On a day when the six teams below them won, Cardiff City gave an uncharacteristically ragged performance in drawing 2-2 at Burton Albion this afternoon.
I thought it was a strange game in a couple of respects. Firstly, three of the goals were heavily reliant on inadvertent deflections which acted as “assists”, while the one well worked goal might well have been disallowed if VAR was in use.
A score of 2-2 is suggestive of an open and entertaining affair, but this was a match which was flattered by it’s scoreline because, although there was quite an exciting last few minutes as both sides chased the three points, there were a total of only five on target efforts throughout.
Moving on to the second reason I found it an odd game, the conditions weren’t ideal in that the pitch struck me as the worst one we’ve played on this season. I couldn’t see what it was like on the opposite side of the pitch, but the side on which the cameras were placed looked like a car had been driven along the wing as it was quite badly cut up. The rest of the pitch didn’t look too bad, but, although it seemed quite a still afternoon, there were times when the ball appeared to bobble about more than you’d expect it to.
In saying that, the vagaries of the pitch do not fully explain why the players of both teams were often guilty of conceding possession when they appeared to have the ball fully under control and under no great pressure – furthermore, the kicking of both keepers was poor throughout (Nathan Trott’s long kicking has declined significantly in recent matches).
For some reason, it appeared as if the conditions were too testing for the techniques of many of the players on the pitch as poor first touches abounded and concentration sometimes seemed to wander.
City gave Joel Bagan a rest as Ronan Kpakio replaced him at left back and Callum Robinson came in to lead the line as Omari Kellyman, one of the few who was able to maintain his normal skill set even if he was guilty of surrendering possession carelessly at times, dropping into the number ten role at the expense of Joel Colwill.
The Kpakio/Chris Willock combination on the left never really got off the ground as their unfamiliarity with each other’s game showed. In saying that, neither of them were helped by a City start which had me thinking that I should be yelling “wakey, wakey!” at the TV screen.
City just couldn’t settle as Burton pressed them back with a series of long throw ins by Alex Hartridge troubling them. Such was Burton’s dominance early on it was no surprise to see them take the lead on eleven minutes as Hartridge’s throw caused confusion, but it would not have resulted in a goal were it not for Kellyman’s swing at the ball as he was getting up from being knocked over which served to tee up Jake Beesley who finished really well with a hooked shot from ten yards past Trott.
Sensing they could perhaps build up a winning lead before City shook themselves out of their lethargy, the home team pressed forward, but they were unable to create that chance to double their lead.
Gradually, City began to get their bearings somewhat and, although never playing well by this season’s standards, they went on to have the better of the last twenty minutes of the first half.
The fact that our front players hadn’t really got their act together was shown by how it was defenders who came closest to finding an equaliser for us before the break. Perry Ng was involved in two of the three incidents when we may have scored. The first came when he went down under a challenge by Dylan Williams for what looked on first viewing to be a stone wall penalty, but referee Martin Coy, who let an awful lot of dodgy tackles go unpunished, waved play on (for me, subsequent replays of the incident only muddied the water to the extent that I still can’t make my mind up as to whether the ref got it right or not).
Shortly afterwards, Ng delivered a wicked low cross which goalkeeper Brad Collins dived to down around the post only for Mr Coy to give a goal kick. Then it was the turn of Calum Chambers as his twenty five yard volley was tipped away by Collins for the only on target effort of the game which did not result of a goal.
With Kpakio having been booked in the opening exchanges, it was no great surprise to see Bagan’s rest last no more than forty five minutes as he was brought on for the teenager. The substitution added to BBM’s Midas touch reputation as we came up with an equaliser less than a minute after the restart, but Bagan had nothing to do with it as it was a goal created down our right. Before that though, we needed one of those careless losses of possession by the home side as the ball was presented to Ollie Tanner who found Ng and his low cross was swept into the net on the half volley by Alex Robertson from around the penalty spot. However, with Robinson stood directly in front of Collins in what looked like an offside position, it was a goal which might have been ruled out by VAR if we had been cursed by its presence.
For a while after that, City looked more like their usual selves as there were occasional passages of play of a quality which Burton were incapable of matching, but, they were only fleeting and so tended to add to my sense of frustration.
Nevertheless, City were now looking the more likely winners and just past the hour mark, they appeared to be on their way to the three points thanks to a second Robertson goal. Before that though, it needed one of those unforced errors which the game was never able to shake off. Collins dived to turn Willock’s shot around the post, but, rightly, Chambers’ first half effort remained the match’s only on target non scoring effort because this one was going a foot or more wide.
City took the resultant corner short and when the cross came in a home defender could only play the ball into the path of Robertson, who had taken the corner, and he drove his amgled shot through Collins’ legs from ten yards.
Having got in front, you’d expect a top of the table side to go on to beat a team which finds themselves in the bottom four tonight, but we never looked convincing as, far more than normal, we were losing possession in dangerous positions rtoo. close to our goal.
Eight minutes from time Will Fish, who otherwise was one of our better players, gave away a cheap free kick at the corner of our penalty area and Burton took maximum advantage with a goal that owed a great deal to luck as George Evans’ shot took a deflection off the wall which sent the ball high into the air to drop perfectly for Kyran Lofthouse who had the easy task of netting from close range.
Seven minutes of added time should have produced a winner when Chambers, not at his best today, missed what looked like a straightforward long ball to leave Beesley well clear of the last defender with a forty yard run in on goal. However Burton’s in form striker didn’t have the pace, or probably the stamina, to take full advantage and ended up passing to sub Tyrese Shade who shot wide as City defenders frantically raced back to cover.
There was still time for sub Cian Ashford to knock a low ball across the home goal into an area where the absent Yousef Salech would probably find himself, but there was no blue shirt close enough to apply the finishing touch for what would have been a simple goal and so we ended up with a point which, to be fair, was all we deserved as a defeat would have been harsh on Burton.
A mixed set of results for the age group teams this weekend. The under 21s could have few complaints about their 2-0 loss to Coventry at Leckwith last night – they were a little unlucky to be behind at half time after conceding in just three minutes, but when Coventry scored a second early in the second period, City had little in the way of a response.
Incidentally, a big thank you to City website match commentator John Donovan for his kind words about this blog although I was going to take him to task for calling me The old Bob Wilson, but as I’m going to be leaving my sixties behind for ever in the coming week, I suppose he had a point!
To balance things up, the under 18s had a big win this lunchtime at the same venue as goals by Moreno, Sykes, Phelan, Prickett and Norris gave them a 5-0 win over Colchester.
Locally, Treorchy Boys and Girls were beaten 3-1 at home by Pentyrch Rangers Seniors in the Highadmit Division One East on a weekend where most of the games in the south Wales area fell victim to the wet weather.
Footnote:
Having slept on it, reading what I said about the Burton game this morning makes me wonder whether I’m being overly critical of the team. After all, we’re top of the league with about a third of the season to play and we’re unbeaten in nine games. However, what I wrote reflects how I felt in the immediate aftermath of the game and, on balance, I stick by what I say – we slipped some way below the standards we’ve set for ourselves in the last three months or so yesterday. Credit to Burton for their part in that, but we’ve not played that well in any of our three away draws in 2026 and yesterday we were worse than we were at Wycombe and Leyton Orient.
Fine report, Paul. You covered just about everything.
Your comments on the quality of the pitch are well taken… but I seem to recall Argyle winning 4-0 on it earlier in the season.
As for Nathan Trott’s kicking: he needs to practise putting balls on a sixpence 60 yards away. Jak could do it.
And…
Talking of ex-players… Callum Paterson was always a favourite of mine, and he was here in Grimsby yesterday. Have you noticed how he has been in the goals recently… ? Even getting a hat-trick a week or two back.
And as for yesterday’s games: I watched on Sky the Port outclassed at The Mem, and saw two fabulous goals on his debut by Rovers’ loanee from Spurs, 18 year old Yusuf Akhamrich. He is a London boy of Moroccan parents, and he was a different class to all the 21 other players on the pitch. And trust me when I say that it is really not the ‘Moroccan’ thing that makes me see him as a near total throwback to the magical Adel Taarabt… yes he is THAT good. How come Steve Evans had first dibs on him… and not BBM? Just EIGHTEEN… he made me purr with delight.
Before signing off… a word on Murphys Law morphing now into ‘Woosnams Law’
Am I red-faced that just a day after saying Robertson would get nowhere near my first choice midfield , he goes and scores a brace (albeit as you rightly say, one probably offside)… and thus ended the game with triple the number of EFL goals for the season, than he started the game with…!!?
No, I am not remotely embarrassed… indeed as I named my ideal first team, I rather sensed it would come back to bite me quickly.
So picking my team again today, I must tell you it would remain the same selection. Note that I did not totally ‘diss’ Alex… I had him as my third choice sub for the midfield… currently I have the Colwill brothers as 4th and 5th.
TTFN,
Dai.
After this game I have my usual complaint that we still fail to take advantage of possession, and although we are now more often playing as if we understand better that goals are scored when the ball is in the opposing team’s half of the field, our huge current deficiency unlike earlier seasons, is not having goal-scoring forwards who shoot and head the ball accurately. Management concentrates on signing and experimenting with defenders – WRONG!
I listened to the radio commentary for this one while doing some domestic jobs so your excellent and well balanced account was especially welcome. I am not surprised that you were complimented by the web commentator. It was also a timely reminder about web tv. As an away fan living in Cornwall I have been relying on Sky for live matches and had forgotten that 3.00 pm matches might be available. Old age perhaps? Hope it doesn’t affect you as you approach your 70s. Next year will see me hit 80 all being well. I saw my first live City match aged 8 with my dad. He took me to see the famous Stanley Mathews playing for Blackpool but I came away as a Trevor Ford fan as he scored the only goal. Hope I’ve remembered that correctly!
Happy birthday
Mike
With Mike mentioning Kernow, it gives me an opportunity to tell him that I have started the day the best way I know by watching the new episode (just dropped) of my favourite football vlog of them all… I find it such a life-enhancing watch… sharing their near delirium when Argyle took the lead at Stockport (fans next to Jack losing their balance in the celebration and literally collapsing with mirth)… and yet I find myself being comforted by the stoic way they accepted defeat via those two late Kyle Wootton goals.
Facing triumph and disaster and seeing them the Kipling way. I truly find this vlog a wonderful metaphor for life… and how to live it.
https://tinyurl.com/b3jkec3u
This wonderful unlikely band of men now have my everlasting devotion… and they ain’t all ‘Janners’… they contain at least two men who will sing ‘Trelawny’ with the tears running down their cheeks…
And God alone knows what a trick cyclist would make of it, but I find myself watching Kipper play Barker at pool… a game I have zero interest in, and indeed do not even understand its rules.
I find myself shouting at my telly to their resident savant of these modern day Chaucerian (footballing) pilgrims, ‘Speak up Sam Down* please. I cannot hear you over the general pub/football stand hubbub…’
Am I losing my mind? Expecting an answer from my telly? ChatGPT hasn’t got that far just yet… though give it time, I guess.
*if only Sam could speak as clearly as he does here on Talksport…
https://fb.watch/F0dkNztAFA/?fs=e
TTFN,
Dai.
Having just sent a post (held for moderation), it occurs to me that the Argyle vlog perfectly embodies the old Screws of The World strapline: ‘All Human Life Is There’.
For instance in this current episode, the chaps demonstrate how they use lavatory paper…!! Yet there is nothing sensationally scatological about it.
DW
Apols for that use of ‘sensationally’ just then. I meant of course ‘gratuitously’.
Simple words escape me nowadays.
DW.
Thanks for the replies everyone.
Just a few thoughts in reply to some of the matters raised. Graham, I would say that, although we had something like 60 per cent of the possession, a lot of it was not of the quality that we usually get – I think we did well to score two given the way the game panned out and I’d gently remind you that we’re League One’s top scorers again after scoring six times in our last two matches.
Dai, that Plymouth win was back in September when the Burton pitch would have been much better than it is now. I too watched the County game (well, about eighty per cent of it) on Saturday and, up to a point, I agree with you on Akhamrich, his first goal especially was a beauty, and, on that evidence, he’s too good for league Two. However, I’d rather hold fire on him for a week or two yet to see if he is influencing games as much against teams other than that appalling Newport side for whom the term “relegation side” could have been invented. I’m sorry to say that County were woeful both in terms of their footballing ability and their mentality as they appeared to have no stomach for the fight against opponents that I believe had lost their last eight home games.
Mike, having done some checking, I think you’re spot on about your first game. Here’s the details I could find about your first live City game;
11/2/56
Cardiff 1 Blackpool 0
Vearncombe, Stitfall, Sherwood, Harrington, Malloy, Baker, Walsh, Kirtley, Ford (1), Hitchens, McSeveney
Att. 36,019
That game is significant for me as well. It was played six days after I was born and was the first Football League game City played in my life. My first ever City game was not as grand as another case of Alf Sherwood having Stanley Matthews in his pocket though. It was a Welsh Cup tie against Pembroke Borough played at Ninian Park three days earlier in front of a crowd of 4,549, but, at least my debut saw us win 9-0 with Ford getting four of them, while Gerry Hitchens weighed in with a hat trick – Colin Baker and John McSeveney scored the other two.
Thanks, Paul for your report on the Burton (a) game. As I’ve still not seen any more than some clips placed on social media so just an odd point or two. In light of that your writing has been more than welcome. As you mentioned the pitch was not the best and that may have been a contributing factor to aspects of our play.
How many bookings has Kpakio got this season and needed to be substituted at half time? Maybe a rhetorical question on my behalf but it seems to me a few times. BB-M please just have him play a couple of games further up field.
How tarnished the beautiful game has become. Yes, I admit there were hard men decades ago when life and football was different. That said, I don’t condone the thuggery that went on back then. But today things are different.
In the Cardiff City game against Stockport we have seen three elbow incidents and a couple of really bad challenges on Robinson. Against Burton we saw a rash double footed lunge on Ng, where both feet were off the ground. The player was not in control of himself. Corner kicks have become so surreal with grappling and left to continue. Sometimes a ref will speak to a player or two but when the kick is retaken nothing has changed and the wrestling continues.
And I watch the VAR-Football variant in the PL. Minimal contact in the Man Utd v Fulham game and a penalty is given, later downgraded to a free kick outside the box. If that is the threshold for a foul / penalty as Arthur would say, “They owe us a million.”
Please, Mr Referee a plea for consistency and integrity for football is becoming a lottery.
Paul… thanks for reminding me that when Argyle won 4-0 at Burton the pitch was in better state.
As for Stanley Matthews at Ninian… I recall seeing him at Ninian Park on November 24th 1962… when he amazingly was 47 years of age.
DW
I should have added that when I saw him in 1962, he was not sitting in the Grandstand… but was PLAYING on the pitch. And at 47, playing very well… we could have done with Aberaman’s greatest son to come back out of retirement to nullify him.
Amazing to think he was still playing at 50: which was when he retired and went to live in Malta for nearly a quarter of a century.
It is reckoned that no one individual ever did more for British tourism to Malta than Sir Stan.
DW.