On the Cardiff City phone in that doesn’t receive any phone calls last night one of the four contributors, who I thought talked a lot of sense, said that although he was very happy with how the season was going, he had a slight concern that we’d only scored five times in our last four home matches.
Indeed, since we had a free scoring spell which began with the 3-1 win at Northampton and ended with 4-3 victory over Doncaster, we’d only scored eleven in our previous nine games. While that’s a scoring rate last season’s team would have given a lot for, it’s modest by this season’s standards.
I’ve also heard it said that, for a top of the table side, we don’t blow many teams away. This cannot be denied – in the seventeen league games played since we 2-0 at Wigan in early October we’ve only won by a bigger margin than one goal in that win at Northampton and the 3-0 victory over Mansfield – again, not something to get too concerned about when you consider how many of those seventeen games were won, but a bit surprising for a team with a record like City’s.
Therefore, it could be said that we were overdue a big win and that arrived tonight when we equaled the 4-0 score line against Plymouth to record a joint biggest win of the season so far.
Barnsley manager Conor Hourihane will no doubt point to two decisions which could have made for a completely different game if they’d gone his team’s way and, after all of the complaints and controversy regarding the referee on Saturday, it has to be said that City were lucky that referee Lee Swabey ruled in our favour on both occasions.
The first arrived in the first half with the score 1-0 and City undergoing the first of two sloppy spells either side of half time.
Alex Robertson had already been booked for one of those cynical “professional” fouls that so annoy me as we have clearly decided that no opponent can get on the wrong side of me no matter where it is on the pitch when he held back a Barnsley player on the edge of their penalty area. Predictably, the Barnsley players were annoyed that a second yellow card wasn’t shown, but Mr Swabey appeared to be saying that as the foul was committed so far away from our goal, he wasn’t minded to issue another caution for our midfielder. This seems at odds with Paul Howard’s interpretation on Saturday when Omari Kellyman and Joel Bagan were both cautioned for grabbing hold of an opponent some fifty or sixty yards from our goal – I feel that hopeless Mr Howard who got so little right was correct in his decision making on these occasions and Robertson, who was withdrawn at half time for David Turnbull, should have been sent off.
The second instance of us being lucky was with us 2-0 ahead early in the second half when Chris Willock tangled with Corey O’Keefe I think it was in our penalty area and the Barnsley man went down. My immediate reaction was penalty, but, having seen a replay of it, it wasn’t as clear cut as I first thought- still, it definitely fell into the I’ve seen them given category.
Therefore, City rode their luck somewhat and, as I mentioned earlier, they had their careless periods, but it could not be denied that they were well worth their win by the end as Barnsley became by no means our first opponent to look out on their feet as the effect of having to spend so much time being moved around the pitch chasing the ball took its toll on them.
City brought in Will Fish for Gabriel Osho, Willock for Cian Ashford and, surprisingly, it was Kellyman leading the attack in Yousef Salech’s absence, not Callum Robinson.
Kellyman an began to justify BBM’s decision to start with him up front as early as the third minute though when he found Ollie Tanner who has been something of an assist machine since returning from injury and this time his clever reverse ball found Perry Ng in space. At first it looked like there was too much on Tanner’s pass, but Ng managed to control it and lash an angled shot from twelve yards high into the net although you had to wonder if keeper Owen Goodman should have done better as the ball beat him on his near post.
Tanner should have got his first goal of the season about a quarter of an hour later as Willock’s precise cross found him free of his marker inside the six yard box, but the winger made a mess of his shot and the ball rolled harmlessly wide.
Having gone a goal behind so early, Barnsley had little option but to push forward rather than play with Wigan type caution, but I suspect their approach would have been an adventurous one even without Ng’s goal. – their lots scored, but lots conceded record suggested that.
For a while, Barnsley were very much in the game as they looked to attack quickly and with plenty forward. In Davis Kaillor Dunn they have one of the best forwards in the division and it was the Barnsley top scorer who drew what I would say was a serious contender for Nathan Trott’s best save of his impressive season as he dived to his left to tip over a shot that looked to be arcing its way over him.
Then from the resultant corner,a header flew just wide and Keillor Dunn was soon racing forward to force an easier save this time from Trott.
Unfortunately for Barnsley, their positive intent left them vulnerable to City counter attacks and when Joel Colwill won possession near the halfway line, Kellyman was soon running at an undermanned defence. The Chelsea loaner’s pass sent Willock clear on goal and the winger took his time before stepping inside a covering defender and rolling a shot across goal and into the corner of the net, although there was again the suspicion that Goodman could have done better.
Barnsley started the second half the better of the two teams, but City had regained their poise somewhat by the time Turnbull fed Willock who then found Kellyman in acres of space and the makeshift striker made it 3-0 on sixty three minutes.
Six minutes later, it was four as a misplaced Barnsley pass and a dive into a tackle by Tennal Watson left Willock one on one with Goodman. The winger then clipped an impudent shot beyond the keeper and just inside the upright.
Robinson, Isaak Davies, Cian Ashford and Ronan Kpakio were all given run outs in the dying minutes and it was the first named who came closest to making it five as, first, his low shot from outside the penalty area flashed just wide and then Goodman produced his best save of the night to turn Robinson’s shot from a similar position onto the crossbar.
Still, 4-0 was more than good enough on a night when all of the main top six contenders won apart from Bradford who lost their third straight game to a promotion contender as they were heavily beaten 3-0 at Lincoln and Luton will be kicking themselves for losing 1-0 at Huddersfield who had Alfie May sent off with less than half an hour played.
Finally, the under 21s game with Brentford at Leckwith this afternoon was a bit of a non event really after the Bees had their keeper sent off after just three minutes for a foul on Luke Pearce after he’d lost the ball outside of the penalty area. There was a covering defender behind the keeper, but this did not stop him seeing red and he could have few complaints about the decision. With no substitute keeper, the visitors had to play with an outfield player between the sticks and the first half was one way traffic with City facing opponents who often had all nine outfield players behind the ball.
It took thirty five minutes for City to come up with a goal as new signing from Wolves Caiden Voice swung over a lovely cross which left Pearce with the simple task of heading in from close range. Soon after this, City scored a lucky second when Jake Davies’ long range shot got a big deflection which sent the ball into the air and then into the net via an upright.
Brentford were able to attack more in the second half, but City picked them off to claim further goals from Mannie Barton with a header from ten yards and a ferocious finish by sub Dan Ola after being set up by Barton.
It was not City’s fault that the game had an unsatisfactory feel to it as it was barely competitive at times – they got the job done in a competent and professional manner to record the first of the day’s 4-0 victories.
Just a quick line re Brian’s final para…
I recall being in correspondence in these pages with that much missed MAYA regular, the late Colin Phillips, a proud son of Ystrad Rhondda, and discussing our love for that fine Ton Pentre team of the late 1950s. Several times during 1958, I would walk down a thronged Ton Row with my Uncle Jimmy Davies from 5 Clara Street, and watch that fabulous team’s exciting brand of football. And the towering centre back was Stan Montgomery the player/coach.
In my correspondence with Colin, I also mentioned that Stan still held the 5th wicket biggest partnership record for Glamorgan… I seem to recall that he had set it over SEVENTY years previously… when we were corresponding circa 2021…just before Colin left us.
Unbeknownst to me that record was to be finally broken within months of me posting my comments.
Anyway, that’s not really why I write…
I write because I have yet another reason to be wondrous of the internet. Oh for sure all these years of feeling no longer a citizen of this parish, but instead now a citizen of the WORLD… has led me to sometimes add these words to my signature line on my emails…
‘…
“Bliss it was that Internet dawn to be alive, but to get YouTube, Spotify, FaceTime, Google Maps, the iPad, Grokipedia and AI-powered Search added, was the very stuff of Heaven”
– Dai Woosnam (“with apologies to William Wordsworth!”)
…’
And here is my latest reason to be stunned…
Well, Grokipedia’s page on Stan, included in references, this link…(see below my words)…
And gee, (a) how good a page was this? and (b) how one man’s love for his club (in this case, for The Tigers across the Humber from my Grimsby home) can lead him into such a magisterial labour of love…!! My goodness…!! The work and man-hours that must have gone into this site. Truly mind-blowing.
As for Stan, it seems he was a very decent fellow… and the total antithesis of a thug who wanted to harm opponents. Quite a cerebral chap, as well as a jovial guy, judging by the two comments at the bottom of the page from his players of the university team at Cardiff which he coached.
But he was a product of his time… and the game was yet to be polluted by genteel tiki-taka. You tackled to win the ball… you gave your everything.
Is it a case of nostalgia colouring my judgement? No. Recalling LP Hartley’s famous opening line of The Go-Between…’The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’.
Yes they certainly did… and in soccer, (playing surfaces and stadia apart) they did things BETTER.
https://tinyurl.com/yvdt2w8f
TTFN,
Dai.
Great point there Paul re the otherwise hopeless ref against Stockport proving he was at least more consistent on yellow cards for shirt-pulling, than that fellow last night… who I thought generally favoured us on all 50-50 decisions.
Re the failure to give Robertson his marching orders: I have a different theory…
You will recall his first yellow… which could be seen as a cynical attempt to stop a potential fast attack.
Barnsley players surrounded the ref… some seemingly asking for a red. The ref then showed a yellow.
My impression was at the time (I have not seen it since) and that he was not going to give a card at all… and although of course it was a clear foul… it was something of an accidental trip… and the free kick was punishment enough. Certainly ‘accidental’ is what Robertson seemed to be saying, as for the next couple of minutes he was in the ref’s ear remonstrating. And I guess the ref took this on board and probably wished he had not been bounced by the Barnsley players into dishing out that first yellow.
And so, I respectfully submit, when it came to the second – well deserved – yellow, the ref remembered his error and was determined to keep his card in his pocket, despite knowing that the position on the pitch is never a factor in withholding a card…. lest it be ‘last man’ and he withholds a yellow and instead dishes out a red.
But be clear: I hold no brief for Robertson. The boy does not do it for me… his corners last night were diabolical… in contrast to Tanner’s… and like you Paul, I do not care for his penchant for sneaky shirt pulls. One day he’ll get his comeuppance and be ‘seeing stars’ when one of his victims explodes with rage.
Other observations on last night? Well like you, I so admired that Trott save… the Sky camera was right behind that ‘guided missile’ of a shot… and I so admired how Trott instantly got the trajectory of the incoming ball and moved his feet to launch his body to so magnificently pull off that ‘worldy’ of a save…!!
That said, the less I say about his feet last night, methinks the better… for his kicks were bordering on the ‘rank poor’… with a couple of exceptions.
One player however whose passing was top notch was… my former bete noire… Chambers. (But then I have never questioned his ability playing forward passes.)
Before closing, could I ask readers of this thread, to look at the Stockport thread… where I have just responded to a posting from Brian… re Stan Montgomery.
TTFN,
Dai.
Oops… I have accidentally stuck both postings together there. Apols.
DW
Hi Paul and all.
Thanks for the excellent summary and think you captured it all perfectly.
A very encouraging performance and a nice night out!
Passed it around well throughout and much sharper than Saturday. Admittedly, Barnsley were not as much of a threat as Stockport last Saturday – and the ref was better too!
Surprised to see Kellyman up front, but thought he acquitted himself really well. Obviously lacking Salech’s physicality, but he brings great technical skill and pace and, as you state, has an uncanny knack of closing down really quickly and often nicks the ball from opposition defenders.
Our closing down generally was very sharp all night with any loss of possession immediately followed by a small pack of City players circling opponents to get the ball back quickly.
So impressed again with Wintle – the shift he puts in every week is amazing.
Willock showed real class with his finishing, but also his general play was excellent. And Tanner much more direct and accurate – except for his glaring miss – compared to Saturday.
Quite something when we are cruising to victory and then bring on Robinson and our young tyros full of running to create more havoc. Our manager again using the squad to great effect and everyone getting a chance to shine.
All in all a top night and a long overdue hammering. Felt like that was a real statement and nice gap now to third place. We just have to keep it going now we are on a roll?
Thank-you, as ever, Paul for your summary of proceedings at home to Barnsley last night.
Barnsley were a neat footballing side but lacked any sort of cutting edge in the final third, having scored only 37 goals this season. City, if we are being brutally honest, never had to get out of second gear. In boxing parlance the home team won by jabs. There was no need for the heavy artillery.
The contentious Robertson incidents are interesting. I have read those who have vented their spleen that he should have been sent off (for two yellow cards) and that the ref was a disgrace following the second incident. I’m also interested in his first, indiscretion (?). It came after a foul by Barnsley’s #19 on Ng marginally outside the visitor’s penalty area. That was not given and in the break that followed Robertson was adjudged to have brought down Barnsley’s #22. He fell to earth clutching his head and held it for some time whist he lay motionless on the ground. The ref was pressurised immediately by 3 visiting players and a yellow card was shown. I have great sympathy for the referee on this one. The only problem was Robertson never touched the player. If you play the video of the game from 4:10 to 5:00 (match time) you can clearly see the potential foul on Ng and then Barnsley’s #22 who tripped himself up. In short, Robertson didn’t touch the player. Having said that most humans would have had difficulty in coming to the correct conclusion on that one. [ https://tv.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/videos/browse ]
Concerning the second Robertson incident, in the present climate, VAR would have played it in slow motion, shown a freeze-frame and given the decision all day long. What I didn’t like this time, I believe 6 red-shirted players were in the ref’s ear. As it was there were two incidents: one foul and one yellow card. To have been sent-off for two yellows when the first wasn’t even a foul would have been extremely harsh.
What I’d say of the Willock penalty incident on 46 mins: yes, there was minimal contact. Some are given and some are not. But permit me to broaden the penalty issue. Last season Birmingham, Third Tier champions, were awarded 13 penalties. Now 60% through this season we have been given one. I dare anyone to view a City game and not find far, far worse misdemeanours (misdemeanors / USA) in the box than tonight’s and yet they were not given to the Bluebirds.
Mr Swabey, was certainly nowhere near the worst referee we’ve had this season. In his defence I’d say, unlike so many, he was not pressurised by players. The three incidents / accidents mentioned above are typical of so much that goes on today on the football pitches of the PL and EFL. Referees do have a hard job of it but of numerous fouls given to day I wonder how many grannies would have hit the deck during the January sales in Mothercare, under some of this sort of contact?
Finally to City. It was a pleasing performance which could been more than 4-0. Certainly Robinson deserved a goal during his substitute appearance. Kellyman played well and scored another good goal, but why (and yes I’ve said this before) is there all this star-fish nonsense by keepers, consequently then having to stick a leg out to try and stop the ball. Had he stood up and simply dived to his right he’d have easily saved goal number three.
Anyway 4-0 is 4-0.
Thanks Paul and everyone for the comments. I Agree with everything Steve Perry said apart from the bit about star fish nonsense by their keeper. I thought he was pretty poor overall but I think stats are on his side with the star fish approach. I am also wondering how long it will be before Dai Woosnam starts singing the relatively new chant “ Sideways and Backwards ….” But, then again, I have only just rediscovered this blog so perhaps he invented it ?
Mike Herbert
PS: Any news of my very old mate Anthony O’Brien who used to contribute?
Hi Michael,
Ta for your comments. By the way we are looking for a Secretary for the Dai Woosnam Appreciation Society (DWAS). Dai has said, allegedly, that the pay is quite good.
“Sideways and backwards
You know it makes sense.
Sideways and backwards
The way to progress.”
Sorry, Dai.
SP.
Very good knockabout stuff… and as you know I’ve got broad shoulders so can take a joke. I wish ‘twas always the case, but for at least half my life I took myself far too seriously, and Mr Paranoia was my constant companion. But at 79 this summer, I see the finishing tape approaching at a rate of knots, and the Leiber & Stoller song ‘Is That All There Is?’ now runs on a continuous loop inside my brain.
Good to see Mike Herbert back in circulation as a MAYA contributor. Mike asks about AMO…
I recall that Mike was a near contemporary of Anthony’s at Pontypridd Grammar School, and it was Mike indeed who told us that Anthony Mor O’Brien’s affectionate nickname was AMO… these were his initials inked on to the front of his school satchel.
This was manna from heaven for me, and the three occasions when we enjoyed the hospitality of he and his dear wife Valerie at their Pwllgwaun home, he and especially Valerie, seemed pleasantly amused by my using this moniker throughout our conversations.
Alas now, I am largely housebound and don’t make my annual visit to my homeland. Sadly it looks like I won’t be able to be back a month from now for an event I would like to attend. My dear sister Marjorie has, on St David’s Day her 90th birthday party at The Rhondda Heritage Centre… or whatever they call the hotel that’s there now at Lewis Merthyr Colliery… the last time I was there was October 1999, when I called on business, and who should I see sitting at the bar… but a boyhood idol*, the great outside half from my hometown, Cliff Morgan. (This was a month before I resigned from my job working for the late great John Anstee and his Glamorgan Brewing Company… left to join my wife Larissa in emigrating (with her job) to the Far East… east of ENGLAND that is…
But I am Daigressing…)
Anyway, I won’t be going down to the homeland… I have only been out of the house twice since Xmas Day… I am still reeling from my bizarre misfuelling nightmare of a few days before Xmas Day, which genuinely has made me think I am going gaga.
And here we come to AMO’s state of health: it is not for me to play ‘doctor’ here or disclose info AMO has given me in emails… but I am sure AMO won’t mind me saying that he and I have similar demands being made on our powers of memory.
But compared to me, he is commendably slim. Alas I am still bearing evidence of flesh wounds incurred at Blundell Park on 2nd March 2024 sitting in the oldest stand in the country which was designed and built while the Boer War was still being fought… and has terraces designed for only the slimmest people to STAND… let alone sit. And following The Taylor Report, they just fitted seats on those same none-too-deep terraces. Nobody ever imagined the possibility of ‘beached whales’ like me one day sitting in seats there with literally NOWHERE to put your legs… well it made a Ryanair seat seem – by comparison – like a back-row of the stalls ‘love seat’, as we used to call them in my days as a relief cinema manager for the Rank Organisation and their Odeon chain.
Let me Daigress with a 100% true story that may be of interest.
Alas, unlike one cinema manager colleague, I was never handed a pair of discarded knickers by the lady cleaners the following morning… though I did once – when relief manager at the Odeon Northampton for a 2 month spell in 1968 – get a call first thing one Saturday morning from a girl who claimed she was a prefect at Northampton Grammar School. She rang me in some distress saying her boyfriend had got carried away the previous night and removed her knickers to the floor with the passionate movement of his hands/feet. She added that she needed her knickers finding by the cleaners as they had her name tape sewn into the waistband of the inside of her blue/green/red? serge pants – forgive me but I cannot remember the finer points of this incident occurring well over half a century ago – and if they got back to her headmistress, she would ensure the girl had ‘six of the best’ inflicted on her rear end ‘sans culottes’…!! (Pun intentional… though perhaps the vast number of teenage pregnancies in the Swinging Sixties is proof-positive that such sexual abandon was far-from-‘revolutionary’ and thus that fact makes the pun a tad ineffective).
Anyway, you get the gist of her message: she said she’d be stretched out over the desk in her Head’s study.
Gosh I was a gullible young fellow… my mouth was suddenly dry and I was swallowing hard… hanging on her every word and instantly promised I would personally lead a search party as soon as this conversation ended… and we would leave no stone unturned (or should that be ‘no pair of panties’ unturned?)
But when I asked for her number to phone her back with news… there was a pregnant pause, and then she started to laugh… and I heard females laughing in the background.
I’d been ‘had’… she and her school (?) friends had done me like a kipper.
Oh… happy days.
Now, a couple of other points. First, thanks dear Steve for the coining of the said DWAS acronym: I would easily run the organisation myself as there’d be almost zero correspondence as I’d be hard-pressed to get many members… but you must remember that I already have my work cut out as a founder member of the King Herod Appreciation Society (Grimsby, NE Lincolnshire branch) formed when twice in 2012, flying home through the night from America, I was stopped from sleeping by non-stop caterwauling infants all the way. ‘Twas then I became a Founder Member of The King Herod Appreciation Society (Grimsby, NE Lincolnshire branch.)…
*he was one of two heroes from my hometown… the other was that deeply serious writer of comic novels and plays, Gwyn Thomas… and I should add he was a television essayist and raconteur almost nonpareil. He remains my favourite literary ‘Thomas’… edging out Dylan and R.S… I used to spend hours trying to capture his cadences and marvellous voice box timbre… in my attempts at impersonation (well, it made a change from Anthony Newley and Adam Faith, my party pieces as a kid)…
DW
P.S. this was me aged 21 in the year of that phone call, behind the manager’s desk at my Odeon, counting the takings… and possibly younger than the alleged ‘Sixth Former’ who made the phone call…
… https://tinyurl.com/yw5k4pwd
Thanks for the replies some of which have taken things in a direction which could have hardly have been predicted!
Regarding Robertson’s non red card, I should say that I’m completely biased on two aspects of the modern game, which are pretty closely related, to the extent that logic and reason are excluded when I think about them. The first is the farce which passes for defending dead balls these days – we get the ritual at one of the first corners in the game where the ref pulls a few players aside and lectures them about something, but it can’t be about stopping the wrestling because they all go back to doing exactly what they were before! It’s become ridiculous and devalues the game.
Second, we have the “good foul”, “take one for the team” mentality which first started appearing when you got serial foulers like Robbie Savage in the commentary box. Now it’s rapidly moved on to the stage where fans on podcasts nod sagely as one of their colleagues talk about how so and so committed an “intelligent” foul. The thing that is new here is that the perpetrator of what I grew up calling a professional foul gets praised for fouls which are completely unsubtle and are often caused by them making mistakers in. terms of their position which allows an opponent to get on the “wrong side” of them.
Back in the days of the professional foul, the perpetrator was criticised, not praised and I’m afraid I’ve not grown up when it comes to this subject – I feel the same way about those who commit today’s “take one for the team” fouls as I did the professional foulers of the 80s, they deserve criticism and appropriate punishment, not praise.
To put this into the context of Robertson’s fouls on Tuesday. Maybe Robertson’s first one had some of the subtlety I accuse today’s “good foulers” of lacking. It reminded me of something the All Blacks, and in particular their captain Sean Fitzpatrick, were always getting up to about thirty or forty years ago, when they would raise their hands above their head in a, usually successful, effort to persuade the ref that they were playing no active part in the game, yet they nearly always were as, in reality, what they were doing was plonking themselves right in the line of, say, a scrum half’s desired pass to a fly half. For me, Robertson was doing something similar where he tried to persuade the ref that any collision, if there was any, was accidental, but if his intention was not to stop what might have been a dangerous breakaway at source, he could have taken a slightly different running line which would have meant the ref wouldn’t have had a decision to make.
A few thoughts occur to me now;-
1. I’m sure players are told to commit these “take one for the team” fouls by their managers (I’ll get on Dai’s good side by saying that Pep’s Manchester City side seemed to be trailblazers when it came to these new type of foul, but they were a bit more subtle about it than, say, your average League One footballer is!). Anyway, having been cautioned for one such foul, surely managers tell their players not to give the ref the opportunity to show a second yellow by indulging in the sort of shirt grab that Robertson came up with just outside Barnsley’s penalty area? The commentary on the club video of the game is interesting as they were discussing taking Robertson off in light of his booking even before he committed the second foul and, given that BBM taok him off at Wycombe under similar circumstances, I’m sure our manager doesn’t want his players taking a second one for the team!
2. I would argue therefore that Robertson warranted a second yellow for stupidity as much as anything else. In saying that, I should try to redress the balance by saying that Alex would always be in my first choice starting eleven and I’ll risk Dai’s ire by saying that I’ve come to the conclusion that the low near post corner delivery is a deliberate ploy by City with Calum Chambers the target.
3. Since our relegation, I’d say that the most common answer given by City fans to the question what is the main difference between the Championship and League One would be that the standard of finishing in the former is so much better. Therefore, this prompts a further question – would a club policy where so called good fouls were outlawed inside the opponent’s half be justified? After all, given the level of finishing which prevails in League One the likelihood is you’re not going to concede a goal from this position, so why not just let them go at this level at least?
4. Even at the highest level, the old professional foul was never committed inside the opposition’s half – or perhaps it was, but the players of the time were better at disguising them than the current players are?
Thank-you, Paul, for your excellent summation on the history of the professional foul. I enjoyed reading it.
Concerning that first Robertson incident, the Barnsley player ran directly across Robinson’s path (clearly seen when viewed from behind the goal) and secondly he fell by tripping himself up (clearly seen when viewed from the Grandstand camera). That said, this was a difficult decision to arrive at when viewed in real time from the referee’s position.
Paul compadre,
I absolutely loved your analogy with rugby union and Sean Fitzpatrick’s favourite ruse. (I can see him now in my mind’s eye, arms aloft towards the heavens, the visual equivalent to him saying to the schoolmaster referee in the same parlance as in his Kiwi boyhood: ‘an innocent obstruction sir’.)
Also your comments on the insidious change resulting from the Kenneth Wolstenholme/Huw Johns days of solo TV commentators to the conditions of today when it is ‘de rigueur’ for an ex footballer to accompany the commentator almost as his ‘minder’…!! Often these are serial foulers like Robbie Savage and other cynical footballers like Gary Neville who are in the co-pilot seat… and spout this pernicious nonsense about ‘good fouls’.
If I can draw another sporting analogy… it is almost akin to a boxing commentator praise a low blow or a rabbit punch by ‘our’ boy, so long as the referee did not see it… because it weakens the opponent.
So… you are so right about ‘taking a yellow for the team’. I would argue it is even worse than that: in our case he is taking a yellow for BBM too… for our manager clearly approves, or else he’d do a Cloughie and fine him a week’s wages.
Robertson would get nowhere near my first team, which would read (on current form): Trott; NG, Fish, Lawlor, Bagan; Tanner, Wintle, Chambers, Willock; Kellyman, Salech.
First subs as midfielders? Turnbull and Kpakio… and only THEN… Alex.
Oh and while I remember… yes it had occurred to me that his daisy-cutter corners were redolent of the training ground… but that is where they should stay. They rely on an air-kicking Ronan (à la Adams Park) to be successful.
No, Tanner showed the way on corners in the last game…high aimed at the penalty spot… particularly with an uncertain keeper like Barnsley’s.
Will sign off now with one final point: you mention in your ‘few thoughts occur to me’… #1… that “I’ll get on Dai’s good side”.
I smile at that. Chwarae teg, boyo. Have I any other? (Joke.)
Dai.
Oh… while I recall, re that pic of me… click on the pic to expand it fully and you will see forefront one of those big desk mats (or whatever they were called) and you will note the logo of my employers, Odeon Cinemas: the depiction of Bombardier Billy Wells hammering that giant Rank Organisation gong.
But why oh why did I not smile? My teeth were pristine white back then… 57 years ago.
DW.