Seven days ago, I was optimistic about what this season and seasons to come had in store for Cardiff City. Now, after a disastrous week for the club, I feel a mixture of anger, frustration, pessimism and sadness about the coming months.
A team playing like we did against Sheffield United clearly have it within them to make the thought of relegation no more than a very occasional consideration after a bad defeat or a few games without a win. However, seven days later, it’s like all of the momentum and feel good factor following promotion has been sucked out of the club by the events of last Tuesday – or should I say non events.
The word disastrous to describe our week is probably over dramatic, but my sadness stems from a feeling that, another, big opportunity has been wasted by the club and it almost seems as if they want to make life tougher for themselves.
The “official” version of events beginning to emerge in the days after the window closed has it that BBM had a limited number of players (two of whom were Jack Moylan and Krystian Bielik) in mind when it came to improving the squad and was not interested in any one who wasn’t on his, presumably, small list.
The truth is that unless you had someone directly involved in the recruitment process at a senior level feeding you information, supporters, and those working in the media, are going to be pretty clueless as to exactly what was happening. In fact, even those who might consider themselves to be “in the know” are probably only getting the version of events which shows their source in the best possible light!
From my point of view, I want to blame the usual targets (i.e. the Three Amigos) because they’ve messed up so many times before.
On the other hand, I don’t want BBM to have been responsible for what I’m convinced were wrong decisions made in the three days following the Sheffield United match because I like him, I like the way his team plays and I genuinely think he is good for the club. However, if the recruitment staff were presenting him with players who they genuinely thought were worthwhile additions to the squad and he wasn’t interested in them, then I would say events are already proving him to be wrong.
I say that, but my feeling is that something changed with BBM’s public pronouncements after the Swindon League Cup game where he started talking in terms of us having to be bring players in rather than the bland, rather non committal stuff we usually got from him in his media conferences – certainly, in his final meetings with the hacks before the window closed, he wasn’t sounding like someone who was happy to go through the first half of the season with what we’d got.
What is undeniable is that the two matches since the window closed have seen the worst performances out of our five games so far. I don’t believe that this can be traced back to a sense of disappointment among the players regarding lack of incoming transfers in the last few days of the window, but their performances at QPR and today at Portsmouth have hardly dispelled that notion!
Anyone thinking supporters like me are overreacting should consider our subs bench today. Yes, we could have the three injured central defenders fit and Isaak Davies was missing, but, realistically, how often in a season does any manager have every member of his first team squad fit and available for selection?
For the second time in five games we had two keepers on the bench. Also, BBM shows no sign of using Rob Tankiewicz and bringing him on so late on at QPR and not at all today is hardly a ringing endorsement of Callum Robinson ( both times when we were losing). Therefore, we find ourselves in a situation where we’re losing the advantage that having nine subs, instead of last season’s seven, should give us.
I’ll not take too much time over today’s 2-0 defeat which, for the second consecutive match, we could not have many complaints about. We started the better and Bielik had a great early chance as he was left free beyond the far post to meet a Joel Bagan free kick and steer his header across goal, but just wide.
Gabriel Osho has been one of our better performers this season, but when he underhit a back pass that forced Nathan Trott into a rushed clearance which was returned with interest from forty yards by Kamara I think it was, the keeper had to respond with an acrobatic touch around the post to keep his team on terms.
Portsmouth took charge after this as Trott saved well to deny Adrian Segicic, but I thought he should have dealt with a long through ball himself rather than leave it to Bielik who scraped the ball out for a throw in close to the corner flag. City then showed that they have a glass jaw when defending set pieces into the box as Tyrese Shade’s long throw was headed directly in on the near post by Conor Shaughnessy.
City spent long periods after that looking like they were feeling sorry for themselves as they were bullied by a physical home team and while I thought referee Ben Speedie was something of a homer (how on earth Marlon Pack wasn’t booked I don’t know), i didn’t feel this had a big impact on proceedings.
The second half didn’t see an improvement. In fact, just as at QPR, City were cut apart much too easily soon after the restart to go 2-0 down. Seconds before that though Chris Willock’s cross presented Ollie Tanner with a great chance on the far post, but rather like with Cian Ashford on Wednesday the resultant header reminded me of one of those close my eyes headers I used to specialize in as a ten year old!
Portsmouth then counter attacked so effectively that the ball was in our net within half a minute. Kamara was freed down our left and his cross was swept in from close range by Pompey’s bruiser of a centre forward Marko Milovanovic.
The striker was denied a more spectacular second goal when he headed in a cross from the opposite flank only to be denied by what looked a marginal offside call.
To their credit, City responded with a five minute spell when Tanner, Yousef Salech and Jack Moylan forced home keeper Daniel Bielica into saves, while Salech was inches away from turning in Bagan’s cross cum shot, but, in each case, you felt a little more precision might have brought a goal.
City had little to offer after that though and Kamara came closest to scoring the game’s third goal with a shot against the crossbar after beating three players.
Indeed, the biggest talking point late on was an incident which saw Bielik and a home fan having an altercation. Initial reports suggested that the City player was responsible for the dust up (the video I saw of it was inconclusive), but this apology from home manager John Mourinho surely exonerates the City man despite what is still being said on social media
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/crm9kv844jvo
Better news as far as the under 18s are concerned, they beat Huddersfield 3-0 away this lunchtime with Jacob Norris, Gruff Evans and Pedro Araujo scoring.
Next an apology to Clydach Vale side Cambrian who I didn’t realise had been promoted to the Welsh Premier League. Last night they drew 2-2 at Cardiff Met to give them two wins, three draws and two defeats from their seven matches leaving them halfway up the table.
Just the one game for the sides followed on here in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance where, in Division One East, Treorchy Boys and Girls Club remain rooted to the foot of the table after losing 3-0 at home to AFC Penrhiwceiber.
