As City have begun to open up a bit of a gap at the top of the table in League One over the past six weeks or so, there has been talk about how the substitutes they can bring on have made the difference in games. I agree with that view, whether we generally are the best team in the division or not, I look at our substitutes bench for most matches and think there’s not one stronger than that in League One.
Tonight, City are probably feeling like a few League One teams beaten by us recently must have felt – it was anybody’s match while it was the two starting eleven s against each other, but once their substitutes came on for the opposition they started to get on top.
For almost an hour, tonight’s League Cup Quarter Final against Chelsea was in the balance – Chelsea were having the better of the early stages of the second half, but I thought City could genuinely feel that they had edged the first half against a team that showed eleven changes from the one which beat Everton on the weekend.
Chelsea’s unease after forty five minutes showed as Alejandro Garnacho, who ended up scoring two of the goals In their 3-1 win, and Jaoa Pedro were introduced and they were followed by fellow first teamers Pedro Neto, who scored the other goal, Trevoh Chalobah and Malo Gusto as the second period went on.
I don’t think City could have any complaints about the eventual outcome because they were clearly second best after the interval, but the third goal scored in added time gave the visitors a victory margin that was harsh on a City team who played with energy, intelligence and skill and it would have been very interesting if that edge we enjoyed in the first forty five minutes had transformed itself into a 1-0 lead.
In that first half City, who brought in Perry Ng, Dylan Lawlor, Joel Colwill, David Turnbull and Callum Robinson, ruffled the feathers of what might have been a Chelsea shadow team, but with their huge and very expensive squad, it was a starting eleven that would probably survive in the Premier League easily enough.
The visitors did little to threaten the City goal though while Isaak Davies wasted a good early chance after being put clear by a lovely pass by the impressive Joel Bagan, but, looking at the TV pictures of the incident, it seems that there might have been a slight bobble of the ball before Davies hit it and his shot flew so far wide that it went out for a throw in.
Davies came closer after a fluent move left him in space and his intended cross got a deflection which looked to be going in on the near post only for keeper Jorgensen to get down quickly to turn it aside. Robinson, starting in place of top scorer Yousef Salech, also forced the keeper into action as did Calum Chambers with a header from a Bagan free kick.
City had been organized out of possession and their press troubled Chelsea at times, but they never really established the element of control they had at times before half time in the second forty minutes despite the opening few minutes offering hope the pattern of the game would not change.
The change that was to come was signposted though after Chambers lost possession just inside the Chelsea half and within seconds Nathan Trott had been forced into his first serious save of the night.
A more serious blunder was to cost City much more dearly on fifty seven minutes though. Given the way he plays, it was inevitable that we’d concede at least one goal this season from Lawlor losing possession or giving the ball away as last man. Sadly, it happened for the first time in front of a 33,000 crowd at Cardiff City Stadium in a Cup Quarter Final as he passed straight to Buanonotte to leave Chelsea with a three on one. A well judged pass to Garnacho gave the winger to hit a shot past Trott which went in off the post.
To Lawlor’s credit, he recovered well from his error and it was his only one of the night, but, nevertheless, the concession of the goal left us hanging on for a while with Trott making a great save to deny Buanonotte and Bagan only inches away from turning the ball into his own net.
City, with Salech on for Robinson, we’re doing little to suggest they had an equaliser in dthem, but a great left footed cross from Ng of the type you would have thought Salech would really have fancied was met instead by Turnbull, scorer of just one goal as a Cardiff player, who buried a diving header from ten yards to send the capacity crowd wild.
With just fifteen minutes left, penalties or even a City win was a possibility, but Chelsea raised their game and were in front again on eighty two minutes with a good goal by Neto although his shot got a slight, but important, deflection off Bagan which may have sent the ball just out of Trott’s reach.
Turnbull’s mishit shot had Jorgensen worried but it landed on the top of the net and with that went City’s last real chance of getting level as Garnacho completed the scoring with a neat finish as City left themselves short at the back as they chased a leveller.
So, it’s league action all the way from City from now on and watching them tonight you can’t help feeling that they have a good chance of getting the promotion that was the first priority when the season started. Furthermore, performances like this one, plus the ones at Burnley and Wrexham suggests they have the players to survive in the Championship if they get there.
Paul compadre,
Let’s hope Glen Williams reads your fine report, as his in WOL is way off the mark, and amongst other things he names Turnbull as our star player. Sorry to be boringly predictable, but I thought it clearly was Joel Bagan… who blotted his copybook just the once for leaving Pedro Neto unmarked for his goal (though I thought he was blameless for his slight deflection of the shot).
That said, there were two fine goals on the night, and one of them was unexpectedly scored by David Turnbull… and the beautiful smile on the boy’s face really warmed my heart.
The other fine goal was Garnacho’s second: oh boy, that last second adjustment of his foot was a thing of beauty.
As for his first goal: I have been waiting for this to happen. Why do we take risks in our own third? Beats me.
And as for Dylan: I have never really taken to his habit of putting his foot on top of the ball and back-pedalling with it two or three steps, while simultaneously pointing like a traffic policeman. If you were the late Jim Baxter taunting Celtic, fair enough… but I am not a fan of professional footballers acting like Jack-the-Lad with this footballing affectation.
And dear BBM, why do you encourage players (in this case Ryan Wintle) to ‘show’ for a ball well into one’s own half, when there is a very real risk of that ball being intercepted, and there being no last line of defence to save the day?
(No, strike that… it is a rhetorical question. We know the answer, viz… you want your team to score the perfect goal like Jack Wilshere’s against Norwich some 12 years ago.)
Me? I’ll settle for Turnbull’s goal, which was oddly mirrored in Fulham’s goal in the Newcastle game tonight.
Btw, I watched both the quarter finals tonight, and was bored to tears with the lack of passion on display… and neither game had a quarter of the atmosphere our game had the previous night.
So I switched over to The Arabs versus Celtic… and saw the last 25 minutes. What a game…!! Real end-to-end stuff, no quarter given. My sort of football. Such euphoria amongst the Dundee United fans.
One final point: I respectfully part company with you Paul on your thinking that Chelsea’s starting team of ten reserves could hold their own in the lower reaches of the Premier League… I reckon they’d sink like stone, though I‘ll concede that they might finish above The Wolves.
TTFN,
Dai.
Thanks Dai, i think you know my opinion on “playing out from the back” by now – if it is shown to be working after, say, half a season then fine, if it isn’t then ditch it. Of course, the problem comes when you have to define what consists success oe failure when making that judgment – for me, it has to be the simplest measurement, goals scored and conceded which cam be put down to playing out from the back.
As I said in my piece, it’s inevitable that Lawlor will make a mistake(s) that will cost us goals over the course of the season that can be put down to him playing out from the back. Now, I’m relying on memory here and anyone who looks through every goal City have scored and conceded this season will probably prove me wrong, but I would say Tuesday’s error was the first instance of Lawlor making a mistake when playing out from the back that cost us a goal. Trying to think of other goals we’ve conceded as a direct result of playing out from the back, there’s the time when Trott presented the ball to Burnley in our game up there, but nothing else springs to mind at the moment. As for goals scored, I would say Lawlor’s goal against Orient can be attributed to playing from the back, as could Salech’s first goal against Huddersfield recently. I can also think of goals such as Ashford’s goal against Mansfield which came at the end of a long sequence of passes which include some played out from the back by our defenders.
Therefore, I’d say the balance is pretty even as to trying to judge the success or otherwise of this aspect of BBM’s approach, but I’d add that he’s not going to change his approach even if the end of season figures show a clear majority for goals conceded through playing out from the back compared to goals scored through it. He’s also going to encourage Lawlor to keep on playing the same way and, as I remarked in my piece, it was encouraging to see that he did not let that error affect his performance as he was faultless after it.
The SPL is an interesting league this season. While I will always be a Celtic man when a title is down to just a shoot out between them and Rangers, my support for them does not stretch to backing them when a third party becomes involved. Therefore, I wanted St Mirren to beat them in the League Cup Final and am all for Hearts winning the League – Celtic did a good job of reeling them in under Martin O’Neill, but Wilfried Nancy’s so far disastrous record since taking over has handed the initiative back to the “jam tarts” and looking at the table, I wouldn’t quite rule Motherwell or Rangers out of contention yet.
I’ll finish by saying that I still can’t give a definitive answer to the question what is it that makes a league weak or strong? Does a league where all of the sides are really close together with a low points tally separating top from bottom make for a weak league or does it show strength in that everyone can beat everyone else on any given weekend? On the other hand, does a league where the same two or three sides dominate make for a strong league because of the strength of those at the top? I think I favour the first scenario, but then I look at this season’s SPL and I think the excitement is being created primarily by a decline in standards at the Old Firm clubs, so it could be argued that the strength of the league has declined.
Thanks, Paul.
I watched the Luton defeat at Reading last night, and was cheered by the result, as I hope that we can squeeze Luton out of the top 6 at the end of the season.
As for Hearts… I too am pleased by their season so far. I was drawn to them as a kid because the admirable Dave Mackay had come to Tottenham from them, and Andy Bowman my favourite wing half of my mid teens, had moved to Somerton Park from them also.
Here I am at Tynecastle in April 2022 with my pal Dave-the-Cobbler…
https://tinyurl.com/mw84zavb
DW