Cardiff City had one of their soft and naive away day afternoons today (or they did for the first half an hour at least) and, if you combine that with a repeat of Bolton where we put nearly all of our ten on target goal attempts too close to the keeper and the final scoreline of 3-0 in favour of Wolves looks pretty typical away fare for us in 26/27.
However, there was a bit more to this game than that, we showed at times the sort of progressive, attacking play that has earned us plaudits through the season, but it only came after we’d given ourselves a mountain to climb by conceding twice in the first fifteen minutes.
Therefore, it’s probably true to say that Wolves were happy to let us have the ball in advanced areas as long as they defended well enough – the frustrating thing is that the home side weren’t always assured in their defending and there were the chances to get back into the game, but this was another day when our finishing was just not good enough.
Ten on target shots out of thirteen is quite impressive, as is the opposition goalkeeper being forced to save nine of them, but, with the possible exception of the one to tip Yousef Salech’s late header on to a post, none of José Sa’s saves could be called difficult.
Wolves also had thirteen goal attempts, but, in contrast to Sa, Nathan Trott only saved one of the four on target efforts they came up with. In fact, the match stats in some ways suggest a game we dominated:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cqrky864x8n6t#MatchStats
However, this was a case where that old line about lies, damned lies and statistics was proved to be correct because although 3-0 flattered Wolves, you have to say the better side won today.
That said, I’m not convinced Wolves are the real deal when it comes to automatic promotion on this evidence. What they do have are individuals with well above Championship levels of talent and, certainly early on, they attacked with speed and style.
A less pleasing side of the Wolves game plan was that they were as cynical a side as I’ve seen when it came to the ludicrously entitled “good fouls” in the modern game which are given away when it’s felt that an opponent is getting away from you.
Certainly, it’s hard to imagine a Wolves player being suckered into the sort of challenge we saw from Ollie Tanner on eleven minutes today.
Tanner’s way too late, token attempt at a tackle gave the home team’s impressive left back Hugo Bueno the opportunity to power forward some forty to fifty yards and clip over a cross which allowed Wolves’ star man Fer Lopez to stoop and bury a header beyond the advancing Trott from around the penalty spot.
While it looked like a devastating counter attack watching it live, I did wonder about a possible offside especially as Calum Scanlon immediately looked to the linesman for an off side flag, as, indeed, did the scorer.
Replays showed that Lopez looked offside and I’ve seen a picture on social media tonight which shows he was about a foot offside.
Tanner’s shoddy defending was part of a sloppy beginning to the game by the winger who has been playing so well recently. On the other flank, Chris Willock, in for Cian Ashford In the only change to the side which had started against Birmingham, had an under hit shot saved by Sa while the game was still goalless, but, that apart, he, like Tanner and a few others, started off in a low key, “off with the fairies” manner which you just cannot afford in an away game – let alone one against a top four side.
Joel Colwill was another who took a while to get going, but I thought he went on to be maybe the biggest single reason why the match did not end in the massacre it threatened to be early on – I’ve remarked about how Joel seems to find away games more challenging, but here I thought he was our best player.
To be fair to Tanner and Willock, they both improved as the game went on, with the former not doing badly at left back as BBM rang the changes, which included a first team debut for Charlie Holt, in a vain attempt to change the course of the game.
Four minutes after Lopez’s opener, Wolves again prospered down our right with Rafiki Said, another impressive performer, crossing for the completely unmarked Adam Armstrong to head in powerfully from around the same spot Lopez had scored from.
Offside or not for the first one, both of the goals had been far too easy.
Of course, it doesn’t help that we have so many defenders injured or suspended and there was no Callum Robinson again today (BBM wouldn’t elaborate as to exactly why) and it seems that Isaak Davies has some sort of injury because he was absent from the squad as well.
However, none of this should be an excuse for the mental sloppiness too many of our players showed early on and that sloppiness extended to passing which was not precise enough when counter attacking opportunities presented themselves in the first half especially.
City began to suggest that they could get back into the game as it closed in on half time and Tanner hit a well struck volley too close to Sa as we pressed for a goal.
Within thirty seconds of the restart, Joel Colwell broke through the defence, but the resultant shot again was too close to the keeper as were later efforts by Joel again and Alex Robertson.
It felt like things could get very interesting if we could get the game’s third goal, but, just before the hour mark, we self destructed again as Jack Moylan (having possibly his quietist game since signing for us) lost Ladislav Krejki at a Kieran Trippier corner and scored Wolves third headed goal with no opponent close enough to make his task any harder.
The one step forward to our usual two steps back on the player availability front came with the return of Rubin Colwill after a couple of months out – it seemed he was on the pitch for about ten minutes before he got a kick, but he did okay once he was able to get involved.
Sa wasn’t too convincing when he had to dive for shots and Moylan followed up a fumble from a shot by sub Cian Ashford I think it was to net, but it was typical of the sort of day it was to see the flag go up (probably correctly replays showed) to deny us even a consolation goal.
It was a bad day few days all round, the under 18s also went down 3-0 at QPR this afternoon, while Cambrian were beaten 2-0 last night at Colwyn Bay in the Cymru Premier with the one slight consolation being that they didn’t concede nine for a third straight away league game!
In the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were beaten 2-1 by second placed Tara Steel Athletic, but at least Treorchy Boys and Girls Club maintained their recent improvement as they got themselves a couple of places off the bottom of Division One (East) with a 0-0 draw at Cwm Welfare.
