In my preamble to the seven decades quiz for today’s game with Northampton, I said that a 5-0 City win would mean that, after God knows how many seasons of us struggling to average one goal a game at home, we’d scored half a century of league goals at Cardiff City Stadium in 25/26.
Needless to say, my wish did not come true, but only because I’d discounted the possibility of Northampton scoring – actually, they did manage a goal and it was the best finish of the six in a match we won 5-1!
So, after scoring four in a league game on seven occasions, we exceeded it in our penultimate match of the campaign. Their defeat probably condemns Northampton to a bottom of the table finish and, on this occasion, they looked a side destined to end up twenty fourth out of twenty four – even though they gave us a really tough game at Sixfields back in November when the 3-1 victory margin flattered us somewhat.
Northampton have had a disastrous time of it since Boxing Day – today’s loss was their sixteenth out of their last twenty two League One matches and only one of them has been won.
After a misleadingly positive first five minutes in which Harry Tyrer on his debut for the club was called on to make three saves, two of them good ones, Northampton were like a team looking to be put out of their collective misery for the remaining eighty five minutes..
Our opponents weren’t helped by City being in the mood today after Wednesday’s flat affair with Port Vale – when we went 4-0 up in the fifty fourth minute, I was convinced we were going to get five and a fair few more, but, whereas the substitutions BBM has made around the hour mark have been game changing in a positive way so often, this time our performance declined after them.
That’s not to blame those who came on as the party mood that was present from the start (in contrast to Wednesday) made for an atmosphere which almost demanded self indulgence and, with the match clearly over as a contest, this probably more than any other this season was a time when the players could be self indulgent.
Therefore, there was just a goal from either side in the final thirty five minutes of a match that only had one additional minute tacked on at the end despite there having been eight substitutions made during the second half.
That decision by referee Edward Duckworth was not out of place in a game that was competitive because there were league points at stage, but, for much of the time it had the air of a practice match or a game of attack v defence in training. By ending the match when he did, Mr Duckworth was taking pity on Northampton and I don’t think there were many, if any, City fans who were complaining about his decision.
Yet it didn’t feel like we were heading for such a one sided affair in those opening minutes when Tyrer was given the opportunity to make a good first impression with City fans.
City lined up with Ronan Kpakio, Will Fish, Dylan Lawlor and Joel Bagan in front of Tyrer, with David Turnbull in the number six role and the Colwill brothers in front of him with Rubin almost playing as a striker at times. After Wednesday’s narrow four man midfield, it was back to wingers today with Ollie Tanner and Chis Willock included as Callum Robinson led the line.
Veteran Sam Hoskins ensured that Tyler’s first save came within seconds of kick off with a well struck half volley from distance which was dealt with efficiently by the keeper. Next, Tyrer tipped over Cameron McGeehan’s twenty yarder and then the keeper did well to block Jon Guthrie’s close range header from the resultant corner.
Up the other end, Willock had already been causing problems and on nine minutes he was able to get by his man and cross to the far post where Tanner took a touch before finishing crisply from twelve yards via a post for his second goal of the season.
This early goal set the tone for the game with the likes of Willock and Rubin Colwill given the time and space to show off their talents to best effect.
Referee Duckworth had an easy game and generally did pretty well, but I thought he was wrong to disallow a goal for a foul on Northampton goalkeeper Lee Burge when it seemed like it was one of his own defenders that made him drop a corner.
It mattered little though as another fluent move down the left gave Bagan enough room to cross to Rubin Colwill and he picked out his brother who was left with a simple finish from five yards out to make it 2-0 on nineteen minutes.
City seemed to be disrupted by a collision between Bagan and Lawlor which resulted in the usual halfway through the first half injury break/time out. However, striker, Jack Vale, who once scored a hat trick for Wales Under 21s, provided an assist with an errant back pass to Robinson who was stood yards offside and the striker cashed in on the gift to easily beat Burge.
After the break, another slick passing movement unpicked Northampton down their right and when Burge got a slight touch on Bagan’s low cross from the bye line, the ball fell to Tanner who finished well past the covering defenders on the goal line.
Shortly after this, the Colwill brothers made way for Alex Robertson and Yousef Salech and ten minutes later Tanner and Willock were replaced by Omari Kellyman and Isaak Davies who was returning after more than two months out with various injuries. The final substitution saw Turnbull, who I thought was very good playing in more of a quarterback tole than Ryan Wintle does, taken off to give Robert Tankiewicz a few minutes of league action and the sixteen year old was able to play a few impressive passes in the short time he was on.
It was another teenager who scored the game’s fifth goal, but seventeen year old Jake Evans was wearing a pink Northampton shirt, not a blue City one and the Leicester loanee gave Tyrer no chance with a low shot from twenty odd yards.
City’s final goal,had an element of luck to it as Turnbull’s mishit shot fell into the path of Robinson who unselfishly presented Salech with a tap in.This gave City their sixty third league goal (out of a total of eighty six) scored from open play this season – that’s an amazing nineteen more than the next highest in the division with Lincoln somewhere around mid table. There’s no doubting that Lincoln are worthy Champions, but a stat like that encapsulates why, as a neutral, I’d have enjoyed a season watching the team which finished second a lot more than I would have done watching the one that won the league.
Although I’m fairly sure the 1946/47 side would have ended up with the most points if it had been three points for a win throughout the club’s history, as it is, the current side’s ninety one points is one more than Neil Warnock’s 17/18 team and is a club record with three more points still to play for – I’d be happy enough with a draw next weekend at Mansfield which would mean we’d averaged two points a game throughout.
The under 18s also had a four goal winning margin today as Mannie Barton with two, Hayden Allmark, Jack Sykes, Leo Papirnyk also with two all found the net as Huddersfield were routed 6-2 at Leckwith.
I’d assumed all hope of a top two finish, and qualification for the end of season Play Offs had ended with our recent 5-1 loss at Champions Charlton. However, it seems this is not the case. City are in a four way battle with Bournemouth, Brentford and Millwall for second place (I’m assuming here that this table
https://www.premierleague.com/en/tables/u18/u18-professional-development-league/2025-26?round=L_1
is up to date).
City’s last two games are away, with a vital trip to south London to face Millwall in midweek and then we go to Sheffield United, halfway up the Northern section, next weekend.
Unfortunately, the news wasn’t so good for the under 16s as they went down 3-1 at Portsmouth in their age group’s PDL Cup Final with Axel Donczew scoring our goal from the penalty spot.
Thanks Paul. I enjoyed the pre-game atmosphere under the stand as well as in the game itself. As for the football: I will credit Northampton for not coming to play with a 10 man defence but apart from their goal – what a lesson in shooting hard and low for our boys! – they were nowhere near competitive enough to make a proper game of it. It was very much a Championship side v one from League 2. What kind of a Championship side we will be I look forward to finding out.
The only downside for me was not being able to buy a programme to add to my collection but I will try to remedy that with a phone call tomorrow.
Thanks Mike, not a bad game for your one visit to a home game this season eh! Yes, Northampton folded completely once we went one up and they were a complete contrast to Port Vale on Wednesday who struck me as a side that was well capable of making an instant return to League One if they can find a bit more of a cutting edge – the Cobblers looked like they were in need of major surgery and, on that showing, they could struggle at the lower level. However, as you say, they did score a very good goal which was finished in style by a seventeen year old who maybe is the type of player Leicester need if they’re to start their journey back next season.
I just said in an e-mail that, surely, BBM will need to rein in his attacking approach in the Championship next season? I think there will be a bit nore pragmatism, but, essentially, we’ll have more of an attacking philosophy than any City side in the second tier since Dave Jones’ days.
It’s probably down to people like me that you struggled to get a programme on Saturday. Although I said on here recently that I’d not bought a programme in decades, on further reflection that’s wrong – for years I used to always buy one for the last game of the season because it would contain a Rothman’s Football Yearbook type breakdown of our games for the season, some three or four months before the Football equivalent of Wisden came out!
Again Paul, thanks for your latest writing on the Northampton (h) game. As you mentioned, I, too, thought the referee, Duckworth, was wrong to disallow the goal (Robinson/17 mins) he did when. If the goalkeeper had been impeded, I felt it was a defender and not Colwill (J) who did so. In fact the keeper was in the process of catching the ball cleanly with both hands until the defender became involved.
Tanner took his two goals well; it’s always pleasing to see Robbo get a goal whilst Salech’s tap-in, not unlike the younger Colwill’s goal, showed a good degree of alertness. As the game played out in real time, to me it seemed there was more of a case to have disallowed the Colwill goal for offside rather than the one that the referee did.
Overall, then, City’s home campaign, ending with a five goal haul, admittedly against a poorish visiting team, was a more than satisfactory way to bring the curtain down on our home fixtures in the Third Tier. Having scored 50 goals and conceding just 23 at the CCS home fans certainly had value for money.
No apologies for showing my age in summing up Saturday’s game. As my mate Arthur used to say: “Anyone can get four. Five looks better in the Echo!”
To latch on to Steve’s closing line, and to change its meaning and use it to my advantage… ‘anyone can score 4, but we PSG will ensure we have scored 5’.
Which is my way of saying that I feel vindicated this morning in choosing to watch the Champions League semi-final over the Soton-Ipswich game… which was also a cracker.
After the game, with the now dazzling* empty seats as a background, the Prime touchline panel went on until midnight, and they were the last team of pundits left. Wayne Rooney was outstanding… maybe he declined to work next season on MotD, because the time constraints are too inhibiting? For given all the time in the world by Gabby to expound his views, he can indeed come over with the clarity of a Joe Hart.
What a game… !! Unforgettable.
If BBM can serve up FORWARD passing attacking football next season, like these two sides delivered last night, then more power to his elbow.
*has there ever been a more brilliantly imaginative way of showing your club’s identity in its stadium seating. ‘Chapeau!’ to our Parisian friends… https://tinyurl.com/mz5ww7md
And I believe that this seating design is on all 4 sides of the ground.
DW.
Apologies for my late reply – particularly to Steve who I did respond to on Wednesday, but it seems my reply got hijacked somewhere along the way! I didn’t say a great deal to Steve, but I did wonder for a split second at the time if Joel Colwill was offside (I think he did as well), but I’ve looked at it a few times since and he was okay. I also agreed about scoring five (or “going nap” as reporters used to say!). It’s somehow special in a way that scoring four isn’t. I tried to explain it away by, as Steve suggests, it being an age thing in that in my youth, 4-0 was a fairly common scoreline (in fact I’d go as far to say that 4-0 was more common in the sixties than 3-0 is today). Clearly it was a convincing win, but it was quite commonplace, whereas to win by 5-0 or 5-1 took it to a different level – that was a thrashing!
To come on to Dai’s comments, although I can remember when 4-0 was a fairly routine scoreline, I’m just too young to remember the times when 5-4 was not an exceptional scoreline, a time when European Cup Finals were won by 7-3 and you had games like Charlton v Huddersfield where the home side won 7-6 after being 5-1 down I think it was. I have a thirty year plus dislike of the concept of the so called Champions League (how on earth can you have five teams from a single country compete in it?) which means that, occasionally, I go a whole season without seeing a moment of it. That’s why I preferred to take in the Scunthorpe v Southend National League Play Off game on Tuesday isn’t of PSG v Bayern, but even I was forced to admit the error of my ways as, at about 8.15, I compared the bland fare I was watching from Glanford Park with what was happening on TNT! So, I relented and watched what was a classic in Paris – PSG were really special in the latter rounds of last year’s Champions League, but I have a suspicion that Bayern will turn it around in the Allianz Arena and they will face and, hopefully, beat Arsenal in the Final (I watched most of the game in Madrid and, as at Man City, thought Arsenal played better than they have been doing recently).
Paul,
I note these words of yours… ‘but I have a suspicion that Bayern will turn it around in the Allianz Arena and they will face and, hopefully, beat Arsenal in the Final’.
And I blinked, and then I read them for a second time.
Yep, sure enough, Paul was saying something that I too believed… and I thought I was almost alone in believing…viz… that for (in my case) the first time ever, I would not be wanting a British team to beat foreign opposition to win a European final.
I remember going on a guided tour of The Emirates stadium about 15 years ago, before my legs were to give up on me, and it proved as enjoyable as my tours of Wembley, Old Trafford, the Etihad, and Twickenham… all made round about that same year.
But I guess an anti-Gunners feeling really set in with the raising to anthem status of that chorus from a song by Linda Robson’s son, Louis Dunford. How their fans all sing ‘North London forever, whatever the weather’ with a lump in their throat.
And I think, hang on boys, remember you are not alone in North London: Tottenham is every bit as ‘North London’ as Islington/Holloway. Were I a Spurs fan (and I once went on a very enjoyable guided tour of the old White Hart Lane as a guest of Holsten Pils in 1993 before a Man Utd game)… then I’d commandeer that chorus and start singing it before home games next season… that would poke the Arsenal bear, alright.
All that said, I will want the Arsenal to beat Atlético next week… but that is only because Simeone gets on my tits so much. But I am with you re the final… mind you Paul, part of me feels that I should be shot at dawn for disloyalty to my country.
But changing the subject: I really am impressed with your loyalty to lower division teams, over the VAR infested top level… whether it be Ton Pentre, or The Iron v The Shrimpers. I am so with you on that…
Much of my YouTube podcast viewing these days means regularly dipping into fairly minority taste football vlogs… far removed in volume of hits from my ‘de rigueur’ Pieface 23… with his 100,000+ subscribers.
For instance, last night I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the vlog of The Football Explorer, for this week’s play-off between Buxton and Scarborough. I confess I did not know that Buxton’s ground was the highest in England… followed by Tow Law and Bacup… all three almost double the height above sea level of The Hawthorns. And the great thing about The Football Explorer is that he genuinely is more interested in the stadia themselves (however humble) and their history, than any game that could be taking place whilst he is there.
Other such sites that see me regularly dipping in are Footy Adventures, Fusion Josh (despite the fellow’s verbal thrust giving me a headache), Topliss at the Turnstiles (though he is more interested in the game than the stadia), Only Scrans (food in lower league stadia), and StuntPegg (Nieve Petruzziello)….
Mentioning Footy Adventures… I so love this guy… and his most recent vlog sees him given proper respect by Hibs and given a privileged seat in their wonderfully positioned Press enclosure (such a steep rake, eh?… with its nonpareil sight lines (how Peter Corrigan would have loved this luxury over the Heath Robinson old Press Box at Ninian Park… !!)
Getting a seat there at the most vital Edinburgh derby in many decades, could not have been easy… but it is a testament to his obvious professional skill. And note how the SKY SPORTS guy happily agrees to an interview… as indeed does John Collins.
I urge MAYA readers to watch this… it is a 17 minute gem. And WHAT an eventful match.
https://youtu.be/0gS0w_Nd7Yw?si=Dd0W5XIQBhpXoWc2
DW
Oops… websites on the brain.
Delete ‘site lines’
Insert ‘SIGHT lines’…!!
DW
It probably started with that non event of an FA Cup game at Ninian Park in 1969 Dai, but I always associated Arsenal with defensive football until Wenger came along and made them a far more watchable and successful, for a while at least, team. Even during Wenger’s far too long goodbye, I thought Arsenal were a good watch and that has applied since he left and even during Arteta’s early years. Lately though, it seems to be they’ve reverted to their old, boring “1-0 to the Arsenal” selves. Did you see that farcical picture of UEFA officials measuring the length of the grass on Atletico’s pitch before lick off on Wednesday because Arsenal were, wrongly as it turned out, insistent that it was too long – that is so Arsenal 25/26! I hope they don’t win anything this season because that will lead to an increase in teams playing as cautiously as them in 26/27 – it’s been a far from vintage Premier League season.and success for Arsenal would only ensure that trend continued.
I’m familiar with most of the vlogs you mention and agree with you about Footy Adventures – that was a great Edinburgh derby on Sunday and coupled with Rangers’ unexpected loss to Motherwell (in saying that I notice Chris Sutton, who I can’t stand, says Motherwell are the best “footballing” side in the SPL this season) has me thinking the Jam Tarts can do it. As you say, that’s a great video, but one of the things I like most about him is that he genuinely seems to get as much pleasure, if not more, out of visiting what I’ll call obscure non league teams as he does the big games in the SPL. My only complaint about Stunt Pegg is that she doesn’t do enough videos – if you’ve not seen it, her most recent one about the Rochdale v York game last weekend is well worth a watch because she’s absolutely gobsmacked by what happens in added time and she ends the video talking about how Rochdale are a cursed club – she may have a point, I hope I’m wrong, but I can see them missing out in the Play Offs.