when getting notable wins over National League side Yeovil from a position of 2-0 down and they scored half a dozen in winning 6-4 against National League (North) team Merthyr last weekend. However, on the other hand, those two results came either side of a 0-0 draw at lower ranked Ammanford in the First Round of Nathaniel MG Cup in which they needed a penalty shoot out win to proceed and, on Friday, they lost their Second Round tie at Cambrian, who play at the same level as Ammanford, by 2-0.
The highlights of the Ammanford game on the club website showed very little in the way of threatening City attacks through the 90 minutes and, although I only have brief snippets posted on Twitter as the game went on to go on for the Cambrian game, it appeared as if we spent most of the time on the back foot.
I’d also like to mention a couple of other Welsh teams from other sports. First, Glamorgan moved twenty four points clear in the Second Division of the county Championship with a notable and comfortable victory over Lancashire at Old Trafford on Friday. They have three games left to play when the competition resumes in September and they’re close to, but not quite in, a position where one more win would secure them promotion. Of course, with the cricketing powers that be in one of their never ending discussions as to how they can cut back on the best form of the game even further, there is the chance that some sort of restructuring of the four day game could take place whereby we stay outside what in football would be called the top flight!
Secondly, Welsh Hockey is virtually ignored by both the media and the the people who allocate Government money to individual sports, so I’ve decided to include this message-board post outlining the situation the men’s and women’s teams find themselves in – they really are doing superbly considering the conditions they operate under and the sacrifices some of the players are making are amazing;-
“Both the Welsh hockey teams have qualified for the 2027 Euros in London, the women by finishing second in the B division in Poland while the men won their B division in Porto today by beating Ireland in the final after a shoot-out.
For the men, the week changed in the group game against Scotland when Wales were trailing 2-1 to the better side with only 5 minutes left. The Scottish players and coaches were shouting ‘no cards’ but one lad didn’t get the memo and stupidly got sin-binned for the rest of the game. Wales immediately took their keeper off to give them an 11-9 outfield player advantage and used the extra space available to get an equaliser with 14 seconds left.
The Scots still had a goal difference advantage in the group so Wales needed a big score against Croatia to avoid finishing second and having a harder route to the final. They decided to change the warm-up routine, hoping that a more intense and aggressive session might help them get off to a good start. This seemed to work as they went 7-0 up inside 15 minutes and 12-0 by half time before winning 14-0 to give them the group.
A routine 5-0 win against Italy in the semi final ensured qualification for the next Euros, the final win against a higher ranked Ireland side was reward for a strong finish to the tournament.
Credit to the team for punching above their weight yet again despite a chronic lack of funding. They were invited to an excellent tournament in Malaysia earlier in the year but had to pay around a grand each to compete, nearly doubling the amount they have to pay already.
A former GB captain tagged along for coaching experience in Malaysia and was staggered by the lack of funding. He was only there as a one-off but cleared his diary to get out to Porto as well. Hopefully he can use his contacts to push for some sponsorship, especially after the success of both Welsh teams this week.“
Finally, I was not surprised at all to learn this week that the food inflation figure for last month had risen to 4 per cent because I’d been noticing the increase in prices on my weekly shop over the summer. The cost of living crisis has not gone away and so my message to all of you who generously make a financial contribution towards the running of this blog is that you don’t need to do so any more. I needed help tp keep MAYA going when my only income was my works pension, but now that I’m getting my state pension as well, I have no problem funding the blog myself. Therefore, although I’ll continue to be very grateful to anyone who wants to continue to support MAYA, if some of you who are contributing are feeling the pinch, then, by all means, cancel your payments to me – I’ll just remain very grateful for the help you gave me when I really needed it.
“
Hello again gentlemen and any ladies who might be reading.
Thank-you, too, Paul for grinding the wheels, once more into action, for the marathon that is the next football season. After the non-event that was Summer 2025 (no signings) and no substantive takeover activity (at least if you believe the Prince of Bull, Dalman) so it was a relief to get back to some football, albeit if it were in the shape of the Barry-Murphy Babes. Before the game I remarked to the bloke next to me that, ‘Peterborough would either end up being boss-eyed or City black and blue from head to foot.’ I think the encounter thankfully ended up veering more to the former than the latter.
Sun always makes the occasion better and this opening day fixture at the CCS, under a sunny sky sprinkled with clouds, proved the point. A remarkably young City selection, both in the 11 and 18, went into the unknown with an assurance beyond their years. In fact only Wintle, of the starting XI, could be viewed as a battle-hardened pro.
As has been de rigour for recent seasons we lined up 4231. Wintle had the most consummate of games. You never notice him, but when you fix your gaze on him, his work rate, running and range of passing was excellent. His is a game that is simple and never showy. Alongside him, the second of the two sitting central midfielders, Colwill Jnr got through a prodigious amount of work and settled into the role with ease. Whilst Colwill Snr would get the majority of the plaudits yesterday, his fine goal and purposeful play was pleasing to watch. Why didn’t he do that last season? Was it just down to the Manager / Coach? Kpakio kept Odoh, a wriggling sort of winger, largely quiet and the youngster capped an excellent showing with an exquisite goal. Memories of another City defender popping up in the opposition box came mind. Morrison at Hull. Turner, in goals, had a composed early afternoon’s work with a couple of fine saves thrown in. Lawlor’s afternoon was a bit of a curate’s egg. There was much to be pleased with but the visitor’s abrasive striker, Ihionvien, gave him a bit of a going over. In fact, Lawlor should have suffered the ignominy of an early shower for a reckless first half challenge that warranted his second yellow card. That incident nicely leads us on to remarks concerning the referee, Mr Benjamin Speedie.
At best, his overall performance was idiosyncratic though a less charitable fellow might have opted for partial. He seemed more ready to allow more lattitude one way than the other. The penalty incident seemed to be the case of, ‘Well, I didn’t give the first one (Lawlor outside the box) so I’ll give the second.’ In real time that second incident left a bit of a taste in the mouth. To me a genuine attempt to play the ball by a City defender resulted in the visiting forward’s more than passable impersonisation of a dying swan by launching himself into and over the City player. Even Lee Hendrie on Sky eventually had to come around to the conclusion that it was soft … football-speak for cheated. It was far more of a dive than a sack of spuds job. Looking back on the replay on Sky Mr Speedie, waited an age, before pointing to the spot. In making that call, mind you, four players were in the ref’s line of sight. In the scheme of things we got away with one with the Lawlor challenge but a penalty the second one certainly was not.
Dalman’s pre-match spin that no consortium was close to a takeover left me deflated. Irrespective of what goes on on the pitch this season,
the Club needs new finance and new vision. After all, Tan’s attempt (?) to get back to the PL, ‘and stay there for 10 yrs,’ was relegation to the 3rd Tier. What a tame attempt that was. I have no confidence in his flagging ownership. It might well be that these youngsters surprise us but money desperately needs to be spent, not least on a few wisened old pros to help the youngsters out. Moreover, a complete review of everything CCFC is required and a fit-for-purpose off field structure is vitally needed if any meaningful progress is to be made.
Thanks Paul, for your most informative match report and your bonus item on Welsh field hockey. I confess I have little interest in either form of hockey, but my interest in ice hockey is now zero having been sickened by the decision of the CPS not to prosecute the perpetrator of the violent fatal assault at Nottingham Ice Rink a couple of years back.
As for the match yesterday… it was quite enjoyable. I feel of course for Jak because the boy has never been properly appreciated by either the Board or Management at the CCS… but that said, the much younger boy Turner (who I note is from Pembrey… how did the Swans miss him and let him go to Elland Road, eh?) had a really good game, and distributes as well as Jak does in his own half.
It is clear that BBM is wedded to passing out from the back… which generally went well yesterday (though Fish should stick to his fine long diagonals). But it troubled me to hear BBM say after the game words to the effect of ‘I told the boys at half time that although they were one down, they were to stick to the same system in the second half. Never change.’
Gee… that puts a chill down one’s spine, eh? Let’s see how his tikitaka works on a windy, rainy night in Burslem next Thursday…!!
And as for making Calum* Chambers captain… Colwill (Rubin) might have been my choice… on the basis that Rubin would then give us a regular ‘at least a 7 out of 10 performance’… feeling that he has to lead by example.
But I can live with Calum. However to see him installed as the number one centre back choice, is insanity. He is a total liability in that position. Yesterday’s big opposition striker would have embarrassed him even more than he embarrassed young Lawlor.
And as for Lawlor… as you say, Paul, he was lucky not to get a second yellow and get sent off for that foul in the D… and my feeling is that the ref decided within a nanosecond elapsing that he had been too lenient… and this gave him the excuse to punish us with that debatable penalty just a moment or two later…
A few thoughts re certain players…
Rubin – exquisite goal, but not for me the MotM award, because a few of his crossfield passes were not as finely honed as he is capable of… they lacked the right force and sometimes, the right direction.
Tanner – outstanding control of the passes fed him, but had a tendency to stop and play the ball back to Kpakio, rather than try to go past his man on the outside…
Wintle – like Steve P, he too was my choice for MotM. Knitted the whole thing together commandingly.
Ashford – not really persuaded…
Robinson – ditto + missed sitter.
Willock – ditto.
Salech – got little service, but pressed well. However he should have scored with that header.
Bagan – as usual, an 8/10. Just that one error you mentioned.
Kpakio – took his goal well… but became over-confident toward the end and started playing silly buggers down by his goal-line, instead of putting it in Row Z. It could have had fatal consequences.
Incidentally, I note the boy was born in Swansea… did he have his schooling there? I think not, because I detect no Swansea accent. Was he a talent we snatched from under their noses: a Cabango in reverse?
And another quirky question re the non-football bio of players: am I right in assuming the Colwill brothers have the same father but different mothers? Trust me Paul, there is nothing remotely disparaging in that remark: they are both handsome boys, and clearly well brought up.
I only ask because I have rarely seen two full brothers look quite so different.
*note he spells his first name the same way as my musical hero, the late Calum Kennedy, (not the original Celtic way methinks)
TTFN,
Dai.
Paul,
I just wrote this item up for my newsletter that goes to several countries abroad… I figured the item may be of interest to the MAYA community…
‘…
The football club that once had a total grip on me.
Cardiff City Football Club are now in the third tier of English football… despite twice this century spending a season in the Premier League.
They are now in Division One (non Brits don’t ask re the seemingly perverse name for the third tier division… suffice to remember that we Brits are the countrymen of the late great Edward Lear, and his nonsense verse).
Anyway, I tell you this because I have just spotted this on YouTube… it is an assessment of all 24 stadia in order of aesthetic appeal. I won’t deliver a spoiler alert as to where Cardiff City’s stadium stands in the final assessment… but I will say two things…
…That the stadium I thought would win, actually ended up second.
And the other point was their comment re Cardiff’s stadium’s combination of largely blue seats but with a red seated extension… won approval because they said a red and blue combination was so rare..!! That really amused me, but I guess it will enrage die-hard haters of our owner, Vincent Tan… who added the extension during the brief period when he had forced the club to abandon the traditional royal blue jersey, in favour of the red of his favourite team, Manchester United.
To this day these folk (who favour knee-jerk reactions) call it ‘Vincent’s Folly’. If only they would see it as ‘Vincent’s Vision’…!!
Mr Tan, by building that extension, was able to ensure that the Swansea Stadium 40 miles down the road had a smaller capacity… and thus make manifest by those red seats that ‘we are the national stadium’.
After all, Wales play in red shirts…
https://tinyurl.com/2v5ft27j
However, watch this space… a certain team in North Wales play in red…!! And they have significant Hollywood investment…
…’
TTFN,
Dai
Hi Paul and all.
Thanks for detailed analysis and more other sports news than the South Wales Echo! Well done for flagging Paul.
Thoroughly enjoyed our performance on Saturday. What was not too like – pressing style, no little skill and youngsters to the fore. Exactly what we have been clamouring for. Well done to BBM and the players for putting on a good show in the sunshine.
Appreciate a long way to go and mistakes will be made with reliance on youth, but off to a flyer!
And also good to see the manager really enjoying it and connecting with all corners of the ground on his lap of honour at the end. Talks a good game and seems well clued in to how to gel with our fan base too.
Onwards and upwards.
Thanks for the replies and welcome all to the 25/26 season, the first game of which I found fafr more enjoyable than about 95 per cent of what was on offer in 24/25 (plus 23/24 and 22/23!).
Steve, I’m glad to see the ref getting such widespread criticism. While most of the stick Ben Speedie has received centres on his penalty award, he was useless for the other eighty nine and a half minutes as well. Regaring that penalty award, he got both of the major decisions he had to make in that incident wrong and, in truth, it probably worked to our advantage because I would have thought we’d have found it very hard to have won had Speedie blown for the foul by Lawlor, gave him what I think would have been an inevitable second yellow and awarded Peterborough a free kick on the edge of the area – an hour of ten v eleven would have been a very hard position to have eked a win from.
Your last sentence is so right, if we accept that Mehmet Dalman’s “personal issue” was something which made him unavailable through the summer and so that meant said review had to be postponed, doesn’t that offer all of the proof you need as to how urgent such a study is if our Chairman is currently the only person at the club who could carry one out?
Dai, I take the point about how things tended to slow down when they reached Tanner, but I’d defend him to some extent by saying that it seemed a clear policy to hit left to right long diagonal passes to him in the hope that, having moved the ball left first of all, the sudden swuitch would catch our opponents off guard. As you correctly point out, Tanner’s control of these long passes was, for the most part, excellent, but the nature of the passes meant that he was often receiving them from a standing start whereas his best, and quickest delivered cross came from a pass delivered down the right which he was able to run on to.
As for “Tan’s folly” (a term I used often after the Ninian Stand extension was built), I freely admit that Vincent Tan was right and I was wrong – I thought there was no need for the final 5,000 or so extra seats, but it was proved in 18/19 when we averaged 30,000 plus that it was. That said, I hope that any new owner we may get in the coming years makes the decision to change the seat colours in the stand extension to blue from red.
I think you’re only half right about the Ninian Stand extension being responsible for the FAW’s decision to play its most important games at Cardiff City Stadium though, The truth is that, even wthout the stand extension, our capacity would be around 7,000 more tha whatever Swansea’s ground is called these days and about 9,000 more than Wrexham’s even after they have completed their new stand at the old Kop end of the ground.
Huw, there are going to be hard times in the coming months when BBM will start to attract his first critics and he, apparently, was pretty stubborn at Rochdale when it came to things like style of play, but, for now, I think it’s fair to say that he has got the fans behind him and I suspect he’ll be given more latitude than any other recent Cardiff manager if he continues to favour Academy products in his team selections. Also, as you mention, his post match behaviour will have done him no harm either.
Paul compadre,
Apols for my lazy proofreading allowing such solecisms as CARDIFF’S STADIUM’S
in my last, and in the same para, my failure to put a colon after the word extension… so it thus would have read…
‘…
but with a red seated extension: it won their approval because they said a red and blue combination was so rare..!!
…’
And as the url did not come up blue, let me try again with the long form.
Do you broadly agree with their order, incidentally?
https://youtu.be/UfJ_TK1KWuw?si=dJYoc3yhHDizj0ec
And incidentally, I beg any new owner to keep those red seats. It is part of our history now, and stops the stadium looking uniform blue like so many others. You might say that Vincent’s Vision will be its USP in the years ahead.
Lovely to hear from Huw incidentally… he used to comment so regularly. And where is Blue Bayou…? One misses him too. I hope he is not ill.
Just one thing Huw… not everyone at CCS has been hankering for Pepitis. Let’s have your comments re the farcical behaviour of the Barnet keeper last Saturday…!!
DW
I must be going gaga.
‘Barnet’ with two Ts…? Just spotted it.
Roll on txtspk to make ‘good spelling’ a fifth rate art…
A belated reply to Dai’s YouTube link regarding the stadia in the 3rd Tier.
Overall, I thought the bloke did quite a good job in assessing them. I wouldn’t disagree too much with his results. This league goes from grounds where it seems a giant has sat on the stands to City’s which hosts international games. This is a large variation.
Is there a need for minimum capacities for each league? It seems strange when Luton got into the PL with little fuss and, I think I’m correct in writing there certainly was, getting into the 4th Tier from non-league.
Just watched the video Steve and all I can say is my definition of what makes a good stadium differs greatly from their’s. It seems to me that, in essence, they ranked the stadiums by capacity despite their talk of aesthetically pleasing stadia, (I’d rank Huddersfield and Bolton above us on that criteria). Also, I like the fact that the stand at Exeter only runs two thirds of the length of the pitch and that the stand at Lincoln looks like the old Grandstand at Ninian Park.