Chasing pack pass up another chance offered to them by misfiring Cardiff City.

One Response to Chasing pack pass up another chance offered to them by misfiring Cardiff City.

1. Dai Woosnam says:

   March 22, 2026 at 1:41 pm

   Paul, compadre,
   I write this with the Tyne-Wear derby about to kick off. So apols if any lack of logic on my part suggests ‘one eye on the football’.

   Many thanks as ever. You make your usual eloquent case in defence of BBM: I will now make my usual (predictable?) case for the prosecution… for I sometimes think we look at different games.

   But first, as I reckon we should all do, let us look at areas of broad agreement. From the minutiae of yesterday’s game, I concur with your opinion that we may have to pressgang someone to switch position to target man… but like you, cannot see an obvious candidate.

   Callum Robinson has been running on empty for quite some time now: to me, his clearly warm personal relationship with his manager is what seems to have kept him in the mix. A more ruthless Vincent should have leant on BBM to transfer him out, for he does not possess the skills necessary to solely lead a BBM attack*… and even as front part of my beloved 4-4-2 formation, is caught offside too often to justify selection. (It is not so much that he is too lazy as to look where the last defender is, as he genuinely seems to think such a technicality is beneath him.)

   Yes, I know his modest totals (boosted by the occasionally unconvincingly taken penalty) topped our individual goal scoring tally records before Salech arrived: but what does that say about the others?

   [Oh my gawd… let me break-off. Dr Charles Hughes is turning in his grave: YCNMIU** Pepitis has so poisoned British football. Of all the daft things to do, in a bear-pit like St James Park on derby day, what is the one thing the Makems needed to ensure they did not do? Yes, you got it in one. Stupidly invite extra pressure in what is already a pressure cooker that has blown its lid. Yet, in the opening 8 minutes, Sunderland have given away a nightmare kamikaze ‘playing out from the back’ goal… when will football teams ever learn?]

   Now to our areas of possible differing views…

   Did you see that ridiculous attempt from Robertson to make that easy shooting opportunity presented him by Ashford into a return pass one-two, by bizarrely passing it back from whence it came?

   Not a good game for Robertson, his corners were even worse than those of the desperately below-par Tanner.

   In fact, no outfield player in blue had a good game… except perhaps Joel Bagan. NG should be fined for his insane ‘reaction foul’ after not getting a free kick decision in his favour just 20 seconds before. That boy has a permanent hernia in his brain.

   Then, just before half time Wintle is running forward with the ball fairly centrally and with more space to run into, is about 28 yards from goal, when inexplicably he passes the ball forward instead of ‘unleashing’… and the pass comes to nothing. In the second half, he at least let one fly… alas wide of the mark… and Will Fish poor boy was all over the place with his long range shooting… but at least they were proper attempts at long range shooting. Like you say, The Seasiders’ keeper even had to make 3 fairly routine saves… the last being the best, though Wintle’s header had no real force. But also like you say Paul, there were none to match the spectacular save from Trott that denied Josh Bowler, who was otherwise quiet, because he was well contained by our best player Bagan.

   One hopes that Scanlon is not regretting his decision to ‘do the Ayatollah’ with us, and not get a loan to a club where he could be used more. When the loan was announced, I immediately thought… hardly a pressing need… Bagan has been our best player this season, even more so than pre-injury Salech. What was desideratum was a Salech 65 minute replacement… or compadre in a 4-4-2… which I know has no chance of happening under the BBM/Riley regime: to them that triple number arrangement screams out ‘devil worship’ more than 666 even…!!)

   But of course I get it, big strikers are as scarce as hens’ teeth… whereas good attacking wing backs available on loan are almost commonplace… the best two we have had in recent times I reckon were Alfie Doughty and Cody Drameh.

   All the more reason if we cannot get effective strikers on loan, that we consider ‘thinking outside the square’ and try to shoehorn in one of our defenders as a target man.

   Oh for 7 or 8 years ago when we were blessed with some decent proper centre backs… and those were the days when I joined our esteemed fellow MAYA scribe AMO (Anthony Mor O’Brien) in his clarion call for Sean Morrison to lead our attack. We have alas nobody now that obviously fits the bill.

   But I note our new second string goalie is a bit of a giant who apparently kicks very well, and since he is not being deemed necessary for the subs’ bench, could he not have been tried out in training down at The Vale? (Eh… am I on to something there? I mean lots of people have started out as goalkeepers and gone on to greater things… Charles Puyol is one that springs to mind, and in a more modest way Josh Magennis, our substitute goalie on the bench against Liverpool at Anfield in October 2007, went on via Neil Ardley’s persuasion to become a prolific striker in the lower divisions.)

   But back to our current ‘custodian’…Trott should be congratulated by the way he dashed out to put off Bloxham sufficiently for him to thus miss the goal by a whisker in the move of the game: and oh, that sublime pass from Fletcher showed an attacking wit that no boy in blue had a hope in hell of emulating.

   78% possession… God help us. It was all I could do to stay awake. If, as the saying goes ‘possession is nine tenths of the law’, well all I can do is respond with another old saw, viz… then ‘the law is an ass’. Oh for those days when we had much less possession than our opponents… I never thought I would ever hanker for Warnockball, but I do. Play this absurd way next season in the Championship, and before they know it, we’ll be struggling at the bottom.

   Fish square to Lawlor… then Lawlor returns it square to Fish… then back square to Lawlor. Yawn, yawn. And in the meantime, we have progressed not one single yard.

   I am reminded of that inspired Gary Neville commentary: ‘Where do you want your statue, Vincent Kompany?’

   No statues coming our way methinks whilst BBM is our tactical genius… with his plans that run the full gamut of Plan A to… Plan A. But maybe, future stonemasons could INDEED have a part to play…

   So let me explain what I mean… by relating this anecdote …

   I am reminded of once selling wine in Gedling… about 7 miles from Trent Bridge. Gedling is where two great early Test cricketers are buried in All Hallows churchyard: close friends one (Alfred Shaw) a famous bowler, the other (Arthur Shrewsbury) a batsman who WG Grace once said was the perfect choice to join him to open an innings.

   And most touchingly, they are deliberately buried – bowler and batsman – exactly the length of a cricket wicket apart: 22 yards… so one can bowl to the other in spirit.

   Well, when their time comes, can I beg Messrs Fish and Lawlor NOT to slavishly follow Dr William Price and get themselves burned, but instead choose to lie in St Augustine’s churchyard in Penarth with its imperious nonpareil position high up on the headland, and its ‘to die for’*** grand vista of Cardiff Bay… There they will join a hero of mine: the great Joseph Parry.

   But here is the rub: lay them to rest a similar 22 yards apart, but unlike the Notts duo, our two Bluebirds must be EXACTLY square to each other. Put one forward of the other, and the gravediggers will be taking liberties with footballing history.

   *nor does Isaak Davies. And incidentally, do you reckon he has a bit of an injury jinx about him, like Kion Etete? (Neither players’ fault… just an unfortunate freakish fact of life?)

   **= You Could Not Make It Up… (even if you tried’…!!)

   ***pun totally intentional.

   TTFN,
   Dai.