If I had to pick just one moment which went to the heart of why Cardiff City were able to, if anything, beat an Ipswich Town side which had not won in their previous six games, but had also not lost in their last eight, even more convincingly than the 3-1 scoreline suggests then it came late in the match.
A ball was played down City’s right close to the touchline about forty yards from the Ipswich goal and Kenneth Zohore set off after it pursued by Ipswich’s Christophe Berra. My first thought was that Zohore would not be able to stop the ball going out for a throw in, but, as he has done on tens of occasions in the year or so since he’s been here, the Danish striker proved I was underestimating his pace and acceleration.
Zohore kept the ball in play easily and then faced up to the challenge of taking on his marker. It’s hard to describe exactly what happened next, but Berra was left sprawling on the floor as Zohore sped past him – the Ipswich player had become the latest in what is now a pretty long list of Championship central defenders who have found Zohore too hot to handle.
That one incident lasting no more than fifteen seconds was a microcosm of what went on throughout the ninety minutes – Ipswich’s defenders coming second in their confrontations with Zohore, but it was more than that, they were often second best in their encounters with other City attackers as well.
I’ll stick with Zohore for now though and, having been mildly critical of him after last weekend’s draw with Birmingham, I would argue that his response to a display which fell short of the high standards he has been setting for himself in the last few months, was to go and put on what I would say was his best performance so far for us in his next game.
Perhaps the main reason why I rate Zohore’s work yesterday afternoon as his most impressive for us up to now is because of the players he was up against. Berra is a thirty four times capped Scottish international who since moving south from Hearts in 2009, has played all of his football at this level or the one above it – he recently passed a combined total of three hundred appearances in his time with Wolves and Ipswich.
Berra always presents a big physical challenge for whoever he is marking and yesterday seemed to be not too bothered if he stopped his opponent by fair means or foul. His persistent fouling eventually earned him a yellow card, but it seemed to me, and quite a few other City fans by the sound of it, that referee James Linington gave the big centre half the benefit of the doubt on a number of occasions following a series of challenges which the official must have deemed to be robust, but fair.
I believe that for the first nine months of his time with City, Zohore may well have gone into his shell in the face of Berra’s aggression, but not any more – he appeared to relish it here and, by the end, there could be no doubt at all about who had been the victor in the battle between the two men.
Kenneth Zohore made it two goals in three out of our last four home games yesterday. That’s nine in ten games now and it looks increasingly as if Kenwyne Jones will finally have some company on the list of players who have made it into double figures for us in a season since 2012 – the thing with Zohore though is that he will have got to ten or more while, effectively, only playing half a season.*
However, it didn’t end there, because playing alongside Berra was one time City target, Luke Chambers who, in the ten years since he left Northampton, has played all of his football at Championship level, apart from his first season and half with Forest when they were in League One – Chambers has played over four hundred games for Forest and Ipswich combined and I make it that all but sixty four of them have been in the Championship.
Ipswich started the match with a back three that also included New Zealand international Tommy Smith who has missed much of the season through injury. However Smith has been a rock in the Ipswich defence in previous seasons making a total of nearly two hundred and forty appearances for the club, all while they have been in the Championship.
So, Ipswich came here with a vastly experienced central defensive threesome who have racked up something like eight hundred Championship appearances between them – that stat alone should be enough to tell you that none of them are mugs at this level.
It’s also worth noting that, although manager Mick McCarthy had to be right when he talked about his team being in a relegation battle after a defeat which left them only five points above the bottom three, that Ipswich’s recent away form has been very good.
Since losing at Huddersfield on 21 January, Ipswich had won at Villa and drawn at Preston, Brighton, Norwich and Barnsley, while conceding just four goals in those matches.
So, with a strong base at the back and good away form behind them, Ipswich would have been confident about getting something from yesterday’s game, especially after taking the lead early on with a Chambers header from former City loanee Tom Lawrence’s free kick.
However, even though the teams were level at 1-1 at half time, this didn’t stop McCarthy withdrawing Smith at the break as he sought to match City’s 4-4-2 after an opening forty five minutes in which the home side had been able to create enough opportunities to claim, with some justification, that they could have been a couple of goals ahead.
By the end of the match, Ipswich, who had only conceded more than two on their travels this season at Newcastle before yesterday, and had been managing to keep sides above us in the table down to one goal or less on their travels, could easily have let in double the three they did ship – they joined Preston, Rotherham and Fulham, among others, in not being able to cope with the revelation that is Kenneth Zohore.
Just as against the last two named, Zohore scored twice, with one of the goals being another to add to a litany of eye catching ones the player, who now joins the Danish Under 21 squad for the next week, has managed this season.
Yesterday’s candidate for a Zohore goal of the season award owed much to a delicious back heal from Junior Hoilett which left him in on goal, but, having provided the pass to the Canadian in the first place, City’s top scorer finished very impressively, as he appeared to give keeper Bartosz Bialkowski the “eyes” before sending him the wrong way with a left footed shot from the edge of the penalty area.
That goal put us 2-1 up, but, in a way, it was Zohore’s first that I enjoyed more. His sharp, close range finish after Sean Morrison’s header from Jazz Richards’ cross, following a quickly taken free kick by Peter Whittinhgam free kick which caught out a dozy visiting defence, was the sort of poacher’s goal he has not scored enough of.
It was a good striker’s goal which offered some hope that Zohore can develop into a great goalscorer as well as a scorer of great goals. There’ll need to be more evidence that this might be the case and, as yet, he’s not been able to dominate a defence at the top of the league in the way has done some of those a bit further down the table, but, increasingly, our centre forward is looking a highly effective and influential Championship performer who may well have enough about him to do well at higher levels than this.
However, not all of the reasons for the fact that we have, completely contrary to most of what we saw in the first half of the campaign, looked pretty potent at times going forward in the last few months can be put down to Kenneth Zohore.
Whilst the Dane gave three experienced centrebacks a torrid afternoon, Ipswich right back/right wing back Jordan Spence’s suffering had little to do with Zohore – it was Kadeem Harris who he must have been heartily sick of the sight of after ninety minutes spent largely in the winger’s slipstream.
Right from the first minute, Harris looked out to make up for his illness related absence for all but the last couple of minutes of last weekend’s match and he was the catalyst behind a fast City start which suggested that the game might not turn out to be the tight struggle that I, and quite a few others including Neil Warnock, thought it would be.
The damage the winger caused was a reason why, far from being a dour and cautious affair, the match turned into one of the better ones seen at Cardiff City Stadium this season. Harris had the beating of Spence all afternoon, but it wasn’t his long suffering marker who was the victim in Kadeem’s most effective piece of play, it was midfielder Cole Skuse who got turned inside out as the assist was provided for our third goal.
City were able to be good going forward in the first half despite me often forgetting Craig Noone was playing, such was his lack of impact. Noone improved after the break, but it was Hoilett who made up the third member of the attacking triumvirate that destroyed Ipswich.
I’ve already mentioned the backheel that provided the assist for our second goal, but there were other impressive parts to Hoilett’s game yesterday and it was an occasion where the experiment of playing him through the middle looked anything but that. Hoilett could have had a hat trick on another day, as he was unlucky to see his first half shot come back off the post and a second, placed, effort after cutting in from the right go just wide. However, he made a mess of what was his easiest chance and this rather told the story as to why he doesn’t get the goals someone of his talent should.
Even so, Hoilett’s relative lack of goals becomes less of a factor when a team is scoring them at the rate City are – it’s thirty five in the eighteen league games since we played Ipswich at Portman Road in early December.
That stat says it all about our transformation under Neil Warnock (by contrast, we scored just fourteen in the first eighteen matches played in all competitions this season) and probably the biggest achievement of Warnock’s time with us so far is how he has transformed a squad that were firing blanks into one which has been averaging just short of two goals a game for what is now getting towards half a season.
Hoilett was picked up for nothing, and, although others such as Pilkington, Whittingham, Ralls and Noone have played their part on the goalscoring front, I would argue that, essentially, it is he, Harris and Zohore who have been responsible our attacking improvement.
So, we are talking about a player who was without a club when Warnock came here and two others who were a long way down the attacking pecking order when he arrived that have played the biggest part in turning our season around. I’ve mentioned before that I view improving players at the club when they arrive is as much, if not more, of a criteria to judge a manager by as their work in the transfer market, but with our attacking trio who were so good yesterday, Neil Warnock has managed to show that he is able to pull rabbits out of the hat both in terms of transfer work and improving players.
Zohore was my Man of the Match with Harris and Hoilett not too far behind along with the almost always impressive Sol Bamba, whose speed and powers of recovery particularly stood out for me yesterday.
Joe Bennett got his first goal for the club when he made it 3-1 from close range just past the hour mark. The full back owed debt of gratitude to Kadeem Harris who produced a run and cross that made scoring a fairly easy task. While City’s hopes of keeping Bruno Manga (fit enough to be selected on the bench yesterday) this summer will be slim, they should be doing all that they can to ensure Harris stays at the club after his contract runs out.*
The three points took us one beyond our manager’s target of fifty. With Bristol City showing signs of life, Blackburn improving and Wigan looking increasingly likely to join the doomed Rotherham, it may be the third relegation place will go to a side that gets fifty points or more, but we don’t have to worry about relegation any more when we can play like we did yesterday – I don’t think getting us to fifty one points with twenty four still to be played for when you consider where we were five months ago, matches what Warnock achieved with Rotherham last year, but it is still mightily impressive.
To finish, I’d like to say a few words about a match I watched yesterday that portrayed Cardiff City in a completely different light to the one which followed a few hours later.
I’ve mentioned before that heavy defeats were inevitable for our Academy team when you consider they were often playing against players two and three years older than them. The view has been taken that the long term development of the players involved will be best served by them being tested in this way and so I suppose the proof of that pudding will be in the eating – that’s why I have tried to be understanding and sympathetic to the Under 18s since the turn of the year.
Yesterday lunchtime saw another one of those heavy defeats, but the difference this time was that the side beaten 4-0 by Birmingham at Leckwith contained a nucleus of players who have impressed recently for the Under 23s when given a chance at that level.
What disappointed me yesterday was the lack of impact made by those players with experience at the level above this one. To be fair, City were very unfortunate to fall behind in the last few minutes of a first half they had largely dominated when a simple ball over the top caught the defence square and the covering left back Alfie Bowman conceded a penalty which was put away by Odin Bailey for the visitors.
I was a long way away from the penalty incident, but it looked like the referee got his decision right to me. However, City’s luck was out again on the hour when the official ignored what looked an obvious foul on Sion Spence, only to penalise City a few seconds later on the edge of their area – Bailey this time netting from the free kick as his effort beat George Ratcliffe on his near post.
However, although they could complain about how it happened, City going 2-0 down also owed a lot to how poorly they had performed since falling behind – there was a complete lack of punch in attack and, although they had plenty of the ball, nothing was being done with it, as Birmingham were perfectly content to let us play in front of them.
A simple goal by Chisholm three minutes later and a poor one conceded from a corner late on gave the visitors what was, in the end, an easy win. I suppose coming back to a windswept Leckwith after you’ve been praised for your play in the big stadium across the road against teams containing senior players in some cases, might be a hard adjustment to make, but City were poor yesterday, with only Keenan Patten, who stuck to his guns in his sitting midfield role fairly well, doing himself justice out of those who came in from the Under 23 team.
*pictures courtesy of http://www.walesonline.co.uk/
The stats you offer Paul are brilliant and I totally agree that the forward line was on fire yesterday. I would like to add that while people were calling the players as not good enough in the OGS, slade and Trollope era, I took the opposite stance. Our players could not be that bad as most of those had been the part of a very succcessful Cardiff city it had to be in the management of those players. I think I have said enough about slade but I believe he destroyed the confidence of many a Cardiff city player.
He also brought players in which were sub standard to the players we had and so the continual decline in the teams performance carried on.
Having taken in the fresh air of Switzerland I arrived at CCS and breathed in the atmosphere of the stadium and it’s getting so much better.
What a breath of fresh air Warnock is and how he has inspired the players to produce a game like yesterday’s.
Yes we need to consistently produce the game we saw yesterday and I am sure Warnock will keep them on their toes until the final game.
While everyone was worried about our position at the start of the season I didn’t have that problem the team was always good enough. Last year we should have been promoted but with slade in charge that was never going to happen. 8th in the league was a terrible finish with the team we had.
We needed a manager to manage and one that could knit together the broken bones of the Cardiff city family and Warnock has done just that.
We need to put the past behind us and put the passion back into the games from all corners and move forward together again.
Thanks Paul it’s disappointing to read your reflections on yesterday’s development performance, it worries, me that rather than these very young players learning from these big defeats against older teams ,there confidence is taking too bit a hit , and will that have long term damage.??
As you correctly point out Kenneth was (too hot to handle ) and is looking like a player we may struggle to keep ,as strikers are not that readly available, and bigger financed clubs will just sccoop up any promising talent just to ensure other clubs are lacking fire power up front, ie the highly financed Birmingham era , in the Championship .
As you say Harris was superb yesterday and when we have that formation with Harris at 10 we are a class act at this level, just need a Mcphail type of player to provide killer passes down those channels the front lads are creating.
The defence is beginning to look very promising indeed , add in a fit available Manga and a decent keeper , that would provide a brillant backbone.
I thought we looked like a top six side yesterday and Warnock has proven his worth,over and over again , and very importantly showed us that simple uncomplicated football does succeed, just ask Leicester fans .
Thanks again Paul, for the usual wonderful Sunday read, your the Warnock of City blogs .
Oh , finally a request, can we now refer to Kenneth as “” too hot to handle “” a great track by the Black Crows , penned by the glorious Otis Redding.
Thank you for the always enjoyable Sunday morning read.
I don’t think any of us have seen such a transformation of a player as has been the case with Zohore. He now looks the complete package at championship level, surely its only a matter of time before he scores his first league treble.
Agree that out of all of the out of contract players Harris is the must keep priority. As good a player as Manga is, I believe he is a luxury we can no longer afford to keep and unfortunately I would put Whitts in that bracket as well.
Things seem to be shaping up nicely for next season, a creative goal scoring midfieder, quality keeper and possibly another striker and the top six is achievable.
That’s more like and if we had played with the same shape against Birmingham we would have won that comfortably. Two fast wing men with the ability to run at a defender is the way to go, and in my opinion we must hold on to Hoillett and Harris.
Ipswich were very poor and there doesn’t seem to be many good sides in the Championship, none that we have seen at CCS that you would think would establish themselves in the Premier League (we have yet to entertain Newcastle). Fulham have the potential but their defence appears to be a touch flaky (lost at home to Wolves yesterday, conceding three?).
Bamba excellent again yesterday, did a lot of covering for Bennett and on one of those occasions gave away the free-kick (linesman was wrong) that led to their goal, also a suspicion that there was a push by Chambers but I didn’t have a good view on that one.
Think the International break comes at a good time for us, plenty of time for Zohore to recover from his knock (he is improving with every game, his strength and pace takes the opposition by surprise) and hopefully Ralls will be available.
Well, I renewed my season ticket yesterday morning and on yesterday’s performance perhaps I won’t regret that.
Paul – thanks as ever for your views and news. Quite where you find this statistical information never fails to amaze me, so please keep them coming.
Yesterday I bought a programme for the first time this season and, browsing through, was surprised to learn that we have used 32 players so far this season ( including 5 goalkeepers ). Of this number, 8 have been shipped out either permanently or on loan to other clubs. So that set me wondering how many players have each Championship Club used this season. Without going on to each Club’s website, a laborious task, I could not find the answer. With your particular skill, is there anyway you are able to establish this information?
I am interested in these facts as NW has stated on more than one occasion how thin on the ground we are when it comes to having a competent bench to support the eleven who start each match. It occurs to me that if we still have 24 who have played first team football this year, there are quite a few of that number that he does not rate. End of season departures could be many.
We all know how tough a league is the Championship, so I am sure NW will wish to considerably strengthen his squad if we are to mount a serious challenge for the top two places, and will need more than just a couple of players so that there are real challenges for a position in the starting eleven. In stating that, I do hope, as many on your blog have mentioned, that one or two of the Development Squad are given a chance in the remaining fixtures of this season. Hopefully, I will be at their fixture to-morrow evening.
Yesterday’s game was probably one of our easiest in terms of our performance against very limited opposition. Once the early excellent movement of Lawrence evaporated, there was little to cause the anxieties that normally seem to penetrate our defence’s minds in the latter stages of a match, and I never feared for the result. In fact, I was rather hoping that Hoillett would reap the rewards of a fine showing by scoring a fourth goal when presented with that opportunity late on, but he fluffed his lines. Zahore, Harris, Bamba and Gunnerson also impressed, whereas previous heroes in the shape of Noone and Whittingham sadly did not. We, therefore, have the makings of a good side which with the improvements I have previously alluded to should make us even better next year. Mr Tan, please be kind enough to open your wallet a little wider than originally intended.
Back to yesterday, I agree with Colin that Chambers seemed to lean on Gunners to score his goal, but I repeat earlier comments made by me throughout this campaign that we really must defend crosses better.
One final point. Only Blackburn and Wigan are below us in terms of attendance percentages relating to ground capacity. I too will be renewing my season ticket next year and if NW is given a little more dosh, then perhaps this statistic will improve.
Great report and stats from the blogmeister as usual.
A bit cruel of BJA to ask him to find out how many players each of the other 23 Championship clubs have used this season!
An interesting comparison I’m sure but don’t do it Paul! Life is too short.
I think the main reason for Zohore’s return to form after his blip against Birmingham was that he did not have the confusion of playing with Pilkington as joint striker.
Whether our line-up could be described more accurately as 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 there was no doubt that essentially Zohore was the striker and Hoillett the provider.
In contrast when Pilkington played alongside Zohore the former seemed to regard himself as the Alpha male with Zohore uncertain of his role.
Zohore is rapidly becoming the Championship’s Lukaku and well suited to playing as a sole striker.
Incidentally I think Bennett deserves more praise than he has been given for the way he took his goal.After playing the short pass to Harris he ran intelligently into space for the return then steered his shot past the keeper and two defenders.
Thanks, Paul – better than the Sunday papers! Sounds like a great win – went down well in these parts (Norwich). I was at Carrow Road Saturday (no shifting in allegiances, just geographical necessity). Very decent match, Barnsley just a bit wasteful in front of goal. But, they featured a couple of handy Welsh lads – ‘keeper Davies and midfielder/sub Hedges…very tall, but pacey, with quick feet.
best,
Lindsay
Whoops – just found out that the Dev. match against Sheff Utd that I referred to is now not tonight, but switched to Thursday 30th of this month and at Leckwith and in the afternoon. Shame that.
Hi Paul and everyone. What a match for a 5o year reunion celebration! I was in Cardiff for the weekend to meet up with 20 Cardiff uni graduates of 1965-1968 and had persuaded 5 of them to come to the match with me – I was going for sure as I usually manage one match a year from Cornwall and this was it. None of the others had seen City play since leaving Cardiff and Ninian Park in 1968. They included two Arsenal s supporters and one Man U so I was hopeful they would see a quality game and we were certainly not disappointed. All of them were very impressed by the stadium, the quality of our play – especially Zohore – and the price of our tickets – none of them are used to paying just £18 (seniors!). I have relied on your blog to keep me up to date (objectively!) with everything everything at City for the past few years – many thanks.
Mike Herbert
PS: I think I recall an earlier blog when AMO bemoaned the fact that he had given away all his old autographs. I still have duplicate autographs on Birmingham City programmes from an away game I went to in the early 60’s – he may have even been there himself. If he wants to get in touch I would be happy to let him have one of the programmes. In those days the players travelled back in the same train as the fans and, while they had separate compartments they were happy to spill out and sign for us!
To Mike Herbert,
Thanks for your kind offer, Mike, but a signed programme from that era would remind me too much of those I let go so many years since. I had signed photos of virtually every Cardiff player from the late fifties onwards, and some who had played in the ‘forties — all in a large scrap book, and all sold for the princely sum of , I think, five shillings. I do remember a gang of us from Pontypridd (Brian Martin, etc.) travelling to watch Cardiff play Birmingham City, and I guess you and I were possibly on the same train. Apart from that, and the fact I travelled on a platform ticket, I recall very little of the game or the occasion. Sadly, I’m often in the same boat when it comes to recent games these days, but I still enjoy the thrill of it all, just as we did all those years ago at Ninian Park.
As for Saturday’s game, Zohore has certainly improved, even to the extent of using his right foot on one occasion, though the shot missed the goal by quite a large margin. He did take his goalshi very well, of course, but a lot of praise should go to those who assisted him — an excellent right foot cross from the right by Richards, and a superb cushioned header from Morrison, which Zohore volleyed home; and for the second, a very clever back-heel from Hoilett (who, incidentally, I think should be the dead-ball kingpin as an alternative to the total reliance on the left foot of Whittingham). For me, however, the man-of-the-match accolade should go to Bamber: he was like a striking cobra in the way he won the ball on so many occasions. And as the above reports and comments reveal, there is a now a sense of purpose and optimism about Cardiff City which had been lacking for too long. The possibilities for next season appear great, and if you do manage to make one (or even more) forays to Cardiff, let me know and we could link up as of yore.
In my comment above I was guilty of an egregious typo. Instead of writing “Bamba” I wrote “Bamber”, that well known hardman defender in the Nobby Styles tradition who made a living on the side and on TV asking people lined up on two levels, one above the other, difficult questions on just about everything. Mention of “Bamba”, however, reminds me of the famous Ritchie Valens song of years gone by: “Para bailar la Bamba, Se necesita una poca de gracia”. Literally, To do the Bamba dance, you need a little bit of grace. I think “grace” in this context could mean something like “gaining approval from someone”. This is how I see Sol Bamba. The song goes on to say “I’m not a sailor,I I am a captain”. Again, this is the real Bamba, as we see when he is encouraging his players or shouting orders in the manner of a natural leader. In fact, I’d love to hear the Cardiff crowds singing his praises with their own rendition of La Bamba.
Hello everyone and thank you for the usual set of insightful and interesting replies.
Just a few quick comments on some of the points raised.
1. Barry, I still don’t think that our squads for the previous two seasons were as good as you do, but I’m in complete agreement with you about how, besides getting results on the pitch, Neil Warnock has helped rejuvenate things off it.
2.Russell, one thing that came across in Mick McCarthy’s post match interview was that, while he was obviously more concerned by his sides’s performance, he did say City were impressive – we’ve been inconsistent this year and there have been times when we’ve been terrible, but, unlike last season when we ended up pretty close to the top six, there have been a few games this season (e.g. Huddersfield, Wolves in the second half, Villa, Leeds, Rotherham, Fulham and Saturday) when we’ve looked like a possible Play Off team – I can only think of the Brighton match last year when you could say that.
3. Jeff, I’d be surprised if one of Bruno or Whitts is with us next season and, to be honest, I’m not too hopeful about Kadeem -there’s also Hoilett to consider as well (think he’ll sign a new deal unless he is asking for ridiculous money).
4. I went down there to renew my season ticket yesterday (also got my ticket for the Kevin McNaughton game and the Women’s Champions League Final). Regarding Ipswich’s goal, I had a very good view of the tackle which Bamba was penalised for and thought the linesman got it right. Sol was just a bit late with his tackle, but having not given the matter much thought at the time, the pictures on Cardiff City World make it look like there was a foul on Gunnar by Chambers – at the time I though Warnock was complaining about the foul given against Bamba, but now I believe he upset by the decision to allow the goal.
5. BJA, I was going to agree with Mike about your request for stats on how many players each Championship club have used this season, but found this
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/championship/eingesetztespieler/wettbewerb/GB2
as is nearly always the case, the more players you, the further down the table you tend to be. In our case, I would say that only about half of the players we’ve used so far are currently realistic first team contenders.
6. Mike, interesting thoughts about Zohore and who plays alongside him. Actually “alongside” is not the best word to use, because I feel he prefers, and is more effective, when he’s up there by himself with someone playing in a number ten type role behind him. I think Pilkington, Harris and, possibly, Whitts could be contenders for that role, but, although he is a little bit hit or miss when he plays there, we do tend to look good going forward is Hoilett is playing well in that position.
7. Lindsay, Hedges is a new name to me (see Barnsley signed him from the jacks on transfer deadline day), but Davies impresses me every time I see him – he’s up there with the best keepers in the division in my view and he should have been in the Wales squad for Friday’s match. There’s also Tom Bradshaw and someone who I saw us linked with a while back, Marley Watkins, for Chris Coleman to consider.
8. It’s great that you had such a good game for an occasion like that Mike, but, truth be told, I’d say that about one in two home games played under Warnock have offered good entertainment. that’s not a bad ratio at all and, speaking as someone who thought we’d be watching functional, but effective, football under him, I must say Colin has been a breath of fresh air in many ways when compared to what we have had to watch from recent managers.
9. Anthony, I always try really hard not to be the sort of things were much better in my day type bore who used to annoy me about forty years ago, but, when it comes to songs from fans, they were so much better back in the 60s and 70s – something to the tune of La Bamba would be great, but it’s never going to happen these days because our lot only ever seem to sing about four songs.
Paul – many thanks for leading me to the site – I knew that if anyone could find the answer, an Old Cantonian could.