When a team has been playing as badly as Cardiff City have been doing lately, the likelihood was always that they would start to come out of their slump with a scruffy draw or win in which their performance was no better than it had been in the games where a goal or even an on target shot would be a cause for celebration.
That’s what happened today when City, comfortably second best to Sheffield Wednesday for seventy plus minutes, scored two late goals with an element of fortune to them to leave the home crowd believing their team had been mugged and, although there were things to admire about City’s play in that last twenty minutes or so, I must say that we used up a fair portion of our luck for the season today. City really should have been more than a goal down when our fight back began.
I realise that I’m somewhat getting ahead of myself by hinting that we’ve turned some kind of corner today. A fortnight ago, we beat Millwall 1-0 and it was interesting to hear Erol Bulut select our game at Hull last weekend as the only one we’d been truly outplayed in this season, but then go on to mention that there was a lot wrong with our performance against Millwall despite the result.
I agree with our manager there, if Hull was our worst game of this season, and I think it probably was, Millwall was our second worst. So, there was a game where we got the win, but we gained nothing in terms of momentum from it – we were playing poorly going into the match and despite three points that all but propelled us into the top six, we carried on playing poorly after it.
Therefore, it certainly doesn’t automatically follow that it will be all sweetness and light from now on. For a start, we have an awful recent record on Boxing Day and the sort of start to a game that we’ve become all too used to on Tuesday will see the feelgood factor engendered by today’s result soon drain away.
However, there is something to note here about what’s happened in the last fortnight while we’ve been stinking the place out with our last four performances. Daft as it might seem to any City fan that has had to suffer that quartet of matches, we have taken six points out of a possible twelve from them!
Therefore, another way of looking at the last fortnight is to think that any team that breaks even in a four game run while playing so badly has to have something going for them and so, while, as a lifelong City fan, it would be nice now and again to put good things down to my team’s style and flair, rather than grit and determination, the truth is you do need those two more prosaic qualities to achieve anything in the professional game and we’ve proved that we don’t lack for those qualities at least by beating Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday.
Having got that preamble out of the way, I’ll now say that we were a pretty depressing watch today.. Erol Bulut said in his pre game media briefing that a clear the air type meeting had been held on Monday and I can only imagine that there were a few home truths outlined and plenty of straight talking to go with it.
The intention of such a gathering would be that a reset of sorts could be implemented and that a return to the sort of form which marked the first fifteen or so games of our season could be brought about.
Erol Bulut’s selection was not a surprise, he was helped by the return of Joe Ralls and Ryan Wintle after our down to the bare bones midfield last week (the former was able to play the whole game, while the latter had to be content with a place on the bench). Josh Bowler came in, as did Callum Robinson as the manager opted for experience.
For about ten minutes the match shaped quite promisingly for City as they were able to push the home side back as we managed to retain the ball further up the pitch than had been the case recently.
Any optimism soon faded though, Wednesday have been the division’s whipping boys for much of the season with pundits, bloggers and podcasts tearing into them because of their idiotic ownership- I heard it said on quite a few occasions that Wednesday were on their way to the lowest points total by any team in the history of the modern day Championship.
However, under their new German manager Danny Rohl, Wednesday followed up an eye catching 1-1 draw with table toppers Leicester with a 3-1 win over Blackburn, a 1-0 win at Stoke and a 2-1 victory over QPR with the last two being huge results if they were to have a chance of escaping the drop. There was a 3-1 defeat at Norwich in amongst the victories, but ten points out of fifteen is a great outcome for sides in the sort of position Wednesday are in and it was no surprise to see all of the prediction podcasts I watch on You Tube going for a home win today.
The predictions looked on the mark once Wednesday got going – they weren’t anything special, but they were physical and committed (they also had the talented Barry Bannan in their midfield) and, notwithstanding my earlier remarks on grit and determination, there were one or two in our starting line up who were too diffident for my liking.
Wednesday were not looking like they were capable of taking us apart like Hull did, but they were better than us – we were in the same how can we try to score when we’re not able to pass the ball to each other frame of mind. Even with our first choice midfield pairing of Ralls and Siopis, we could not get beyond those two players with our attempts to build from the back.
As has become the norm lately, our forwards were left to survive on scraps, but I also must say that they were shamed by the problems the teenager Bailey Cadamartari caused our defenders with his mobility and pace.
As has been the case recently, it was our defenders who were our best performers, but two of our most reliable players would not have been too happy with their parts in the goal which put Wednesday ahead on twenty eight minutes. Modern day defenders are told to stay on their feet as much as they can, but Perry Ng went to ground to try and intercept a pass by Marvin Johnson which reached Anthony Musaba who easily stepped inside Dimitrios Goutas’ sliding tackle to blast high past Jak Alnwick from ten yards.
Apparently, City had two first half goal attempts – one was a thirty yarder from Mark McGuinness that almost cleared the Kop end roof, I can’t remember the other one, but it wasn’t on target.
In truth, City were not really interested in getting up to the other end of the pitch for the rest of the first half because all of their attention was on keeping the buoyant home team out as the corners and long throws they had to defend mounted.
City got to half time just the one down, but when the first ten minutes after the break did not see a change in the balance of the game, Bulut made two changes which sowed the seeds of our unlikely revival. Callum Robinson is our best all round attacking player in Aaron Ramsey’s absence, but, again, he was a peripheral performer this afternoon and his withdrawal was not a surprise. On the other hand, seeing Manolis Siopis (very much Bulut’s man) go off was a shock, but it wasn’t a decision I could argue with given how the Greek international was playing.
In their places came Wintle and Ollie Tanner, but it was when Kion Etete came on for the ineffective Bowler that the balance of power began to shift a little.
Etete went up front as Yakou Meite moved out to the right with Tanner on the left and, for the first time this season, Karlan Grant moved from the left to play in the number ten role.
I think of number tens as inventive, creative players and Grant isn’t really that, but his mobility and stamina gave those behind him a target to aim for in the closing minutes.
Etete improved things as well, I think he’s got it in him to be a good centre forward at this level, but he’s a frustrating performer in that he can come off the bench in home games in particular and do very little, here though he looked up for it from the start and the home defence found him a tougher opponent to control than Meite had been.
However, it was Wintle who kick started the game’s transformation. Wintle has had it tough lately as he has got some stick for not being able to fill Ramsey’s boots as a number ten when he’s someone whose strengths lie elsewhere. Today though, he helped things along by simply passing the ball accurately and sympathetically to another claret shirted player.
Wintle got us playing a bit, but, before that Alnwick, with saves from Cadamartari and Johnson, kept us in the game.
On seventy four minutes the match’s second goal arrived and, although we were having a bit more of the ball, it was a real shock to see City score it. It’s something of an indictment of our squad that two of the best and most perceptive passers in it are the couple of players we got from fourth tier Crewe. Here Ng came up with pass slid through to Grant who had made a run in the inside right channel, it was no surprise to see Grant shoot from that position, but it was to see the ball nestle in the corner. Something didn’t quite look right until replays showed a slight deflection that turned a shot which looked to be going just wide into a goal.
Grant then saw a well struck volley from twenty yards blocked in a crowded penalty area, but Wednesday came much closer to taking the lead when the flag stayed down as Cadamartari cut in from the left and Alnwick made the save of the game to deny him.
The winning goal arrived in the eighty eighth minute as Tanner was given the ball in the sort of position he was causing havoc from earlier in the season before he became a defender. Rather than take on the full back as he once did, Tanner shot early from the edge of the area, it was not that well struck, but, once again, there was a slight deflection on it which may have caused home keeper Cameron Dawson to fumble in an unexpected manner, Etete was on to the rebound and knocked the ball towards goal from where it bobbled into the net off defender Akin Famewo – I see the BBC website is giving it as an own goal, but I’m sure Etete will say it was his.
City were never going to see the game out easily given how things had gone through the previous eighty odd minutes and Alnwick, Goutas and McGuinness, with some help from Etete, dealt with an aerial barrage of free kicks in the seven minutes of added time as well as two big penalty shouts arising from sub Ashley Fletcher going to ground with City defenders close by.
Ref Samuel Barrett had been a homer all afternoon, but he waved play on both times and so earned the wrath of the home crowd – for my part, I thought the first one may have been a foul by Goutas even if Fletcher ’still was overly dramatic with his fall, while the second, involving McGuinness, was a pretty obvious dive.
City reach Christmas and the halfway point of the season still only three points off sixth place and will be thinking that something like four points from our three remaining holiday games will take us into the January window with a chance of a top six finish even if our last four performances make that notion seem laughable.
I’ll finish by wishing all readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas.
If you listen to the post-match interviews of Sheffield Wednesday’s coach Danny Rohl, and Blackburn boss Jon Dahl Tomasson, they are almost identical. Both teams were playing at home and dominated their opponents (Cardiff and Watford respectively) for at least 70 minutes, but only scored one goal, despite their domination. Completely against the run of play, both opponents scored an equaliser, and went on to score a late winner, leaving the losing managers wondering how what had happened had happened!
Erol Bulut is not the only person to say that many games are decided by small details. On 73 minutes yesterday, Sheff Wed made a substitution, replacing goalscorer Musaba. I heard one analyst say that as well as scoring a great goal, Musaba had also done a good job of tracking back against Karlan Grant for much of the game.
Within a couple of minutes of him being replaced, Grant gets free in the opponents area, with no-one tracking him, and puts in one of those fantastic cross/shots behind the defenders, whose instinct is to stick a foot out, and as sometimes happens, help steer the cross beyond their own keeper into the net.
I also heard Kevin Ratcliffe say post-match that he thought our three second half subs had made a big difference. Until then he thought Cardiff didn’t look up for the challenge, and seemed more focussed on Xmas.
So it seemed a justification that two of our subs (Tanner and Etete) were directly involved in the build-up to the winner.
Admittedly we had our share of luck, with Wednesday missing two glorious chances to score in the final minutes. Our luck may have extended to the penalty shouts, although on replay I don’t think either of them were. You could say Macca was unlucky to be booked for asking the ref why Fletcher wasn’t booked for a blatant dive for the second penalty appeal, but he should know that suggesting another player should be booked, is itself a yellow card offence for unsporting behaviour.
I’m hoping the win will give us some confidence for Boxing Day, although I have no expectations.
I was pleased to see Bulut admit he tried Grant as a number 10 in the second half, despite him not playing that position in training, but Bulut tried the switch knowing he’s played there at previous clubs. At least he’s prepared to try something different to turn a match around, and this time it certainly worked!
I always say that there is no such thing as a bad win by Cardiff City.Its just that some wins are better than others.
What concerns me more than Saturday’s performance is Bulut’s post match interview in which he seemed to be suggesting that the team meeting after losing to Hull had ironed out some faults and as a result we deserved to beat Sheffield Wednesday
I hope that he doesn’t really think that and instead he knows that something much better is needed against Plymouth.
Will he reflect on our improvement after the substitutions and will it perhaps occur to him that someone like Tanner should be encouraged to concentrate on what he is naturally good at rather than worry about what might happen if he makes a mistake?
Will he perhaps think that we should start by pressing Plymouth and trying to win the ball off them in their own half?
Or will he play our usual tactic of allowing the opponents to settle into the game as long as we keep or defensive shape.?
This worked OK for us early in the season but is looking outdated now
The following was posted by Dai Woosnam on Christmas Eve, but, for reasons I don’t understand, was never received by the WordPress software I use to publish the blog – there has been an intermittent problem which means that I have to manually approve some of the Feedback I receive, but this is different, there is nothing to indicate that Dai’s message was ever sent. Therefore, if anyone else sends replies that are not appearing on here, can you let me know by e-mail please at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com
“Thanks Paul, for your usual detailed account of the proceedings. I reckon that one of Bulut’s inner circle has read your recent criticism of the slow build up, i.e. the passing square and back… and imparted your views to his boss… because I found the full 90 minutes bizarrely refreshing in that we made real efforts to ATTACK.
Yes, you are right, the Owls were the better side in terms of performance, but we got our two goals from speculative shots (the deflection from the first deceiving their keeper, and the keeper himself making a hash of what should have been a routine save from Tanner). And do you know what sprung to my mind? The great wisdom of Vincent Tan, when we were struggling in the EPL in early 2014.
I recall him advising our Norwegian manager to get the team to ‘shoot more’. This advice was met with derision from the ‘Tan out!’ traitors. But it struck me as eminently sensible… and if you wanted proof, well you got it yesterday.
For as you say Paul, we were outshone by a Wednesday team, who had the two players of the match in the always exquisite Bannan, and the young revelation Cadamarteri (a future superstar?)
Indeed the whole team look useful to me: now they have a manager who can get a song out of them, they will easily pull clear of the relegation mix by mid March. And they may be due a good run in the FA Cup… we will need to play even better against them in a few days if we are to triumph.
In the past, when visiting Hillsborough in person, I have always been struck by how big a club Wednesday are, and how in recent years our ‘rejects’ like Paterson, Vaulks, Flint
and Kadeem Harris have upped their game playing for them. (Yesterday for instance it was amazing to see my favourite City player, Mark McGuinness, on one occasion completely hoodwinked by Pato on the edge of our box.)
No, this Wednesday team are no mugs… as was shown by their recent draw with the Championship’s surely nailed-on champions, Leicester.
So our dear Cardiff City should be chuffed at their victory. And just to get the record straight, Samuel Barrott (note the curious spelling) was no ‘homer’. I have watched this young man referee games on Sky, and have been taken by his unwillingness to bow to the roar of the home crowd. And I noted that yesterday he booked three Wednesday men to our two, and even accidentally intercepted two Wednesday passes… much to the OTT irritation of the Wednesday players…!! As for our two bookings, they were both justified: Ng for his wild tackle, and Macca for calling for a yellow card for Fletcher’s clear dive. (Though you rightly say Paul, we’d got away with one, just a minute or two before, when Fletcher dived theatrically after being clearly fouled by Goutas who foolishly tugged on his shirt.) Mr Barrott’s decision not to be a homer, made him give City the benefit of the doubt there. Thank heavens. But though Fletcher made a meal of things, it was still a penalty, and a Barrott mistake… as you rightly infer.
So the 30 year old is far from a top referee yet… but his willingness to incur the wrath of the mob, is a promising sign.
Would Rebecca Welch have penalised that Goutas foul? I believe she would. A month or so back I wrote on MAYA that having seen her referee several WSL games down the years, I sensed she was our Stéphanie Frappart, and yesterday she was universally praised for debut in the EPL.
City had two players who clearly underperformed yesterday – Robinson and Siopsis – and they were duly substituted by Mr. Bulut at the 55 minute mark.
And talking of timings… here are the key timings for our MotM… 16, 31, 48, 65, 70, 80th minutes. Jak, what a keeper you are…!!
In the first two instances, the commentators on the City feed drooled over his fantastic long passes… and pointed out that these were light years away from hopeful punts. What a fantastic specialist with his feet he is: but he is even greater with his hands. Compare that vital save in the second half with Alsopp’s failure to deal with a similar almost identical low shot the previous night.
Jak was badly treated by the club last season, and has not had the best of treatment this season either. What’s the betting that Runnarsson will be in for the Hillsborough cup game?
TTFN,
Dai.”
Thanks for your replies concerning the Sheffield Wednesday match. Blue Bayou, you make some great points. like you, I was surprised at Musaba’s substitution, besides his goal, he was an effective performer for Wednesday and physical with it, witness his nasty challenge on Ng. Regarding the substitutions, Erol Bulut is getting sick for his substitutions in the Plymouth game yesterday and I reckon that, to an extent, they are justified, but I’d still say that, overall, he’s done well with his substitutions since arriving here – no manager is going to get it right every time, but Bulut is still in credit on this part of his job as far as I’m concerned. Grant to number ten didn’t really work yesterday, but it’s worth persevering with I’d say even if it was an odd decision to take Colwill off unless he was injured.
Mike, I thought we played better yesterday, but we didn’t really do any of the things you talked about – we pushed Plymouth back a bit early on, but we hardly flew out of the traps and any high pressing we did was very selective. I agree with you about the team meeting, it was having no effect whatsoever at Sheffield before we scored and I’d definitely need more convincing of it’s effectiveness than twenty odd minutes where we did a bit better in a match where we’d been largely outplayed. Yesterday was better in my view, but as I hope I make clear in my piece on he game, hardly perfect.
Dai, I’m a lot less convinced about Sheffield Wednesday than you, any team that contrives o lose a match they were bossing for seventy five per cent of the time has a problem and the second goal in particular had more to do with poor goalkeeping and defending than anything we did in an attacking sense. As for the ref, I thought he consistently favoured Wednesday right up until those two late penalty shouts when I fully expected him to point to the spot for the first one. As for Rebecca Welch, I’m glad that her big day appears to have gone well for her, maybe her poor showing at our home game with Norwich last month was a rare bad day at the office for her, but, based on that afternoon, she looked a long way short of Premier League standard.