Well, the players may change, the manager may change, but one thing which is almost guaranteed come early August is that Cardiff City will bow out or the League Cup at the First Round stage.
Last season was an exception as we somehow scraped past Sutton United by 3-2, thereby probably ensuring First Round defeats for the next five years or so.
“Pathetic” is the word which springs to mind when I consider the litany of humiliations City have suffered at the hands of various lower league sides down the years since we reached the Final of the competition a decade ago, while when we’ve been drawn against other Championship sides in the First Round we’ve tended to be hammered.
Occasionally of course, we get hammered by a lower league side – Northampton did it to the tune of 3-0 two years ago and tonight Portsmouth won by the same score at Cardiff City Stadium.
I mentioned the word pathetic earlier, but there is a very slight possibility that I’m being harsh on City there, because I only have the Radio Wales commentary to go on at the moment. However, based on what Andy Legg was coming out with, I think the description is justified because what Leggy was saying should be setting alarm bells ringing even if there were ten changes from the starting line up at Reading.
It’s not the lack of presence in the opposition penalty or the poor quality on the final ball that most concerned me on this occasion. As it stands, we’re getting used to that after watching our first two matches, it was more about Leggy talking regarding how Portsmouth were stronger and more committed than us and that was something I thought applied equally at Reading.
However, for a side that, it seems, has been outmuscled in its last two games, we already have a shocking disciplinary record with ten yellow cards (two of them to Perry Ng in the Norwich match) and a straight red card shown to Vontae Campbell late on tonight already.
It needs to be said as well that I still don’t get why Curtis Nelson was not sent off on Saturday after the penalty he gave away and tonight Leggy spotted Kion Etete twice elbowing an opponent after he came on as a sub (apparently, the video of the match confirms one of the elbowing incidents).
I don’t know what Steve Morison said after the game tonight, but I think the nature of our last two defeats means the pressure is on against Birmingham this Saturday lunchtime.
This was another of those games like a few we saw in the seasons where we sometimes looked like we didn’t want the ball and yet occasionally we’d dominate possession – unfortunately, all that would do was showcase our lack of creativity and attacking punch.
Unlike our two league matches we had what looks like an acceptable level of goal attempts tonight, there were fourteen of them, but then you notice that only one of them was on target. This came when Gavin Whyte and Jaden Philogene (two players who quite impressed Leggy in the first half) combined only for the former to denied by a great goal line block by Sean Raggett. Mark Harris also touched in a shot by Vontae Campbell, but the goal was ruled out for offside as City generally had the better of things before the interval.
I’m not going to bother much more about this game except to record that, in a one sided second half, Joe Piggott with a strange bobbling effort after a Nelson blunder gave Portsmouth the lead, Ronan Curtis made it two after Nelson gave away what is becoming his usual penalty and then Colby Bishop scored with a header from a corner to complete the scoring within a fourteen minute period.
Meanwhile the signings keep on coming with centreback Josh Simpson joining us on a two year contract from Rangers for an undisclosed fee. Simpson, who it appeared we were on the brink of signing in January 2021 from Bournemouth, is a left sided centre half, so you would think he’s coming here to be a first team player, but one possible cause for concern is that he did not play much first team football while at Ibrox Park.
The bad news is that it was reported today that City have turned down a bid, believed to be £2.5 million, from Burnley for Isaak Davies, but they really have left the door open for the Lancashire club to come back with an improved offer, I can’t help thinking that, with Craig Bellamy there as Richard Kompany’s Assistant, Burnley will be bidding again for Isaak.
Finally, the Under 21s continued their pre season programme this afternoon with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth thanks to a couple of goals by a “trialist number nine” and one from James Crole.
Morison made 10 changes to the side that started against Reading and I don’t think we can say that any one player had been next to the man immediately next to them in a fixture before last night. We’re allowed to make 5 subs this year so why not give players you think are closest to the first team 65 minutes with the first team and then make changes for those who need minutes for one reason or another? At least you then learn something about “the next cabs off the rank”.
I’m annoyed that Harris drifted offside so easily, I’m annoyed at everything throughout the second half, I’m annoyed at reaction from local press and manager really digging into all the players – at least Russell Martin pointed out that senior players *cough* Ralls, Nelson, Ojo *cough* were on the pitch and should be acting as leaders for younger lads – despite it being imperfect opportunity (by the manager’s hand) admittedly wasted by the players, and I’m annoyed at us going from giving Semenyo minutes at Anfield to buying a 22 year-old with just 9 caps in the SPL who looks just as if not more green.
It’s too early to say whether right move or wrong move but it doesn’t look good on paper to, for example, make noises about the academy one year then your youth captain CB (who has just had successful year playing LCB for Bristol Rovers) walk out the door and bring in a 25 year-old LCB whose not made waves in 9 Championship and 9 SPL appearances.
Is our academy so far away from producing required standard that (again on paper – please prove me wrong) that we’re bringing in players still in need of leaps in development but 2+ years older?
Massive credit to Tan and board for backing Morison this summer but I think you’re right to suggest that we need a performance this weekend as well as a result.
Thanks, Paul.
At the moment I am finding it difficult to “connect” to this Cardiff side. I disliked Steve Morison as a player and I’m not finding him that likeable as a manager.
My health is preventing my attendance these days so I have seen nothing of Tuesday’s game. I see no mention of the referee in your piece, I haven’t read all the posts on CCMB, but according to the BBC stats, Portsmouth only committed 3 fouls, very commendable, if unlikely.
Thanks both for your replies. DJ, I’ve now looked at that disallowed goal three or four times on the club website video and I still don’t know for sure who got the final touch, but if I had to make a decision it seems like an own goal to me and so the linesman surely has to be wrong if that’s the case? Signing two right backs one day always seemed odd to me – I thought Campbell did pretty well in some of the pre season matches, but that was a daft sending off and it was the second one in what, as you point out, is very much a fledgling career. Romeo has improved from his early games, but are either of them better than Ng, who looks like he’s going to struggle for a place at centreback, now we’ve signed a left sided centre half? Think you make a fair point about the young players who seem to have been stifled by the arrival of unproven performers in their mid twenties – I can remember being pleased by the appointment of Malky Mackay because he’d played a lot of youngsters at Watford, but we soon discovered that he was playing them only because Watford’s financial position meant he had to (to be fair, Maiky still used players like Ralls and Nugent in a title winning team and John in the Premier League) and it’s beginning to look like the same may apply with Morison here. Will Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies become regular starters in a side which, so far, lacks creativity and goal power when they’re fully fit? I have my doubts on that score.
Colin, I didn’t see the match live and have only watched brief highlights so, although the radio commentators weren’t overly impressed, I can’t say much about the ref. From what I’ve seen though, he was right on both the penalty and the sending off, but wrong perhaps on the disallowed goal (although that would be due more to a linesman error than a refereeing one).
Also, if you got the three fouls stat from the BBC, it was a wrong figure, as were my fourteen goal attempts, one on target ones that I used in my piece. Apparently, the original stats did not include a large portion of the first half and it turns out that we had twenty five goal attempts, but only three of them were on target and Portsmouth committed six fouls in the ninety minutes compared to out fifteen.