Throughout my City supporting life there have been many decades where you could count the number of home matches I’ve missed on the fingers of one hand. For example, I missed one in the noughties and two in the last decade – each time due to bad health.
Well, it looks like I’m going to struggle to keep that proud record up in the twenties because today’s match with Wigan was the second one I’ve missed already in this decade after not making it to the Reading cup match as well. Ill health was again the reason for me missing that game, but today it was a combination of more car problems and doubts about whether the train service from and to Treherbert would survive the horrendous weather that made me decide discretion was the better part of valour.
As it was, unlike the Reading match, I was able to watch what has to be seen as a disappointing 2-2 draw with a side in the relegation places via a stream – not quite as good as being there of course, but not a bad substitute.
I say I saw the game, but that’s not wholly true. Virtually the first thing I saw was Wigan taking the lead in the fourth minute through Wales’ Keifer Moore which means that I missed the first of several contentious decisions by refèree John Brooks and one of his assistants.
The game was barely fifteen seconds old when Welshman Lee Evans went ploughing into Will Vaulks with a tackle which the BBC’s website describes as “dangerous” and Mr Brooks decided a yellow card for the former Newport player was sufficient punishment. As I say, I’ve not seen the incident yet so I cannot comment on the rights and wrongs of the decision, but Neil Harris talked after the match about four very big calls in the match that all went in favour of Wigan, this being the first of them.
The final one came right at the end of the added time after the ninety when former City goalkeeper David Marshall did not get much height or distance on his attempted clearance of a Marlon Pack corner delivered just under the crossbar into what former Sky summariser Andy Gray used to call a “crowd scene”. There was much contesting for the ball as it slowly dropped and Sean Morrison appeared to be the one who diverted it into the net only for the celebrations to be stifled almost before they had begun by Mr Brooks blowing for a foul on the keeper.
Now, Wigan manager Paul Cook has said that City “may have felt aggrieved” by the decision to disallow the goal and I take this as a sign that he had some sympathy for that view, but, from the moment Marshall mispunched the ball, I was expecting that City would be penalised because that’s what almost always happens when goalkeepers are the “injured party” in such incidents.
It’s not so much that I believe that the referee got the decision right, more that he did what I firmly believe nine out of ten, at least, officials would do in such a situation and so, on that decision at least, I cannot join in with the criticism he has been attracting from City fans tonight.
That said, I thought the decision to award a penalty against Curtis Nelson for handball right at the end of the first half was on the harsh side, but it seemed to me to be similar to the one Morrison gave away in the home game against Newcastle last season where he was hit on the arm as he went to ground attempting a block. Self evidently, penalties are going to be given in such situations, but I would argue that they are just as likely not to be, thereby suggesting that Nelson was unlucky today.
I would also argue that when you consider Mr Brooks’ decision not to award a penalty against Cedric Kipke when the ball hit his hand as he tried to block Albert Adomah’s shot, there was an element of inconsistency in the referee’s interpretation of what was and wasn’t handall.
Mind you, I attach hardly any blame to Mr Brooks for his decision not to award City an early penalty against Moore for a blatant tug on Morrison as they contested a Vaulks long throw just before our first equaliser. No, that was almost entirely down to the laughably poor linesman on the Grandstand side of ground who had a perfect view of the whole thing.
The linesman’s howler was not quite in the Eddie Smart against Chelsea class, but the sheer number of other dubious decisions he made (the worst being his failure to notice Lee Tomlin stood at least a yard offside in a City counter attack) put him on a par with Mr Smart, who is still, somehow, running the line in Premier League matches.
So, while I think City are entitled to feel hard by when it comes to the match officials, there were other reasons why they weren’t able to make it three wins from three against struggling teams this week.
The first one of these is that I feel Wigan were better than what you’d expect from a bottom three team. They won at Leeds in their last away match and, although their away record doesn’t reflect it, they are very competitive on the road – they just have an unfortunate habit of letting late goals in and losing matches in which they were level going into the closing minutes.
In saying that, City really should have won this game and so much of the reason why they didn’t is that they were careless at the back and not incisive or good enough in front of goal.
An example of the carelessness I mention came when, having done well at the back at Luton and Huddersfield, they fell asleep defending a corner and allowed a short one to be played to unmarked captain Sam Morsy who crossed low to the near post where Moore casually flicked home to put his team 1-0 up.
To be caught out in such a manner was not impressive in a defence which has been proven to be fallible from set pieces this season. I thought we also had chances to get the ball away in the incident which led to their half time deficit and there was something of an early season reminder in how we were susceptible to counter attacks from our opponents following our attacking set piece.
Up the other end of the pitch, there was again a contrast between the nice, incisive, football we sometimes see in away matches these days and the mainly set piece based attacking play we are still seeing in home matches.
It’s good to have Will Vaulks’ long throws available to us because they have something to them that the ones hurled in by the likes of Callum Paterson, Morrison, Lee Peltier and one or two others in the last couple of seasons do not.
I’m not sure what that something is, but in the last month or so, Vaulks long throws have resulted in more goals than the combined total of those I just mentioned in the past two years.
Today, both of our goals came from throw ins by Vaulks. For the first, Morrison got a touch on to Murphy who hooked in a neat equaliser with the confidence of someone who was on something of a good run in front of goal himself, while it was Morrison again who contested for another Vaulks throw when the ball rolled free some fifteen yards or so from goal and found its way to Pack whose shot looked to be flying just wide until left back Kai Naismith diverted the ball past Marshall with his chest for a second equaliser.
When you have an attacking weapon that is working, like Vaulks’ long throw is at the moment, it seems daft not to use it on the grounds that “it’s not playing football the right way”, but it does rather tend to highlight our lack of creativity in home matches where visiting sides sit deeper knowing that we’re not great at opening up massed defences.
It’s ironic how often you see a team struggling in away matches these days who a few weeks later are suddenly racking the wins when they have to travel. It’s happened to us since we beat Nottingham Forest in November – we have won at Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield and Luton and yet while we have finally refound our away Mojo, we now can’t win a home game!
Our home record since we beat Barnsley in early December reads played six, won one and drawn five (add the two FA Cup ties and it’s only onehome win in eight). The Reading cup match apart, we’re creating very little in open play at home lately and, with a series of games at Cardiff City Stadium coming up now against teams that are above us in the table, we are going to need to rediscover how to win at home pretty quickly.
Today was a disappointment, but, say, a draw at Luton and then a win over Wigan would definitely have supporters thinking a play off spot is on – seven points from nine is a good return in what was an important week, but I’m afraid the fine win over league leaders West Brom is proving to be nothing more than a blip in a long run of home one pointers.
Hardly surprisingly, there were no games at all played in either the Welsh League South or the Highadmit South Wales Alliance, so nothing to report when it comes to Blaenrhondda or Ton Pentre, but there was another game played at Leckwith this morning which also finished 2-2 as City’s under 18s emerged with a creditable draw with highly placed Watford after they had gone a couple of goals down – Rubin Colwill and Ryan Pritchard got our goals.
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I generally agree with you but today I have to totally disagree.
Ref was biased. End of.
I will quantify that with these examples.
1. Foul on Vaulks. I didn’t see it but if it deserved a red then so be it.
2. Murphy skips past full back on edge of box and gets pulled down. No booking. Did he stop a possible goal scoring opportunity? Yes. Was it a red? No but def a booking. Yet Vaulks pulls a shirt on half way and its yellow card.
3. The 2 hand balls for pens. Theirs given ours not.
4. Adomah in box about to pull trigger and standing foot taken. No penalty.
5. Morrison pulled down. No penalty. To blame linesman there is farcical because he was behind Moore yet ref had a clear view.
6. He was allowing them to bully us yet we touch them it was a foul. An example was Vaulks closing down in midfield was shouldered out of the way by a player who didn’t have the ball.
Adomah shouldered their giant 33 off the ball and that was a free kick.
He was clearly against us. Welsh. Kick out needs to start with their refs.
He stayed in front of the Wigan fans at end of game and appeared to be high fiving their players. Was that because he had the result he wanted.
You mention Smart still being in the prem. The only way we can stop this bias is by slaughtering these idiots in the press
It is clear they have no conscience and couldn’t care less about the paying public who want to see an honest result. Whether their team deserves it or not.
We dont want to see contrived results because a ref sees the same foul in a different way due to colour of shirt.
Thanks, Paul.
Didn’t make it to the game myself yesterday. Family commitments, again.
Two good away results then drop two poits at home to a lowly-placed side, that is so Cardiff.
Poor officiating again so it seems. Can we expect officials to be truly neutral?
I’ve seen the penalty decision (Wigan’s) three times and I haven’t manage to spot the offence, it might be my old eyes.
As you say, seven points out of nine isn’t bad but nine from nine would have been really good.
Yet another an unpredictable ref, who you never knew what he was going to give and not give.
Unfortunately it’s true that faced with a melee of players in the six-yard box, many refs tend to bottle it and play safe by blowing for a foul on the keeper, irrespective of whether he actually sees a foul or not (and he couldn’t have seen one because there wasn’t one).
I thought Bennett had a poor first half and was not at the races, allowing balls to bounce and giving the incentive to the Wigan attacker. That combined with the fact that we conceded after 5 minutes when the defence on that same side went to sleep from a corner, it was no surprise to me that Bennett was subbed at half time.
What did surprise me slightly was NH in his post-match press conference, bluntly admitting that the Bennett substitution was neither tactical nor for injury reasons, but said “I took him off because I am the manager and I make strong decisions.”
Does this mean Brad Smith will be ready to make his debut at left-back against Stoke next Saturday?
Thanks Paul. You didn’t pick a bad one to miss given atrocious weather which set in later in the day.
Don’t think we can blame that for City performance however.
In summary, although some good performances, we again lacked cutting edge.
Also think credit to Wigan who clearly weren’t the cannon fodder the South Wales media had suggested in recent days. They kept trying to play right through the match and we have seen much worse away performances from visiting teams this season. Also had a big target nan who, maybe, would have been a good purchase given our recent style of play! That seemed to be a common discussion point during and after match in the area around me in the Ninian area.
Agree red was poor having said all that and we were unlucky not to get rub of the green. But, as said, think we would have settled for 7 out of 9 in the last week. Just hoping that we have truly turned a bit of a corner and can now push on.
Good morning Paul and others – Somewhat late to the party this week with my responses, but sometimes it interesting to read the view of others before adding my five penny worth. Sorry you were not one of the 21,000 plus to witness it for real – where do they get their figures from!!
Wigan were a useful side and certainly did not look a team in the bottom three of our division. They had twice as much possession as the City and seemed to know what they wanted to do with the ball, whereas I think we were limited in our attacking approaches.
They were what others state of ourselves, very physical, and some of their challenges were quite naughty, particularly Evans first effort on Vaulks which was in front of where I sit. However we were far from innocent in the number of fouls that we conceded with both Tomlin and Patterson niggling away and being caught out ( if I were in charge I would urge both to curb their instincts when challenging for the ball).
I am not sure that we deserved to win, but that we should have had three points is undoubted for Ward’s miss was unforgivable and the goal that wasn’t at the end a decision that Mr. Brooks will want to forget pretty quickly ( as an aside, he was the referee to our defeats away at West Brom and Brentford this year ). He will want to forget some of his other non decisions also!!!
For some time now we have been susceptible to attacks from either wing, with our defenders in those positions allowing too much space and not closing down anywhere quickly enough. Bennett neither re-acted in this manner on Saturday, nor does he have Murphy coming back to support. His substitution did catch me by surprise however and I too just wonder if Smith is being lined up for a debut against Stoke. And, while I am at it, why not give Sanderson his debut as well for I am unsure of Richards although he did perform adequately at left back after half-time.
After a far from convincing performance, we are perversely closer to a play off position than at the start of the day. Are we good enough to progress to such a lofty position, not really, but in such a poor Championship season, it is still possible. I think the next three games will tell us everything.
Morning everyone, plenty to consider in the normal high quality replies. Pr, I don’t feel as strongly about the ref as you, but that’s not to say I don’t think he was poor. For a start, I mentioned he was inconsistent in his handling of the handball penalty decisions and a penalty was not given early on for a blatant foul on Morrison (I take your point that just because, in my opinion, that was a much easier decision for the linesman to see than the ref, it doesn’t mean that the ref should be seen as blameless) – he also made quite a few weird decisions for incidents which happened between the two penalty areas. However, my point was that Wigan’s penalty would have been given by as many refs as would have turned it down – I think it was on the harsh side, but it was an arguable decision. As for the disallowed goal, I’m a bit too young to remember the days when players could shoulder charge goalkeepers over the line and a goal be given Nat Lofthouse style, but I have always felt that they are over protected. I’ve just watched it a few more times and would say two things – first, I think City fans would be up in arms if it had been Smithies, not Marshall, involved and Wigan had gained a 3-2 win through the goal being given and also, given what players are still allowed to get away with as they wrestle with attackers when defending a corner, it is hard to justify the decision to disallow the goal. However, I stick to my opinion that nine out of ten refs would have ruled it out because of the prevailing feeling that goalkeepers are different from any other player in what passes for a foul on them.
Colin. I think VAR would have given that penalty (but it would also have given us one for handball) – that doesn’t make the decision right, but I would say it makes it more understandable.
Blue Bayou, the Bennett substitution was a strange one which I certainly wasn’t expecting – I’ve thought he had been playing a fair bit better than earlier in the season lately, but he wasn’t at that standard on Saturday. Nevertheless, I don’t feel he was the obvious candidate to be replaced if a substitution was going to be made and I see Wales Online has speculated, given Neil Harris’ brusque answer when asked about it afterwards, that something might have happened in the dressing room at half time to provoke the manager into the change. As it was, I thought Richards did okay at left back and Bacuna the same at right back, but that doesn’t mean that I would want them to be our first choice full backs for the rest of the season – I think you’d have to at least have a look at both Sanderson and Smith at some point if you did decide to dispense with Bennett.
Huw, I think you make two good points. Firstly, I agree about our lack of a cutting edge (particularly from open play) and I agree with BJA that Ward should have buried that late chance. I’d also concur that Wigan did not look like a bottom three side, although I did feel they were shaky in defence and the fact they only conceded two was down to a combination of the officials and the aforesaid lack of a cutting edge on our part.
BJA, as I mentioned, I’ve not seen Evans’ tackle yet, but I agree that Wigan were not too fussy about whether they played the ball or the man at times. They picked up seven yellow cards (two to the same player) in their previous match with Middlesbrough and, although I remember Paul Cook as a skilful, passing, midfielder during his days with Norwich and Wolves and his sides tend to play in the same manner, I’ve noticed before that they also have a physical edge to them. They certainly had a “plan” when it came to Tomlin, but I tend to agree with you about him and Paterson especially giving away too many cheap free kicks.