City cash in on sending off to record first Under 23 win.

Cardiff City’s Development team recorded a win to set against their 4-1 defeat at Burnley in their opening game, when they beat a Barnsley team which had to play for nearly two thirds of the game with ten men 2-0 at Leckwith yesterday lunchtime. It wasn’t particularly convincing, but, given the way last season ended and this one had begun for them, any win is welcome news.

Unusually these days, there weren’t that many trialists involved. It seemed to me at first that there were only two of them – I didn’t get a team sheet, so, sorry I don’t have their first names, but there was a right back called Riveria and a midfield player with the surname Ayite (sure it wasn’t the Fulham one!). However, I notice that the club’s website is saying that there were three trialists in the starting eleven and so I have to assume that Braydon Shaw, who has featured in most, if not all, of the matches played by the Under 23s this season (including pre season ones) is on some sort of extended trial with the club.

What is certain, is that none of Brian Murphy, Matt Connolly, Kadeem Harris and Rhys Healey are trialists and yet they all started as the City team had a stronger look to it than normal at this level. The first three named are all members of City’s twenty five man squad for the Premier League season of course, while Healey must, surely, be someone who Football League clubs will be interested in taking on loan before the end of the month. Indeed, with Steve Perryman, who followed Paul Tisdale from Exeter to MK Dons in the summer, watching, I can only imagine that Healey was the player he was looking at if it was one of our side that was interesting his new club.

I doubt very much if Perryman, or any other watching scout, will have seen much to impress them in an opening forty five minutes which only really had the one talking point. Visiting right back Louis Wardle was, rightly, booked for bringing down Harris around the half hour mark as the winger looked to go beyond him to get into an area where a goal would have been likely and he could have few complaints a few minutes before half time when he was received a second caution after ploughing into City captain Ciaron Brown some thirty yards from the home goal.

It was Healey who came as close as anyone to breaking the dull deadlock in the first half as his hooked effort from around the penalty spot flew just over, but, from a City perspective at least, the overriding feeling I had at half time was that, rather like the first team on a bad day last season, they very rarely had what I would call controlled possession.

It seemed to me that changes made to accommodate Connolly’s inclusion at centreback did not help on that score as Paul McKay was moved from that position into a sort of holding midfield role which left Ayite to cover an awful lot of ground in the middle of the park.

Hardly surprisingly, the trialist had been unable to make much of an impact and it wasn’t too much of a shock to see him withdrawn at the interval along with Shaw (who had been very quiet) as Jamie Veale and Jacob Evans (another one who could be on the sort of extended trial that Shaw appears to be on) replaced them to stiffen up the midfield.

Whether it was the introduction of those two or City’s one man advantage which was responsible is hard to tell for sure (the truth is probably it was down to both of these things to some degree), but, without doing a great deal to suggest a goal was coming, City began the second half by putting the Barnsley goal under more pressure, with Paul McKay not far away with a shot from the edge of the area.

Barnsley were being forced to do more defending as a consequence of City finally having some of that controlled possession I mentioned earlier, but it was still something of a surprise when they broke the deadlock just after the hour mark when visiting keeper Greatorex made a good save to deny Jack McKay, only for goal poacher Healey to be there to slot home the loose ball from close in.

To their credit, Barnsley pushed forward quite strongly as they sought an equaliser, but, in truth, they never really suggested they had a goal in them and it was City substitute Ibrahim Meite (back after a “prolonged” injury according to the club website) who wasted a decent chance when he failed to control while free in front of goal.

However, the striker, who had replaced Jack McKay shortly after Healey’s goal, provided the most exciting piece of play in the game as it approached the ninety minute mark when he drove beyond a defender and fired home an unstoppable angled shot into the roof of the net.

Veale, who had brought some order to City’s midfield where there had previously been none, almost got a third with an effort from distance which was denied by the save of the match by Greatorex, but 3-0 would have been harsh on a Barnsley outfit which could have been forgiven for wondering how things would have ended up if it had been eleven against eleven throughout.

One last thing I should mention is that this game was originally advertised on the club website as a seven o clock kick off to be played at Cardiff City Stadium and the change of venue and kick off time was only revealed over the weekend. Indeed, I was told at the match, that all Development team matches this season are going to be played at Leckwith now with lunchtime/afternoon kick offs and looking at the fixture list on the club website this morning, it confirms that this is the case as far as the venue is concerned. There are still three matches showing seven o clock kick off times, but, although there are lights at the Athletics Stadium (games have only been played on the pitch nearby which runs alongside Leckwith Road so far this season), I’m not sure they are powerful enough to be used for matches at this level – all other kick off times are between midday and two o clock and I think there has to be a chance that those three others will follow suit.