It’s an illustration of the standards Cardiff City’s under 23 squad are setting this season that the commentators at this afternoon’s game against Watford at Leckwith talked of a sense of disappointment among the players after last week’s 2-0 home win over Colchester.
Certainly, the second forty five minutes were something of a non event as City, with the goals having been scored in the opening quarter of the match, seemed happy just to comfortably hold their opponents at arm’s length while not showing a killer instinct. I mentioned last week that I had been unable to watch the opening forty five minutes of the Colchester game, but, having seen highlights of it now, while there is no doubt the first half performance was a lot better than what I saw, it didn’t seem to be at the level we’ve grown used to seeing from what is, effectively, our second string.
Today, against opponents whose senior side is in the Premier League, as opposed to League Two, City we’re far more convincing and I don’t just mean in terms of the score line.
Yet, there were times when it felt like something of a routine performance from the team in that you felt they could have upped their game a level or two if they had to. 4-0 was not a fair reflection of the difference between the sides, it was greater than that and in the last quarter of an hour or so, Watford resembled a game, but outclassed, boxer that a sympathetic corner man would throw the towel in for to save them from further punishment.
So, City make it eleven wins from eleven and they now face testing looking visits to London to face Millwall a week today and then Charlton eight days later. Wins in these two matches would mean that they would be going into a mid season break with a one hundred per cent record and knowing that even a very average second half to the campaign would probably be enough to secure the top two finish needed to qualify for the end of season Play Offs.
Against opponents that included the sons of Mauricio Pochettino and Dennis Wise, City made changes from last week with Rohan Luthra coming in for George Ratcliffe, Tavio D’Almeida for Jai Semenyo and Taylor Jones replacing Ciaron Brown.
Apparently, City wanted to make a fast start and they did exactly that with the ball hitting the back of the Watford net just as the onscreen clock was showing the one minute mark. The goal came when Keiron Evans cut in from the left after receiving a Joel Bagan pass and attempted a shot which was blocked – fortune smiled on City at this point as the rebound rolled to Ryan Kavanagh stood some fifteen yards from goal and the midfielder took a touch before driving his shot into opposite corner from a position to the right of the penalty spot.
A casual observer might have thought that Watford responded well to this early setback and, to an extent, they did as they showed that they could keep possession well as they passed the ball patiently. However, apart from a shot from Savage that forced Luthra into just about his only save of the game (and it was quite an easy one), all of their possession came to nothing.
Not for the first time this season, I was struck by how hard we must be to play against because we keep our shape and discipline so well that it becomes very hard for opponents to come up with a ball that looks like it might open us up.
Not only that, as soon as there is a slight miscontrol or errant pass from the opposition, City are quick to challenge and invariably they end up getting the ball back.
To be fair to Watford, they were able to do something similar for most of the first half and, for a long time, there was little sign that City would add to their lead. The closest they came in the first half an hour was when a Watford defender under no real pressure headed an Evans cross firmly on to a post.
It looked as if City would have a single goal lead at the break, but when James Connolly came up from the back and tried his luck from twenty five yards, visiting goalkeeper Baptiste made a mess of what was not too testing a shot and spilled the ball into the path of Chanka Zimba who easily netted what has become a traditional goal for him when he plays at this level. To be honest, I would have backed myself to have scored that goal, but Zimba impressed today more for his hold up play, strength and ability to lay the ball off – he is a very good target man at this level and although his first taste of senior team action didn’t go as hoped for, I’m sure he’ll have another chance if he keeps on playing like he did today.
Sides a couple of goals down at the break often come out strong at the start of the second half and have a real go for ten minutes or so, but usually the realisation that there is no way back for them means the storm blows itself out. That’s just how Watford started, they put City under more pressure than they had faced at any time in the first half, forced a few corners and it was hard not to feel some sympathy for them when their best spell of the match ended with them 3-0 down with, realistically, no way back.
I’d mentioned Connolly’s desire to help out his sides attack from time to time despite being one of a back three and he struck his next goal attempt from around the same distance as his first, but the contact was much better this time and the ball flew into the top of the net with Baptiste standing no chance – whether he would have done so without the deflection the shot got off a defender’s head is impossible to tell, but the ball was certainly travelling and the captain’s performance definitely deserved that bit of luck.
Perhaps Connolly’s best contribution came though when he made an extraordinary goal line clearance to ensure a seventh clean sheet of the season for his team. The situation was all of City’s own making as a misunderstanding between Jones and Luthra saw the defender’s attempt at a headed back pass go past the keeper and towards the net. A goal seemed inevitable, but Connolly capped the best performance I’ve seen from him by racing back to scoop the ball away just as it was about to cross the line.
City were in cruise control for a while after that as they appeared to be settling for the three goal win, but in the last few minutes, Watford, who had to do a lot running as City patiently worked the ball back and across from one wing to the other in a manner described by Steve Morison during his press briefing “rant” recently, ran right out of steam and three or four more goals could have followed.
As it was, there was just the one when Bagan received a pass from Evans, beat a man and shot confidently home from fifteen yards. It was a second very good finish in consecutive matches for the wing back, but, such standards have almost become the norm for a team whose record in early December is better than any City team of any age that I can recall.
