Attacking fluency takes a break in throwback Cardiff win.

17 Responses to Attacking fluency takes a break in throwback Cardiff win.

1. Colin Phillips says:

   March 13, 2016 at 9:32 am

   Mystified by the decision to leave out Lawrence (unless there was a physical problem we haven’t been aware of) by all means give Noone a start by in my opinion perhaps Whitts would have been a better candidate for warming the bench. Again we were left no options on the wide left, Whitts does like to squeeze in doesn’t he?!

   I agree with you, Paul, the reversion to the hopeful punt upfield was a throwback to the days of dear old slow Kenwynne. I felt sorry for Pilks and Immers so much running and hardly a kick.

   Thought the first substitution was understandable but surprised that Lawrence wasn’t brought on when Digger appeared.

   A dirty three points that was much needed but I much preferred the way we played on Tuesday.
2. Russell says:

   March 13, 2016 at 11:18 am

   Thought Saturdays game was very tight and along with thier mighty effort on Tuesday and lets not forget the backs against the wall second half at Ashton Gate full applause is now due,as tiredness kicks without loosing concentration .

   Not suprised Lawrence was rested,he has had a lot of game time within a short window,probably has a slight knock which needs protecting for us and Wales.

   Pilkington choice as captain is typical of Slade’s squad building mentality ethos, rewarding and recognising effort.

   We need to find an experienced crafty ” Tony Watt ” type goal poacher though, felt on Tuesday and Saturday there was a lack of clever penalty box movement. It’s probably too early for Tommy and the Italian stallion hardly seems to care.
3. Colin Phillips says:

   March 13, 2016 at 11:30 am

   Italian ‘very slow donkey’ would be more accurate in my opinion, Russell.
4. Russell says:

   March 13, 2016 at 1:44 pm

   Was being facetious about the useless lump of lard ,which I guess you knew Lol, I am fed up with these type of players like him , Jones, Guerra , Ameobi , they don’t really want to come to Cardiff / Wales , its all about inflated money to come to us rather hard working triers working Revell / Doyle’s Academy lads of this world okay they didn’t come off . I think Tan has seen the light as well and good on him .
5. MIKE HOPE says:

   March 13, 2016 at 7:21 pm

   A great analysis of the game and our present position.
   I recall a quote from Mick McCarthy within the last two years when he said that he wanted his team to be ‘bloody ‘orrible to play against.’
   On Saturday’s evidence he has succeeded!
   You have to sympathise with the Ipswich fans who made the long journey to watch their team play like that and LOSE.
   I am sure they will remember Saturday as a bloody ‘orrible day out!
   I dread to think of how our Slade haters-who have been pretty quiet lately-would have reacted.
6. Anthony O'Brien says:

   March 13, 2016 at 8:57 pm

   All excellent points, but where was Saadi on Saturday. Not even on the bench. Presumably unfit? If so, how and why?
   Cardiff surely have something up their sleeve if Macheda (thankfully) has gone out on loan – but Pilkington still needs more support, which would also be beneficial to his intelligent running and the equally intelligent work put in by Immers.
   I was also pleased to see Malone willing to go forward more often and with greater drive during Saturday’s game.
7. The other Bob Wilson says:

   March 14, 2016 at 9:17 am

   Thanks for the replies all. Colin, the sort of performance we had on Saturday becomes more bearable with the knowledge that we can reach a level that wasn’t there in the first half of the season. As Mike says, Mick McCarthy has made Ipswich a very hard side to play against and I thought it was noticeable that we didn’t get the time in central midfield areas to pass the ball as we have been doing lately – the methods Ipswich use means that it’s always likely to be a scrappy game when they’re involved, but, based on what I’ve seen over the last couple of seasons, the downside for them is that they don’t have many players in that area with the ability to spot and deliver passes that can open defences up.
   Russell, I’d like to see Lawrence used more centrally again – I’m not convinced his finishing would be that much better than Pilkington or Immers, but I think he’d lay on chances for others – I’d pick him in front of Noone or, maybe, Whitts – take away Whitts’ dead ball deliveries though and we’d barely have had a goal attempt on Saturday.
   AMO, I’d be surprised if Saadi was injured, I think it’s more likely that he was just left out of the 18. I’d like to have seen him given some game time during the recent matches where he was on the bench, but Russell Slade has always turned to Zohore before him – I notice the Under 21s are playing Ipswich at Leckwith this afternoon – I wouldn’t be surprised to see Saadi feature in that match.
8. barry Cole says:

   March 14, 2016 at 9:23 am

   well paul you sum it all up well, I don’t think we played very well except for a few direct attacks which should have been more fruitful. we were completely out played in midfield yet managed the defending very well.
   my worry is still the same like you I cannot see us in the top six because we are not consistent enough. that has always been down to the manager both in his pick of the players but more so in his substitutions. it seem endemic that he does not sub the right players nor does he put the right players into the game.
   if for some miracle we get in the top six he will be out thought by better managers and therefore it will all come crashing down around us with more pain to be absorbed.
   I really do hope he proves me wrong but I think I could get a good bet that wont happen. russ should have departed after the shrewsbury fiasco and at the time there were a number of experienced managers that would have got us over the line.
   so I stick with the theory which I have held from day one, we have the players to get us into the top two but not the manager
9. Stephen Fairhurst says:

   March 14, 2016 at 12:35 pm

   Just a comment to suggest the old adage ‘Attack is the best form of defence’ could be employed. I feel the eagerness to allow other teams to come onto us by removing the outlet up field to hold and give the defence a breather can put the fans on edge which maybe transmits to the team who give a hurried performance. Something we are are not the best at. Why couldn’t it have been like Leeds against us as we piled on pressure only to be undone at the end with their second goal. Ipswich may have left spaces as they pressed for an equaliser and another goal for us would negate the feeling nay expectation that the opposition are more likely to score than not at the end of the game. I feel ‘Big Ken’ is eager to impress and look to score himself rather than hold and bring others in especially as he comes on at the very latter part of the game.
10. The other Bob Wilson says:

    March 15, 2016 at 9:38 am

    Hello Stephen, you and Barry both touch upon the issue of substitutions and, in a way, I’d say these are tougher to get right when you’re winning than they are when you’re losing as many of the decisions are made for you then. When you’re winning, you have the choice whether to chase the further goal which should guarantee the points or to shore things up by bringing on defenders/midfielders for strikers.
    I don’t believe that there is a definite right or wrong answer there, more that it’s down to the “feel” of the game. As examples of what I mean, you only have to look at our last two home wins. Speaking for myself, I thought Russell Slade helped to make the Preston match a tighter affair than it should have been with his substitutions because it felt to me that a low scoring side like Preston were already beaten at 2-0 down with less than ten minutes left, but, by going on the defensive, we helped give them some hope when they should have had none. On the other hand, Gunnarsson for Whittingham felt right to me on Saturday because Ipswich were having the better of a very tight match at the time and, although Gunnar didn’t do anything eye catching, Ipswich lost the edge they had been gaining after that change.
    With the way things are at the moment, it looks like those four points dropped in successive home games against Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday could prove to be very important. In the first of them, Slade changed a striker for a striker at 1-0 up, a midfielder for a midfielder at 2-0 and then brought on Macheda for Jones in the 89th minute with us 2-1 up – given Burnley’s reputation as a team that scores late goals, that struck me as a wrong move at the time and still does now. By contrast, it was a striker for a striker at 2-1 up against Sheffield Wednesday, but, with the score 2-2 the 89th minute change this time was a cautious one with Fabio coming on for Pilkington while Macheda stayed on the bench this time.
    Russell Slade received a lot of criticism for his substitutions in those games and I think it was deserved. Certainly, his attitude recently has been to make changes designed to hold on to leads, rather than extend them, but, with the possibility of goal difference playing a very important part in our season, I agree with Stephen that there are certain matches where you should be more adventurous – I suppose one of the things which sorts the best managers out from the rest is getting that judgment right in deciding which matches are already won and which ones could have a sting in the tail which turns three points into one.
11. Dai Woosnam says:

    March 16, 2016 at 10:48 am

    You Paul, and the lads have often “said it all” by the time I get to read your blog, and this weekisno exception. So, rather than tread an already well-worn path, my contribution will be unashamedly “off topic”. But I know it will strike a chord with you Paul, and those readers a bit older than you…i.e. MY vintage.
    But before I present you with “my” contribution – which actually is not mine at all – let me say a word about one contribution above.
    Mike Hope never fails to miss putting his finger RIGHT on the pulse of things…and often showing fine humour. Oh how I wish that his whole contribution this week could be compulsory reading for all the haters of Mr Slade!!
    But then, I would, wouldn’t I? I am a vengeful blighter. I still want those kamikaze traitors waving “Tan Out” banners during the first season in the top flight I have seen since 1962, unearthed, and given Stalinist show trials. And when found guilty, sentenced not to a Siberian salt mine, or a gulag, but put under house arrest in the nearest house to The Liberty stadium for a full season, to hear – and be driven mad by – the roars of Premier League football, that because of their negativity, they may not hear at CGS for another 48 years.
    Anyway, enough of my semi-rant.
    Here is “my” contribution. It is a cracker.
    How it came about is I was telling a friend the famous “Johnny Haynes summer wages” anecdote, and wanted to check if the other player involved was – as I believed, and STILL believe actually, despite this following piece saying it wasn’t – Tosh Chamberlain.
    So I googled* it, and found this poetic gem.
    Actually, the one weak part of the piece is his telling of that Johnny Haynes anecdote, which he frankly makes a mess of.
    Wish I could attribute the author’s name to this gorgeous piece…it is his fault for hiding behind log-in computer names. It puzzles me why people have not the courage to put their full name to their opinions. If Mike Hope and Anthony “AMO” O’Brien can, so can we all…even if like me, this Fulham fan might be someone whose words can occasionally identify himself as a dunce.
    Anyway, here is this thing of beauty I have just spotted. I know most of your readers will purr as they read it. I will add a couple of comments at the end.
    Here goes…a Fulham fan is recalling the halcyon days of the late 1950s:

    ‘…

    Buying a programme for sixpence and having everything you needed from it unlike today’s effort which is more like Vogue and requires you to mortgage the house to buy one.
    Having the half time scores up on the scoreboard. You needed the programme because you had to see which letter referred to which game. Thus say Letter A was Arsenal v Newcastle and Letter B was say Aston Villa v Chelsea and so on throughout the alphabet.
    Invariably the bloke next to you who did not invest in the program would ask you – Who’s W mate – who’s 4-0 down at half time? You would consult your programme and impart the news that Brentford were giving it large to Aldershot and with this knowledge he would happily roll up another cigarette.
    In the Golden Lion you would listen to the older and wiser people tell some great stories about the club and the players. Monday night was when you paid your Supporter Club dues.
    When Johnny Haynes was the first player to receive £100 per week this apparently caused some unrest amongst his team mates. It was said that Maurice Cook approached Trinder and asked him why Haynes was getting a hundred quid a week? “Because he’s worth it”, said Trinder.
    “Not in the summer, he ain’t,” said Cook.
    Then another player approached Trinder with the same gripe. “Listen,” said Trinder, “The other day Tottenham came to me and offered me £100,000 for Haynes, so £100 per week seems right. Now, last month Reading enquired about you and offered us £5,000 which means that if I apply the same logic you should be on £5 per week. By my calculations we are overpaying you £15 per week.”
    And who remembers when a player went down badly injured and as the trainer tended to him the players stood around, hands on hips chatting to each other.
    A bloke in the enclosure shouted, “Don’t just stand there, Fulham – practice.”
    Oh those bloody peanuts. To think that at one stage in his career, Johnny Haynes being on the ground staff would have been required to clean up the terraces after each match and been confronted with about ten million peanut shells.
    I remember when we had to kick-off at 2pm because Trinder refused to instal floodlights. “Who’s going to leave their television and warm fire on a winter’s night to watch football?” he said. So we became the last First Division club to have floodlights and even when we did it was suggested we should bring our own candle because they were below par.
    I don’t think I ever bunked in Mr Peabody although Trinder always claimed that as a kid he would climb the wall at low tide and bunk in over the Thamesbank wall. It’s a pity he didn’t get stuck in the mud. But that’s just me.
    …’

    Sir…oh, how I salute you for that.
    Magnificent.
    I had plain forgot about people asking me “what is C/D/F ?etc.”, seeing I had a programme to break the code for half time scores!
    And this little piece is a veritable Proustian madeleine cake for me, in that it suddenly made me think of other things about the 1950s my mind had forgotten.
    Those invalid carriages – a bit like black versions of Del Boy’s Reliant Robin married to Clive Sinclair’s C5 – that used to crowd the areas in all grounds near a corner flag. When did THEY disappear, I wonder?
    And why did they never have their windshields smashed…especially since the balls in those years were – when it was raining – almost as hard as medicine balls?
    And thoughts of days long gone, suddenly brought to mind images less pleasant. I recalled the old urinals that used to stand high above the corner flag between the Grangetown Stand** and the Bob Bank.
    And how we kids would all try with the force of our flow, get an empty fag packet to float from one end down to the drain. (Btw, it is a good rule of thumb to test your prostate today: if your urine flow is not strong enough to move a cigarette packet, go see your GP.)
    And before signing off, a word on how the Fulham fan blew the telling of the wonderful Johnny Haynes anecdote.
    What he should have said was it had nowt to do with £100 a week.
    Instead it related to pre 1961 and the abolition of the maximum wage.
    It should go like this…
    In those days, First Division players were paid £20 a week in the season, and circa £12-£14 a week in the close season.
    But Tosh Chamberlain found out that they were paying Haynes £20 a week throughout the whole year.
    Hence him going to our Tom Jones’s bete noire***, comedian Tommy Trinder to complain.
    To which Trinder replied “but Tosh, he is a much better player than you”.
    And thus came Chamberlain’s priceless retort “not in the summer he ain’t!!”

    Now THAT is how he should have related the story. He threw it away, above.

    * deliberate use of lower case
    ** nothing on earth ever got me to say “Grange End”
    *** I suggest you google it yourself. Too knackered to relate that anecdote! And too tired to proof read…so apols in advance for typos committed above.
    DW
12. The other Bob Wilson says:

    March 16, 2016 at 11:41 am

    I enjoyed reading that Dai. You got me thinking of what Ninian Park was like when I first started going. I can remember the letters for the half time scores, but. to keep the Fulham connection going, I seem to remember being very impressed with the “electronic scoreboard” at Craven Cottage for my first ever away trip in 1968 (we won 5-1!) – they had the facility to put the names of the teams on the scoreboard, but still went with the letter code shown in the programme (I think David Hamilton was doing the match day announcing even then).
    As for Ninian Park, I can remember the old Bluebirds Club behind the Canton Stand, but not whether it had been built when I first started going to matches in the early sixties. There was also that strange structure situated where the Grangetown Stand met the Enclosure which I seem to remember having an advert for Roath Furnishing on it – maybe it was the Cardiff version of Fulham’s Cottage? Lastly, I remember that booth above the Enclosure, which didn’t seem big enough for two people, which was used for hospital broadcasting.
    You’ll notice that I said Grangetown Stand not Grange End there, but the truth is it’s always been the Grange End to me and can only assume that this is an example where the relatively small age gap between makes us a big difference. In fact, it reminds of a thread on the City messageboard I use from a few years back that has become something of a classic on there – it was about whether a certain pretty well know thoroughfare in the centre of Cardiff should be known as Caroline Street or Chippy Alley/Lane – I harrumphed that it should be Caroline Street of course and anyone who thought otherwise should be shot, but there were an awful lot who disagreed with me.
    Couple of other things, first I Googled “Tom Jones, Tommy Trinder”, but, apart from this interesting thread which contains a claim that our Tom called Trinder an arsehole;

    http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/publications/92524-tommy-trinder-biography.html

    I couldn’t find anything. Secondly, I might be wrong, but I don’t think Mike Hope is that poster’s real name.
13. Dai Woosnam says:

    March 16, 2016 at 4:12 pm

    Very interesting stuff, Paul.
    First though an “apols” from me for CGS for CCS…where in heaven’s name that typo came from, I know not.
    Just as I never knew where a 4-2-4 came from about 5 months ago, when I clearly meant 4-4-2.
    Let’s get the Tommy Trinder/Tom Jones thing out of the way first.
    Surprised that there is nowt online on it, for I have heard our Tom a good three times down the years vent his spleen at Tommy Trinder. Trinder apparently treated him with massive disrespect back in the mid to late 1960s, and Tom never forgave him.
    I’m glad that the thread proves however that I was not dreaming things!!
    As for Chip Alley…like you, it will always be Caroline Street for me too. Not least because I used to call on business toBrain’s Brewery as a younger man, and so was uber familiar with the area.
    As for Mike, I am broken hearted. He seemed a man to truly go into the jungle with.
    (In fairness, he might still be…but I’d love to know why the alias.)
    Alas the internet is full of people who hide behind an alias…and I will never understand it…unless they are women like – in a bygone age – George Sands or George Eliot, hoping to make their way in a man’s world.
    Or the thought occurs, forget the “bygone”: try the cases of JK Rowling and PD James on for size !
    DW
14. Anthony O'Brien says:

    March 16, 2016 at 4:40 pm

    I read somewhere a long time ago that Tommy Trinder was a somewhat unpleasant character, never willing to share the limelight with other performers, and – like many so-called comedians – apoplectic if someone raised a laugh instead of him. So, I can quite accept the rancour of Tom Jones (formerly Tommy Woodward and then Tommy Scott and the Senators performing on Friday nights in the Shelley Hall, Pontypridd – free to go in after 9.50 until about 10.20). As for the Minimum Wage, a professional footballer told me more than fifty years ago that there were ways around that diktat — one of our least favourite players , for example, notorious for brazenly breaking a Cardiff player’s leg, was presented as a very young starlet with a shoe shop by the chairman of his first club, and then went on to own – and I quote – “a string of shoe shops in someone else’s name). True? Well, it’s what I was told!
15. Dai Woosnam says:

    March 16, 2016 at 7:24 pm

    BreaKing legs, AMO, is not a good idea if one plans to sell people …SHOES, methinks.
    Were these shops in Huddersfield and the West Riding, btw?
    And that apart, I always felt the old max wage was open to the familiar feature that used to beset amateur rugby in Wales, i.e. “money in their boots” !!
    Coupla other things…
    Don’t tell me Anthony Mor O’Brien is not YOUR real name too !!?? (Weak joke from me, AMO.)
    As for me…
    Dai Woosnam is not my real name…I have just been running it in for somebody else since 1947. Bu seriously, all these nom de plumes make me wonder if they are perhaps members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
    And a further thought about my CGS typo…
    Now if I had written CPS that would have been nearer the mark much of this season as far as Barry is concerned!
    Just had a thought…is Barry’s real name Tony Evans ?
    DW
16. Colin Phillips says:

    March 17, 2016 at 11:32 am

    Does the “leg-breaker” have the initials DL and did the leg belong to Steve Gammon?

    That was a very sad event.

    Thanks for the memories Mr. Woosnam or whatever nom-de-plume you are using today.

    BTW I use my real name.
17. Dai Woosnam says:

    March 19, 2016 at 6:03 am

    Colin,
    Thanks for the thanks.
    And I regret to say that David Brian Woosnam is my true name…just a weak joke from me in my last contribution.
    Oh and btw, Colin, I was ahead of you on the Denis Law thing…note my reference to Huddersfield above.
    That tackle on Steve Gammon, lives in my memory. I can see it now…right in front of the dugouts.
    I know AMO is convinced it was deliberate. I am not sure. But what is incontrovertible is that it was incredibly reckless. And Law was not even booked, let alone dismissed.
    How careers change eh, with one tackle.
    Had it been the other way round, Law would never have gone on to Torino and then heady days as part of the Holy Trinity at Old Trafford, with those springheeled leaps and electric acceleration being his trademark (along with his “arm raised” goal celebration).
    A physically broken forever Law, would perhaps have gone to non-league Kettering as player manager, and faded into obscurity.
    And the equally springheeled Steve Gammon would have gone on to captain Wales and be as brilliant and successful a wing half at Old Trafford as Paddy Crerand.
    If only…
    But …
    “If ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ were a pot and pan
    We’d have no use for a tinkerman”.
    DW

Comments are closed.