Better, but combination of familiar weaknesses and rubbish refereeing means it’s only a draw for Cardiff City.

4 Responses to Better, but combination of familiar weaknesses and rubbish refereeing means it’s only a draw for Cardiff City.

1. Dai Woosnam says:

   January 2, 2025 at 11:58 am

   Thanks Paul as ever for the hard yards.
   A few thoughts from me…
   1. Yes, Durkin is the son of that Clive Thomas wannabe, Paul. His dad was a referee who loved brandishing the red card and almost courted controversy. As soon as I saw him coming on, I instantly sussed the fact that the milkman was not his dad: the tragedy of having kids – unless one is a narcissist – is that they remind one of the cliché ‘the apple nemver falls far from the tree’… (which with my lifelong body dysmorphia, is why I deliberately have chosen to never have any offspring… yes I know… TMI)
   https://tinyurl.com/5fx9u3zz
   2. Durkin (fils) seems to have inherited so much more than his ‘boat’ from his dad. Admittedly only on a quick study of his past in the lower leagues, I can see he also has a loathing of being thought a ‘homer’. Gee I wish there were genuinely meaningful stats compiled that I would TRULY like to see… for instance – try this one on for size – ‘the number of red cards given to home players by a referee during his career’. How great that would be to study, eh? Instead we get sleep-inducing drivel on ‘xg’ and the like…
   3. Maybe I have a selective memory, but in my mind’s eye, Durkin (père) is up there with Clive Thomas as being referees almost masochistic enough to deliberately incur the wrath of home crowds. Like they both felt they were a Daniel choosing to go into the Lions Den, in the certain knowledge that their (footballing) god would protect them… indeed, go one better, would RESPECT them. Well, Paul Durkin, your boy James is well on his way to emulating you.
   4. Or (on the strength of yesterday)… is he really? Because here I must part company with you (our esteemed Chief MAYAn) and say that I thought the sending off of Robinson was correct… and furthermore, that his refereeing afterwards really warranted at least a 7/10 and maybe even an 8/10. (He was so right in booking my favourite player for deliberate time wasting in injury time.)
   5. And here is why he was right in his red card. We know that Robinson has a boiling point of zero… who can forget that idiotic behaviour at The Liberty with him being sent off in the opening minutes? Having ‘ice in veins’ is all very well… but not if your same blood boils over at the slightest provocation. And Robinson is so easily provoked (and as Canton boy Cabango proved two or three seasons back), so easily sent off if the opposing player ‘makes a meal’ of the assault… as the Cov player certainly did yesterday.
   6. But let’s closely look at the incident. Just a few seconds before it, he had appealed for a foul… and it fell on deaf ears. Yet within moments he again tangled with the same player, and incensed on not getting the decision, chose to aim a somewhat desultory swinging arm at his opponent’s head… as if to say ‘mate, I can give as good as I get’. And he made contact.
   7. Now dear MAYAns… I ask you to be fair here. Of course it was not a truly vicious attempt to break someone’s nose (as evinced by the Brighton Brazilian with that elbow that recently blessedly missed the Brentford man). But it WAS deliberate and made contact with the fellow’s head… who of course then milked it for all it’s worth. And James Durkin merely obeyed the Laws… and issued a straight red for a blow deliberately aimed at the head. To me, 95% of referees would also have gone for their red card.
   8. I reckon Robinson should have gone from our club straight after the Cabango fiasco. Constantly caught offside, and so easily brushed off the ball. Yes, I know he is the best finisher we have… but gee, what does that say about the others? Money down the drain on contracts for Willock, El Ghazi, loan fees on Kanga… and I hope Ramsey can sleep at nights taking whatever he is taking for his time on the treatment table.
   9. You say we need to buy a good striker. You are right. But we need a good centre back to partner Goutas, even more. As centre backs, the Norwegian is Div 1 quality, and Chambers is Div 2… though I will concede Chambers seems a half-decent holding midfielder.
   10. The sooner NG attracts a buying club the better. He is another with a screw loose in his temperament. That self-indulgent piece of nonsense at the very edge of his penalty box late in the game yesterday, was rightly pounced upon: it could have led to us losing the game. He should be fined a week’s wages for it.
   11. Oh, I forgot to say re your article Paul… you mention that the Norwegian centre back’s errors were responsible for the last 3 goals from visiting teams at the CCS. Now, a word here as a temporary defence counsel for Daland. The second Moore goal was more down to Riza than Daland… as that suicidal pass infield from the touchline would never have happened under Neil Warnock… he would have made Daland swivel and play it up the touchline. But tiki-taka has so infiltrated our game that it is a rare manager who can resist wanting to seem ‘scientific’.
   12. Two saves from Jak yesterday were exceptional. The desperate dive to his left in the second half rightly earned big applause, but it was that save from Josh Eccles in the first half that so impressed me. The fact he was down so quickly and more importantly, held on to that so-fiercely hit ball, what with two opponents just ready to pounce on a fumble.
   13. I hope our impressively named ‘Michael Douglas Kwabena Amponsah Reindorf Junior’ gets a showing from the subs’ bench… and is not forgotten. That said, Méïté improved things when he came on.
   14. I thought Siopsis yesterday, played as well as I have ever seen him. Maybe he or his fellow Greek should be given the captaincy. But I would give it to O’Dowda… not least because he is temperamentally chalk and cheese from his above-mentioned ROI colleague. Plus he almost always turns in a 7/10 performance.
   Right… lunch beckons.
   TTFN,
   Dai.
2. Paul Olsen says:

   January 2, 2025 at 4:24 pm

   The ref is Paul Durkin’s son.
3. Blue Bayou says:

   January 3, 2025 at 12:03 am

   I remembered only latterly being warned on a previous occasion, that it was a mistake to praise a ref’s performance, as it meant we’d get a stinker next game, and so it proved.
   When I praised ref Sam Allison for his performance in our game against Watford, I’d forgotten that the last time I praised a ref (not Allison that time), we had a terrible ref next game, which led to a home defeat.
   As I’ve said previously I don’t see eye to eye with Dai on many things, but there were one or two things that I did in his piece. Firstly, while Robinson is our top scorer, the number of times he’s offside is unforgivable for a player of his standing! Against Coventry he not only cost us a goal, but when O’Dowda made the break for the first goal, Robinson was asking for the pass despite clearly being two yards ahead of the defenders and O’Dowda, so would have been flagged for offside. O’Dowda wisely held on to the ball and took it to the byline to create our opening goal.
   I think the other point I agreed with Dai on (not a difficult one this), is that Jak Alnwick made some excellent saves in both halves.
   It was a shame to see Daland at fault for the Coventry goal, after having such an excellent game against Watford. He hasn’t had that many starts, so I’m sure he will learn from the experience, and be a better player with a run of games.
   While most of our recent performances (bar Oxford) have been pretty decent, it’s a concern that a number of the teams that were near us have been picking up more wins, so we need to turn more of our decent performances into wins. Albeit that’s unlikely to happen against Boro on Saturday, as I fear they have a better squad with greater depth than us.
   Also, while lots of fans are saying we need a decent striker, I think we’d be doing very well to find another Sory Kaba in the January transfer window. I think we’re more likely to see more starts for Wilfried Kanga or Michael Reindorf! Who knows what either could achieve with a run of games though?
4. The other Bob Wilson says:

   January 4, 2025 at 9:29 am

   First of all thanks to Paul for his clarification. Moving on to Dai’s list of points, it’s not really surprising that I agree with some of them, but there are others I’m in disagreement with him on.
   I disagree about Paul Durkin who I thought was one of the better refs of his time and, having seen close ups of it now on a City’s fan vlog on the game, I’m even more of the view that a yellow card would have been the right punishment for what was a foul, but nothing worse than that – Durkin’s son messed up with that decision and his general handling of the game was poor.
   Turning to Robinson s disciplinary record, his sending off at Swansea was daft and cost us any chance of getting anything from the game, but that one and the one against Coventry are the only red cards he’s received in his career and a look at his record here

   https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=72637

   shows that he’s never reached enough bookings in a season to have served a suspension (his only yellow card this season came after he took his shirt off after scoring against Plymouth to reveal a t shirt with a tribute to his friend George Baldock on it).
   To my mind, Robinson has had one deserved red card in his career and his second one was down to poor refereeing – his record is a lot better than people think (I’ve seen plenty of accusations of him being a hothead after what happened on New Year’s Day, but the evidence says otherwise).
   Dai’s use of the word “desultory” is appropriate I’d say as it more or less matches the description “half hearted” which I’ve used to describe the elbowing offence – if Robinson really was “incensed” by the response to an incident a few seconds earlier with the Coventry player involved, would his retaliatory action really have been “desultory”? For me, there was no violent conduct by Robinson and the ref over reacted.
   Where I do agree with Dai about Robinson is how often and easily he was caught offside and I even said “get onside Robinson” as O’Dowda was running down the wing in the build up to the goal – I also agree with Dai about Ng, a player i like, but his what I believe is called “shithousery” these days is becoming too frequent and will soon become counter productive once opponents start punishing his indiscipline and his reputation spreads among officials.Think Dai is right about Siopis’ recent form and O’Dowda in general as well. Finally, Alnwick’s save from Eccles was a beauty and there were one or two examples of his ability with the ball at his feet that so impress Dai.
   Turning to Blue Bayou’s comments on the Coventry game, i think I’ve made it clear that I agree with him about Robinson straying offside and it seems like his opinion of Mr Durkin matches mine. I’m also in agreement on Daland who I feel is worth persevering with and he must know that he cannot expect a regular starting place if he is going to allow himself to be outmuscled in the manner he has been for the past two home games.
   I think BB talks sense as well regarding the fact that, apart from Plymouth, all of the teams around us are picking up more wins than we are and, as far as a centre forward coming in is concerned – we’re going to have to be lucky, as well as good, to find someone with the sort of quality we need who is willing to come here and play for a team in the relegation places. Where we disagree however, is in our thoughts on Wilfried Kanga – I’d be busting a gut to get his loan deal terminated early if i were City.
   I still feel that the pre season injury to Isaak Davies has cost us so much as his pace would have had opposing defences thinking that we were able to get someone in behind them as an alternative to having to play to feet or head all of the time like we do now – I’d also be looking to get Kion Etete involved as soon as possible as, besides Robinson, I’d rate him as our best forward option once he’s fit.
   Finally, I have to go along with BB about today’s game – think we’ll lose and it could be by quite a few.