Decent point, but careless Cardiff find a way not to win again.

2 Responses to Decent point, but careless Cardiff find a way not to win again.

1. Blue Bayou says:

   February 23, 2025 at 12:44 pm

   Thanks for another excellent report Paul.
   My main complaint with the red card was that the ref was miles away from the incident, so he must have best-guessed what he saw, regarding contact with player/ball by Goutas.
   I can accept making a best guess for a foul. especially as Mumba was goal side of Goutas, who then stretched a leg out, but the ref should be sure before issuing a red card imo, and there’s no way I believe he can be sure from the distance he was away.
   I believe his decision was likely swayed by the noisy home support.
   Without Goutas, Plymouth were getting more joy from hoisting high balls into our box, so I feared worse was to come when Bagan also had to leave the field just after the hour mark.
   However, after the equaliser some of the energy went out of the game.
   Not surprisingly we did our best to slow and disrupt the game, and whether Plymouth were tiring following their game against Luton in midweek, or whether we got more solid at the back (I think Meite is pretty good at defending in the air against set-plays), I felt it was likely we’d prevent Plymouth from scoring again, even with Alnwick barely able to move for the last 10 minutes or so.
   What this means for our team for the critical game against Hull, who had another impressive away win against Sunderland though, is worrying.
   Omer has already said that Ramsey can’t play Saturday/Tuesday, so if you add his absence to Goutas, Bagan, Alnwick and possibly NG, on top of those you’ve already mentioned, then it’s already looking like players like Luey Giles, who was probably ear-marked to start against Villa, may have to start against Hull instead.
   Wins are essential now. We’ve seen how Portsmouth have propelled themselves six points ahead of us after 3 wins on the spin.
   On the other hand Derby have lost 9 and drawn 2 of their last 11 games, and Luton are not much better having lost 8 and drawn 3.
   We’ve won 3, lost 2 and drawn 6 of our last 11 games, so on current form it looks like Luton and Derby going down, with one of us, Hull or Plymouth likely to join them.
   So it depends which of the three of us can string a decent run of results together, and at the moment I’m no more confident that it will be us over the other two!
2. Dai Woosnam says:

   February 23, 2025 at 2:42 pm

   Thanks Paul as always, for your take on the game.
   I want to make a few observations.

   First the red card.
   I reckon that the Plymouth management had been in the ref’s ear as he left the pitch at half time berating him over what they saw as his excessive leniency to our bizarre (although minor) time-wasting efforts from the tenth minute onwards… and his willingness to let Rinomhota always steal yard after yard when taking throw-ins. So in the ref’s subconscious was a desire to please the locals if he could… and just a few minutes into the second half came the ref’s big chance.

   So then here we have arrived at the fateful red card incident.

   Paul, you might be right when you say that technically he was the last man so he had to go… but my point would be that not only am I far from sure it was a red card, I reckon it was not even a yellow one. For in my eyes, this was a classic case of a ‘coming together’… and the home crowd’s influence alas being our undoing.

   Mind you, we bring it on ourselves by choosing to adopt a high line to their long clearances… when we have nobody fleet foot enough in our back line to match any speedster attacker the opposition might throw on as a sub. Goutas has definitely lost a yard or two this season.

   And as for their goal… was it not informative to see two of their men up in the box close together for a long lofted pass from the halfway line, so that one could benefit from the knockdown header of the other?

   Salech, as I predicted did a fine job, but he is left on his own all the time. Maybe on Tuesday, Davies could play just off him… so we might get such a good goal.

   As for BB’s always thoughtful comments: he’s on to something with Méïté. We all realise that the attacking threat he presented with the Royals is now strictly for the history books… but the thought occurs that maybe he is another Richard Naylor and can – in an emergency like this Tuesday coming – be converted into a decent centre back?
   … Only saying like… (before anyone starts trolling me!)… ahem… I think I’ll get my coat…!!

   Oh a PS from me…

   I remember the days in my native Porth Rhondda when the trainer of any boys team could not shout from the touchline… ‘let him know you are there Dai’… because if he did, at least six heads would turn and wonder ‘is that aimed at me?’
   So it was in those halcyon days that Dais abounded.
   The thought occurs now though that were someone in the City dugout to shout the Christian name of O’Dowda, Robinson and Chambers when they are all on the field together, similar confusion might result…!!

   But God bless you compadre in having the savvy to distinguish the spelling difference between the three men. Two of them adopt the almost ubiquitous double L of the present day, but only one – Chambers – stays loyal to the spelling of the greatest Calum of the lot.

   Kennedy was a hero of mine in my youth, and I used to sing this song as I drove 35,000 miles a year all over Britain selling wine.

   Kennedy wrote the lyrics… and his wit is evident in the opening line of the song he wrote the lyrics of… ‘Make your way to Stornoway on the road to Orinsay’.

   Stornoway is the capital of Harris and Lewis… whereas Orinsay is a spec on the map… a crofters’ settlement in the south of the island, a place where nowadays hardly anyone lives… but crucially ‘twas where Calum was born and a place he was immensely proud of.

   So whereas strictly speaking I would have said ‘Porth is on the road to Cardiff’, Calum’s pride here is saying his equivalent of ‘Cardiff is on the road to Porth’…!!

   This song is deep in my heart now… some 60 years later… and moves me to tears…

   https://tinyurl.com/ffree3ms

   TTFN,
   Dai.