When a striker is going through a bad patch in front of goal or a team is looking for a long over due win, you sometimes hear something like “I don’t mind if it’s a 1-0 with a last minute goal scored off my/someone’s backside”,
Well, it was 2-1, not 1-0 and the very late winner didn’t come via someone’s bum, but in winning their first home game in just short of six months (okay,I know we weren’t playing for three of them!), Cardiff City’s victory today did resemble that kind of it doesn’t matter how it comes as long as it comes mindset – rather than a centre forward’s posterior, the match defining moment came via Will Vaulks’ arm.
I’ll come back to our former player’s contribution later, but, having talked so much about our abysmal home record since 2020 after the very disappointing loss to QPR a fortnight ago, I want to try and put our last gasp win today into some sort of context when it comes to our long term struggles on our own ground.
The first thing to say is that sixty nine games worth of woe at home are not going to be put right by one victory – we have won twenty one out of those sixty nine despite me sometimes making it sound like we’ve lost every game on our own patch since 2020! Included in those twenty one are four 4-0s and a couple of 3-0s.
In other words, we’ve won while playing a lot better and more convincingly than we did today and it’s not been enough to stir us into going on the sort of concerted sequence of results which would have shut up someone like me who needs no prompting to revisit our horror home run every time we lose in front of our own fans.
Given what tends to happen when the jacks come calling these days, there has to be a fair chance that I’ll be bemoaning both our serial failure to rise to the Swansea challenge and our home travails again in our first game back after the international break which follows next week’s game at Ipswich.
However, trying to highlight the positives from today’s game, I would say that despite what is now a four from four losing record, Sheffield Wednesday were a better team than the QPR one we lost to in our first home match, so that’s a sign of some progress.
In fact, around the hour mark I was beginning to think that we might be on our way to another one of those three or four nil wins, because, after a first half which didn’t feature a single effort on target from either side, we’d made a fast start after the break, scored early on and were looking good for further goals.
Certainly by recent home standards, it’s a very rare thing to be ahead and in command for a while, yet the inability to get to the 2-0 score line that we only managed to reach once in the whole of the home 22/23 season threatened to cost us in the half an hour or more which remained. Wednesday were the dominant team in what remained of the game for me and , were worth a draw in a match which, while not high on true quality, was more watchable than most of the fare on offer at Cardiff City Stadium in the last two seasons especially.
To no one’s surprise, Erol Bulut decided to give Manolis Siopis a first start in midfield, but, rather than Joe Ralls, who I thought was the man most likely to make way to accommodate the Greek international, it was Ryan Wintle who was among the substitutes. At the back, Perry Ng, over last week’s illness and having signed a three year contract extension on Thursday, returned in place of the suspended Mahlon Romeo, Yakou Meite came in for the injured Josh Bowler. but it was Ike Ugbo who moved out to the wide area as Meite became the main striker.
Conspicuous by his absence today was Callum Robinson who was not even on the bench, I’m presuming he was injured, but his season has just not got going yet and, speaking for myself, he’d be my first choice in the forward positions.
Even at such an early stage of the season, the first half had the feel of a tight bottom of the table clash to it with both teams seemingly more focussed on the avoidance of potentially costly mistakes, rather than trying to dictate and attack the game.
There were only four times in the first half where it felt like a goal might be coming. As far as the visitors were concerned, centreback Momo Diaby and last season’s Play Off Final hero Josh Windass both got higher off the ground than the City defence when jumping for a corner, it was hard to see who got the final touch, but between them they sent the ball quite high over the bar. Callum Paterson, being used in one off the few positions (left wing back) he never filled while with us, was seen more in forward areas than defensive ones in the first period and he sent a volleyed, angled effort across the face of goal as he got free beyond the far post – edit, don’t pay any attention to the rubbish about Paterson playing on the left, he was used as a right wing back!
Sandwiched between these two efforts were a couple from City which put the Wednesday goal under a more severe threat than ours had been. For the first, only a great piece of defending by ex Swansea midfielder George Byers prevented Mark McGuinness being presented with a tap in from a fine corner taken by Ralls and then, about ten minutes later, a lovely Ng cross from the right saw Meite rise to connect with his head on the far post, it looked like a certain goal when he made contact, but his effort flew across goal and wide of the far post.
There was nothing else to write home about during the first period, but, having yet again looked like the away side while playing on their own pitch, Bulut looked to force the issue by pushing Ralls into a more advanced area where he had the freedom to remind a few people that, before he became a Neil Warnock “bread and butter” midfielder, Ralls was a talented playmaker type. There were some lovely touches and passes from City’s longest serving player who did not suffer in comparison to the more illustrious Ramsey, but he played no part in the opening goal when it arrived on forty eight minutes.
Siopis popped up on the right to supply Ugbo, Ramsey then got involved to set up Ng coming into the sort of area he tends to supply good crosses from and from here, the second home league goal of 23/24 became very like the first one as O’Dowda arrived beyond the far post to head down towards Ugbo who, faced with a tougher chance than the one he scored from against QPR took a touch on his chest before confidently volleying high into the net from eight yards – Ugbo is looking Kabaesque at the moment as his three goals in four matches have come against a backdrop of him not contributing a great deal in ordinary play, but where would the goals come from without him?
Minutes later, it should have been two when Ralls sent O’Dowda through on goal, but the winger saw his effort blocked by goalkeeper Devis Vasquez’s leg.
The miss had the feel of a defining moment in the game and Bulut was, seemingly, reluctant to change his side while they were playing well, by contrast, his opposite number Xisco Munoz looked to steal a tactical march on him by introducing striker Ashley Fletcher and ex City midfielder Vaulks.
There were a few Vaulks type fouls early on after his introduction, but he also pushed forward more than Byers, the man who he’d replaced and he showed some of the attributes which made him a hard player to judge when he was with us – good passing at times mixed with moments of poor discipline and decision making.
Slowly, but perceptibly, the game was changing and it was Vaulks’ neat chipped cross which enabled Windass to get in a header which looked bound for the net only for Alnwick to make another one of the saves which have persuaded Bulut that he can let Ryan Allsop leave for Hull – although the manager made it sound like Allsop’s agent had indicated to him that his client had wanted to leave in his post game remarks.
City were now under intense pressure with many of their players suddenly looking out on their feet . At this stage, Bulut had only made one change, Ollie Tanner for Ugbo, and it seemed like more were needed. However, our manager kept things as they were and I found myself wondering if the late goals conceded at Leeds and Leicester were a sign of a reaction to the unusual pre season we had where games were played a lot earlier than usual to give our manager a chance to see the players he’d inherited in action early in his tenure in charge?
That is very much a question asked with the benefit of hindsight and so, having not thought of this before now, I can’t claim any great credit for perception and insight, but did all of the game preparation in late June/early July mean that the normal fitness training you’d expect at that time of the pre season schedule take something of a back seat?
Im probably wrong in thinking that, but City collectively looked like their legs had given up on them until a flurry of substitutions gave them some much needed impetus.
Before that though, the City lead was being put under considerable threat – Ramsey did really well to get the ball out for a corner when he found himself in a situation something like the one Byers faced in the first half, but he was at fault when he gave the ball away in a dangerous area and it took a desperate tackle Dimitrios Goutas to stop Windass from scoring as he appealed unsuccessfully for a penalty.
City were taking an awful long time to get the three players they were intending to release into the fray on to the pitch and, after Meite had ignored the unmarked Tanner to his right and opted to instead shoot feebly wide from twenty yards, the equaliser that had begun to look inevitable duly arrived as too much time was given to Barry Bannan of all people to give Alnwick no chance with a precisely placed effort from twenty yards.
Wednesday were looking likely winners now, but it still took another five minutes to get Karlan Grant, Ryan Wintle and Rubin Colwill on for Ramsey, Ralls and Jamilu Collins and there was one further alteration on 88 minutes when Kion Etete replaced Meite.
Although the winning goal when it came was a pleasant surprise because City weren’t really threatening much, Grant, Colwill and Etete all helped to add some pep to the attack, while, for the second home game on the trot, Tanner showed that he has to be a serious contender for the role of an impact sub, or even more than that, for the rest of the season.
Right from the first time he got the ball, Tanner showed he had the beating of his marker and, if there was a slight criticism I’d make of his contribution it was that, having done so well to get into a good position to cross the ball, his delivery wasn’t quite on the mark.
Clearly though, Tanner was worrying Wednesday and this may have played a part in what looked a mad decision by Vaulks some six minutes into nine minutes of added time. Again Tanner had found himself in a good crossing position, but there was no City player with a real chance of reaching his pass when Vaulks put his arm out and conceded what was a clear, and needless, penalty.
Of course, you only have to think back to last season for a reminder that the days when you could be pretty confident about us scoring from the spot are long gone. With so many contenders to take it off the pitch, I favoured Grant to try to win the game, he’s scored plenty of penalties at his previous clubs, but the replacement captain Wintle took on the responsibility and must have had everyone wondering why he’d never been tried from the spot during last season as he nervelessly put the ball right in the corner – Vasquez guessed the right way, but Wintle’s accuracy was too much for him.
Earlier in the day both the under 21s and under 18s had extended their winless starts to the season with a couple of draws. Joel Colwill’s last minute goal secured a 2-2 draw at Burnley for the under 21s (Cody Twose got the other goal). There was another late goal to rob the under 18s with the Coventry goalkeeper scoring well into added time to give his team a 3-3 in a game they were losing 3-1 at one time (all three of their goals came from set pieces)- Japhet Matondo, Troy Perrett and Dan Ola were the City goal scorers.
Not a great deal to report in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance this weekend. Treherbert continued their strong start to life in the Premier Division with a 4-0 win Friday night win over Tonyrefail in the Boys and Girls Club derby, while AFC Porth are finding life no easier in the Championship than they did in the Premier League – they were were beaten 9-0 at home today by Llantwit Fardre.
Finally, the start of the season is the time I ask readers to show their support by making a voluntary donation towards the blog’s running costs and to help towards things like book projects that I’m working on. Back in 2018, the blog would not have survived without the contributions of some of its readers as I just did not have the financial means to pay the web hosting bill I received that summer.
Since then, my finances have improved and, with me now receiving the state pension to go with my works one, I can say that there is no longer any need for anyone to donate towards running costs – touching wood, the blog will never ever be in a position again where it’ll need help from readers to survive.
So, with nothing in the pipeline in terms of new projects this year, I can say to all readers, and especially those who do still donate towards the blog, there is no need to do so this year at a time when many need every last penny to make it through the cost of living crisis.
That is not to say you cannot still make a contribution if you want to – they can be made through cash, bank transfer, cheque and PayPal. Many of you who do contribute will already have my bank details, but anyone wishing to make their first contribution can contact me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com for more information.
As always a big thank you to all those who have made donations in the past and especially to those who still do (particular thanks go to the Owl Centre for their continued very generous sponsorship), a happier Cardiff City season than last time around to all of you!
Good morning Paul et al – A relief all round I suspect at the three points gained and I suppose if they are to be secured in added time, then a penalty success just increased the drama. And as the spot kick arrived courtesy of an ex City player (he has always been a little rash), probably even a tad more.
For the best part of an hour, I really thought that we would obtain a handsome win. Ugbo being in the right place once again took his chance well although the Wednesday defender stood off him when perhaps he should have closed him down. But that’s three for the on loan striker and all from close range. He is our “fox in the box”, and if we are able to pressurise teams in the manner we did for yesterday’s first goal, then the lad will score more, (Mr Bulot, no more sending him out to the wing). But to allow Wednesday to come back in the game as they did was disappointing and to give Bannan the space for his excellent shot on target was nothing short of criminal. But in the end I record my thanks to Vaulks.
There was much about yesterday that I enjoyed and as usual you were correct in the review. The four goals we could have scored did not occur as a result of good chances spurned by Meite and O’Dowda – but we won – Hallelujah.
For most of yesterday morning, I was second guessing the occupants of who would be selected in mid-field. I got it wrong. With Wintle only recently signing a long term contract, I was sure he would be one and believed that Joe Ralls would miss out. But I was wrong. But what for the future. Could we accommodate Siopis (he looked excellent), Ramsey, Ralls and Wintle? I’ll answer my own question – only if we revert to a back three adding Ng to existing centre back duo). With O’Dowda, Bowler/Tanner operating wide and the aforementioned Ugbo stationed centrally, this has a formation that has defensive and attacking qualities. But I’m ahead of myself – let the win sink in first, and anyway my Fantasy football team selections rarely produced major triumphs.
Hi Paul et al.
Thanks for summary and glad to get that result as sure everyone was feeling the pressure to get our first 3 points. Obviously looking better than the disappointment of last year, but still got to sort out our lamentable home form.
Much more quality in the team – for obvious reasons – but still frustrating that we let teams dominate us when we should be on the front foot. Classic case yesterday when we should have pushed on after the opening goal but let Wednesday dominate and force us into errors. Feared the worst when the ball fell to old nemesis Bannon and so it proved!
On the plus side I was really impressed with our new Greek signing and consensus around me was that we haven’t had that type of midfield battler/ organiser for many a year. Think he will be a firm fan favourite if he carries on like that.
Also honourable mention to Tanner who again looked to take people on and make things happen – surely he deserves a start?
Agree we have a Kabaesque frontman again – thank goodness – and just need to get our best formation together now. Agree with you Paul that Robinson should definitely be in there somewhere.
Great to see Wintle step up with confidence and fantastic atmosphere at the end .could see what it meant to the team and management as well.
Onwards and upwards.
Hello Paul and fellow MAYAns,
Well, I can’t help reflect on last season’s amazing 2nd leg of the playoffs at Hillsborough, when the 4th official put up his board to show 6 added minutes. Now we all know it means a MINIMUM of 6 minutes, but hey folks, any fair neutral looking that night, surely could not help feel that the ref was praying for a goal to make it 4-4 on aggregate and take it into extra time. Like subconsciously he wanted to play his part in what would be an historic comeback.
Referees alas are only human… and David Webb proved more fallible than most of us.
Candidly, I think he would have played on ’til midnight hoping for a late miracle equaliser.
And despite all the full-time, ‘blow the whistle ref’ signals from Darren Ferguson’s Posh bench, the game went into the 98th minute.
And we all know what happened then.
And I had to smile at the irony of it all… viz… Darren Ferguson being upset at being ‘done’ in Fergie time…!!
But whatever… the ecstatic Hillsborough faithful making their way to their cars that night, were doubtless saying that the 98th minute, was their lucky minute.
Not any more they aren’t.
(My thanks for that sweet penalty don’t just go to the hapless Vaulks, but also to the excellent Tanner. Erol must start this boy and give him a run of games.)
TTFN,
Dai.
PS Oh please Erol, stop thinking your team are talented enough to ‘play out from the back’… they ain’t. Few teams are.
Yes, that genius Pep has got his brilliant Irlam Globetrotters* playing his brand of kamikaze football to perfection, but he is very much the exception.
But what sort of example is Erol set? Forget the Fred Karno’s Army of the EFL… even in the EPL we have weekly examples of crazy defending. Look at Brighton’s Adam Webster deciding on a suicidal back-pass when on the touchline and being harried by Michail Antonio… in days when football was football, that ball would have been in Row Z.
And even today, the Irlam Globetrotters’ Kyle Walker has to try a crazy back-heel in his own penalty area. Forget the ghost of Skinner Normanton being appalled: more modern day full backs such as Gary Neville and Paolo Maldini witnessing such irresponsibility, would have immediately blackballed Kyle from membership of the Full Backs’ club…!!
So I guess that while we see this madness on MotD every week, we can’t expect Erol to mend his ways.
Oh… and before signing off…
… is there some way of fining Gary Neville for his constant use in commentary of the phrase ‘he was leaning back’ for every time a ball is kicked over the bar? He has been getting away with this nonsense for years, and I have stopped replaying the shots on my Smart TV to prove that nine times out of ten, the player wasn’t ‘leaning back’ at all… indeed often, the player was if anything ‘leaning forward’.
I seriously believe it has become a form of Tourette’s with him.
Trouble is, other less gifted people sitting in as ‘co-comms’ look up to him and swallow this nonsense… so it now seems universally accepted that if you kick the ball over the bar you are ‘leaning back’.
Oh dear me… thank God I will be dead soon and spared this nonsense.
If Gary became a rugby commentator, would he say every time Owen Farrell or Leigh Halfpenny made a successful conversion… ‘oh he leaned back to beautifully?’
I think not. He’d be laughed out of town.
Talking of laughing… and mentioning Leigh Halfpenny there: I will leave you with this thought…
Have you seen that 2018 movie Fisherman’s Friends? The best thing about it is the pulchritude of the wonderful Tuppence Middleton.
Here’s a thought… if she married Leigh Halfpenny, would she be called Tuppence Ha’penny…?!
*yes I know, my pun does not quite work, since Irlam is one of the few districts of Manchester that is red.
Btw… any reader sufficiently masochistic enough to be wanting to get direct mails from me for free, please write to me at daigress@hotmail.com
telling me your name and where you are from and a bit about yourself. At 76, there is not much left in the tank… but your blogmeister Paul will testify that a decade or so back, my output was formidable… but alas my energy levels have considerably declined.
However I have sent some stuff out on the Women’s World Cup which has been well-received, and with Paul’s blessing I will post it on here at the end of the week… but not before… as I am conscious that this should ideally be a primarily ‘Cardiff City’ orientated blog… but of course, not exclusively. But me staying off till the end of the week might help some of Paul’s regulars to return.
For instance, where are Anthony O’Brien, Adrian Pickrell (son of the late City star, Tony Pickrell), Richard Holt, Clive Harry, Steve Perry, Chris Clark, Mike Herbert, Lindsay Davies, Barry Cole, Russell Roberts, Ian Slatter, Derek Snape… and a few others who momentarily slip my mind…? I know dear Colin Phillips died… we were in email communication up to just three weeks before he sadly passed away. One hopes that those listed above have not also joined the Great Majority.
DW
Thanks all for your replies. BJA, I notice that Erol Bulut said after the game that Siopis was nervous before the game and the implication was that he wasn’t at his best. Not knowing what his best is yet, I’m not that well qualified to comment on that, but I didn’t quite share the blanket enthusiasm for his first start that I’ve read and heard from other City supporters. The phrase I used about him on the City messageboard I post on was “eager to please” – not a bad thing at all on your first start for a new club, but I did think it led to some errors which could have been costly on another day. That said, I’m pretty sure he’ll turn out to be a good signing for us and those “opening night nerves” that our manager alluded to won’t be there once he’s settled in here/
My preferred option for City in recent years has been to go with three centrebacks, but I feel things would have to go wrong pretty spectacularly for Bulut to consider such a change in the short to medium term – he’s clearly a four at the back man, but, whether we use three or four defenders, it’s imperative that we get another centreback in this week (there’s also the option of dipping into what must be a considerable number of free agents if we can’t get anyone by Friday.
Huw, you’ll have read my comments about Siopis above, there is of course the fairly likely option that everyone else is right and I’m wrong mind! I agree with you about Tanner. I’ll be honest, I watched him in early under 21 games last season and thought he’s never going to make it and when his loan spell to York flopped (a change of manager soon after he arrived didn’t help there mind), I had no expectations at all about him impacting on the first team this season and so it’s great to see him making a difference when he comes on – it wasn’t his fault we lost to QPR and, in fact, he was he inspiration for a late revival which almost got us a point, while Tanner was effective from his first touch on Saturday (as I mention his crossing might have been better mind). I’d say he’s sure to start tonight unless Bulut is considering starting him on Saturday – I still think that’s a long shot, but not the 10,000 to 1 one it would have been back in May!
Dai, I think you’re stuck with playing out from the back for the present and for some time into the future I’d guess. I think I’ve shown on the Feedback section in recent weeks that I’m not the unconditional fan of it that I might sometimes sound like and I can imagine a time (probably when you and I are long gone) when some of today’s younger managers will look back and wonder what possessed them to take such risks with pretty limited players?
Must admit that I’ve not noticed Gary Neville saying that before – I agree with you though, as I can vouch from, fairly limited experience, here are many ways to skin a cat when it comes to sending a ball over the crossbar!
Regarding disappearing Feedback contributors, I can confirm that I still hear from some of the names you mention through e-mail. In defence of those who no longer contribute on here, I would say that there have been many times in the last two seasons especially where I’ve looked at the blank screen in front of me as I started a post game reaction piece and thought that, essentially, I was looking for a different way of saying what was, basically, the same thing as I’d said the previous week. It must be the same for would be contributors (especially those who tend only to see home games) and there’s also the chance that some of them have changed their opinion of my writing – some may find it too negative, whereas others may feel I’m underestimating the size of the problem at the club
Paul, compadre…
All MAYAns should read the very last sentence of your ‘summing up’ comment posted at 7.02 this morning, and commit it to memory. And here is for why…
It shows a degree of empathy, acuity of introspection, and genuine humility, that we should all strive to emulate, and hope that – by rubbing shoulders with him on these pages – his qualities might by osmosis rub off on us too.
But I think it important that I say this: tennis is no fun if your fellow player does not attempt to return your serve…!!
Not that we want slavish adoration to go his way: Paul, like me, is perfectly happy if people assail his cherished beliefs. Not that any of us welcome contrarians who express counter-views just to be a contrarian, but it seems to me that the whole purpose of genuine debate, is that every one of us comes away from that debate better informed. Indeed, I take the view that my ‘losing’ an argument is no bad thing… for it helps me modify my views and makes me adopt better opinions.
But we MAYAns all accept the cardinal rule… viz… whilst we can disagree with passion, we must ensure that we always disagree in an agreeable way. And it is needless for me to add the fact that this is a blog where obvious trolling is not welcome.
I will sign off now… and thank you Paul for the email you have just sent me telling me that you are very happy for me to post on here my long piece on the Women’s World Cup, which I recently sent out to my mailing list.
I don’t know what a trick cyclist would make of me… my favourite hymn as a boy was ‘Dare To Be A Daniel’
https://youtu.be/My9rYr8xzng?si=7uEKPJZUhtd3mvNP
and throughout my life I have never bothered being in a minority of one*.
*The very long piece that I will post tomorrow, will include comments on our Welsh national anthem that I fancy will go down like a cup of cold sick with some of you. But hey, I think that many more of you would support my view were it not that you’d incur the wrath of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg… and don’t want to face the (nonsensical) charge of being unpatriotic.
But that should not worry any of you, for please remember that only dead fish swim with the stream.
TTFN,
Dai.
Hello everyone, nearly choked on my Bavarian beer when I read my name in Dai’s comment. Just wanted to confirm that I never miss reading a single Blog entry, they are all top quality. However, compared to other commenters I feel unqualified to comment as I never get to see the games untill the highlights turn up. So I just read and enjoy, ponder and muse.
Kindest regards to you all.
Adrian
PS. Harry Kane mania has really broken out over here. It’s quite unbearable.
And lo, a voice from the East!
Emboldened, inspired even, by Dai W, this MAYAn exile is reporting in for the first time for a while.
It’s not that I haven’t had thoughts and opinions on our beloved, if exasperating, Bluebirds, but I’ve felt increasingly less competent to use any kind of public platform to comment. And certainly, given my total absence from any matches, it would be presumptuous of me to do anything but keep my views to myself.
I was so alienated by the OGS years and so many of the subsequent imbecilic appointments, that I could barely draw breath, let alone put pen to paper.
But, I’m still here, deo gratias (and I mean that – near-fatal car crash last October), and looking forward to Ralls re-discovering himself, Siopis becoming one of the Championship’s talking-points, Tanner being given the chance to live up to some MAYAns’ opinions of him – and, of course, the divine Ramsey to give us all a reason for caring.
Speaking of which – Paul, thanks for being there.
Can’t wait to welcome the Boys to Carrow Road.
Good to hear you’re well Adrian – never minded Harry Kane that much, but his signing is nowhere near enough to even get me to begin thinking about changing my opinion of Bayern Munich!
Nice to see you on here again Lindsay – Ralls was like a new (actually that’s wrong, he was like the player he used to be) player for about twenty minutes on Saturday. Siopis will I believe become a very popular member of the team, Tanner’s transformation is the most surprising element of this season so far to me and, having watched how our team with no centrebacks performed on Tuesday, I hink Ramsey might struggle to get back in the team!