When a game between England and Wales to begin the second international break of the season was announced, it seemed a mouth watering prospect, but as the weeks went by, it became less and less significant, until, when the time came for it be played, it seemed irrelevant.
Two or three months ago, October was marked out as the time when crowds would be allowed back into stadia at the top levels of the game, so, although it was never going to be a capacity crowd (would it have even if there was no Covid around?), there would have been a decent sized turn out, but, what I think can now be called a second wave of the pandemic put paid to that weeks ago.
Add to that the fact that both countries are clearly placing more importance on their respective Nations League qualifying groups and perhaps the view I expressed on a messageboard today that I was more likely to watch one of the competitive games that Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were involved in does not seem quite as sacrilegious as it may at first sound.
In the event, I did what I quite often do when there are a few matches being televised simultaneously – that is keep on switching channels between them all and end up not really taking in what was happening in any of them!
In truth, it was the Wales match I watched most, but it made for pretty miserable viewing really, as they slumped to a 3-0 loss which, based on what I saw, was certainly the right outcome in terms of which side was the better and looked about right in terms of the margin of victory.
It was typically 2020 that the pleasure of seeing a Cardiff City player leading the Welsh forward line at Wembley turned into annoyance and frustration as Keiffer Moore hobbled off around the thirty five minute mark having not been able to run off a knock he received about ten minutes earlier.
Moore, who missed what was probably Wales’ best chance of the night when he rather snatched at a left footed volley from around the penalty spot, will be a miss for Wales for the upcoming games with the Republic of Ireland and Bulgaria (who both lost their Play Off games so will be able to give their matches with us their full attention) if he cannot play in those matches, but it’s the effect the injury may have on City over the coming weeks which is most concerning.
That said, it didn’t look too serious as Moore was able to walk off the pitch, so, hopefully, it was a precautionary measure.
As for the game, Wales, who gave a first start to Rabbi Matondo and featured Tyler Roberts up front as well, were calm and measured in the opening half an hour or so as they dominated possession without ever suggesting they had many goals in them.
Unfortunately, the ease with which England carved us open to score their first goal when the impressive Jack Grealish crossed to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and the man who can’t stop scoring at the moment headed in easily from point blank range with his nominal marker Chris Mepham yards away from him.
Wales have some impressive young centreback talent currently that has been given plenty of praise in the last year or two, but, although Joe Rodon didn’t do too much wrong while he was on for the first half, it was a tough night for them generally.
Rodon’s team mate Ben Cubango replaced him and within minutes of that change, Conor Coady had doubled England’s lead. It was the sort of goal where the scoring side purr over the quality of the assist and the finish (in this case, a fine free kick by Keiron Trippier and half volleyed finish by Coady), but the defending team focus on rank bad marking with Cubango having to take main responsibility.
It was more of the same with the third goal as the initial header was lost from a corner and a completely unmarked Danny Ings was left free to score with a well executed overhead kick from sub Tyronne Mings’ knockdown.
There were some good saves from Wayne Hennessy to keep the score down to three after that, but Wales were a well beaten side by the end and the hope has to be that they will not allow this setback to impact on the next two games because they are in a position where they have the opportunity to dominate their Nations League group.
Can I also give a mention to my new book Real Madrid and all that which has been bought out to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary on 10 March next year of Cardiff City’s win over the team which can be judged as the best in Europe based on their record in continent wide club tournaments since they were introduced in the 1950s. The book is more than that though, it’s a review of the whole of the momentous 1970/71 season which saw us fighting for promotion to the old First division, reaching two Cup Finals and scoring the best goal I’ve seen us scoring in nearly sixty years of supporting the club – it also contained the most controversial transfer of my Cardiff City supporting life.
Real Madrid and all that is available in e book and paperback formats and can only be purchased from Amazon.
Once again, can I finish by making a request for support from readers by them becoming my Patrons through Patreon. Full details of this scheme and the reasons why I decided to introduce it can be found here, but I should say that the feedback I have got in the past couple of years has indicated a reluctance from some to use Patreon as they prefer to opt for a direct payment to me. If you are interested in becoming a patron and would prefer to make a direct contribution, please contact me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com or in the Feedback section of the blog and I will send you my bank/PayPal details.
