Another of these weekly quizzes, but, with football started in Germany with some very enjoyable matches that I didn’t think suffered too badly from not having spectators present, perhaps the real thing will be back here sooner than expected?
Also, here’s what I thought was a very nice Peter Whittingham tribute by former City manager Malky Mackay which appeared on the View from the Ninian website last week that you may have missed.
Back to the quiz, the normal twenty questions on Cardiff City dating back to the sixties with the answers to be posted on here on Friday.
1.Born in an area that used to be represented by a beast, he started his career with the village he was born in, before moving on to a team currently in what is the Premiership of non league football in his country. When he moved on, he was originally reported as on the verge of becoming an Essex man, but, instead, he decided to keep on wearing red and opted for the home of the National Trust. He didn’t move too far next and enjoyed success in a record breaking title win for a side that has flirted with the Premier League in recent years. On the face of it, his next transfer represented a continuation of the upward direction of his career, but his one season in an area a long way from where he was used to performing was not really a success and he returned to somewhere close to what he had come to regard as home as he changed colour for the first time – who am I describing?
2. He began his career playing for his home town side alongside another native of the same seaside resort who he would team up with later in his career and did well enough to earn a move into the Football League to a club that was once Arabic, but are thought of more as picaroons or a fuel these days. He did well with his new side, scoring a hat trick in under five minutes once and he also set a club goalscoring record which stands to this day. A move to the top flight followed and having broken his scoring duck in his first season at the higher level, he was top scorer in his second, not that it did him or his club a lot of good. A move back down the leagues soon followed as he headed for the Home counties and what probably qualifies as commuter land – who is he?
3. This player was released by a club with a famed Academy at the time at a very young age, but landed on his feet as he was taken on by one of the “big six”. It was a long and testing road he travelled to reach the first team, but he got there and was part of the squad which travelled to take part in a, fairly, prestigious international competition. Loaned out to blues who had a former player of his parent club in a management position and then to a foreign side for whom the same thing applied, he became a member of the first team squad before another loan move to a nearby boundary. When he returned, he made a first league start for his parent club, but the decision appeared to have been made that he would be moving on after further loans to the White Rose coast, isolated northerners and whites who he eventually signed for permanently after his release. He crossed a border to a capital in a further loan move, but didn’t really grasp the opportunity he had been given and left early. His wandering continued with further temporary moves to London local rivals, one of which he joined for keeps, can you identify him?
4. Cardiff was the second Welsh club this injury plagued defender played for. In between times, he was a sharp operator in Yorkshire – his only City goal came in what could be described I suppose as a local derby, what’s his name?
5. In the noughties, which pair of England internationals, with a total of sixty caps between them, in their final seasons as contracted Football League players were involved in a 2-0 defeat at Ninian Park which, to all intents and purposes ended their team’s prospects of a first ever promotion to the Premier League?
6. One of the Cardiff promotion winning squads since 1963 contained five members whose next club after City were in the USA – which season does this apply to and who were the five players?
7. Name these two players, they both scored four times in a match against us during the eighties – one of them was playing for a side he subsequently was appointed caretaker manager of on four occasions, while the other one was playing for a team he went on to score for in an FA Cup Semi Final.
8. Deny Val is altered, but someone let in all of those goals!
9. More like olive I’d say!
10. 11,233 represented what to Cardiff City in July 2019?
11. Which blink and you would have missed him City winger started out at the same club his father played for, went on loan to Bristol Rovers, then signed for yellow/amber university types before dropping into non League football with a short distance move to “the Blanketmen” before, somewhat bafflingly, we signed him? He never played a League game for us, but his only two matches for the club were both against Swansea.
12. In the last thirty years, City have had a season where, having ended a run of fourteen matches without a win, they promptly went on a twelve game unbeaten run (in both cases, in all competitions) – name the season.
13. Another name the season question. In which season in the dim and distant past was City’s top scorer going into December a full back with five goals, one of which was a header? Also, who was the player?
14. This English born Cardiff Academy product is now playing league football in a third decade having played first team football for five different clubs based in three different countries – he has never been sent off in his senior career, but who is he?
15. It started on a never to be forgotten night in April 1968 and ended, in torrential rain as I recall it, on a muggy Cardiff night in September 1976 in far more mundane circumstances – what am I describing?
16. Which Welsh international and future manager of Air Force Central, who has also worked as a coach for Arsenal Ladies and the Bangladesh and Vietnam national teams, was recruited by City at very short notice, but found his way into the first team barred by the arrival of another player in his position, who performed ordinarily at best as first choice, and never played a senior game for us?
17. Place me in a mess.
18. Decline shades I hear.
19. A way of making sure a wet thoroughfare is heard?
20. The fiftieth goal conceded by City this season reduced someone to tears, who was it?
Answers
- Aden Flint was born in Pinxton (a village in the “Beast of Bolsover” Dennis Skinner’s one time constituency) and, after reportedly being on the brink of signing for Colchester, he opted to team up with Swindon after impressing at his second side, Alfreton. Establishing himself in league football as a goalscoring central defender, he signed for a Bristol City side that eventually walked away with the League One title and handled the transition to the Championship with few problems. The reported £7 million Middlesbrough paid for Flint offered proof that he was a highly regarded centreback in this division, but they were happy to accept City’s lower offer for him last summer as he was signed as a replacement for Bruno Manga.
- Dai Ward played in the same Barry Town side as Derek Tapscott who he would later partner in attack at City, Ward signed for Bristol Rovers in 1954 having been on Cardiff’s books as a youngster. He scored a four minute hat trick for Rovers against Doncaster and also set a club record by scoring in eight consecutive league games, Ward returned to Cardiff towards the end of the 60/61 season and got a goal at Everton before the season ended. In 61/62, he scored twenty one times in all competitions as City lost form completely after a promising start to the campaign and were relegated – a return like that suggested Ward had more than done his bit though and there was some incredulity when he was sold to Watford in the summer of 1962.
- Ben Amos was not considered good enough by Crewe Alexandra who released him at the age of ten. However, Manchester United then took him on and he worked his way through the ranks to get involved with the first team as he made the squad for the 2008 World Club Championship. Having been loaned to Barry Fry’s Peterborough and Ole’s Molde. Amos established himself as United’s third choice keeper on his return, but the signing of Anders Lindegaard signalled more loan moves to Hull, Carlisle and Bolton for whom he signed when United let him go. Amos was signed by Paul Trollope on loan for the 16/17 season, but he wasn’t convincing and was one of the players whose cause was not helped by the arrival of Neil Warnock. Returning to Bolton, he was loaned again to Charlton (his current club) and Millwall.
- Dave Powell played for Sheffield United in between spells with Wrexham and City – he scored for us in a 1-1 draw at Swindon in 1974.
- Martin Keown (43 caps) was in the starting line up for a Reading side which lost to a relegation threatened City team in April 2005 – Les Ferdinand (17 caps) came on as a half time substitute.
- 1975/76 squad members Bill Irwin, Clive Charles, Mike England, Adrian Alston and Willie Anderson all went on to play for clubs in the USA after they left the club.
- Mark Lillis scored four times for Huddersfield against us at Leeds Road in 82/83 and Chesterfield’s Andy Morris did the same at Saltergate in 88/89.
- Lyn Davies.
- Matt Green.
- The distance travelled by the squad in miles to play their pre season matches, comprising Cardiff to Taffs Well 6 miles, to San Antonio 4,867 miles, on to Albuquerque 715 miles, then to Edmonton, 1.636 miles, before a 4,139 mile trip back to Cardiff.
- Phil Lythgoe and his father Derrick both played for Norwich City. Phil signed for Oxford United when he was released by the Canaries and then played for Witney after leaving them. It was from here that Len Ashurst signed him on a short term contract in 1982 – not eligible for league games, he was selected in both legs of the 1981/82 Welsh Cup Final with Swansea.
- In 1993/94, City won at 3-1 at Fulham on 21 August then didn’t win again until they beat Afan Lido 2-0 at Ninian Park in the Welsh Cup on 26 October – their next defeat after that wasn’t until December 14 when they were beaten 3-2 in the Associates Members Cup at Wycombe.
- In 1972/73, Gary Bell had scored five times in all competitions by mid October and was not overhauled as top scorer until Bobby Woodruff scored twice in a 4-1 over Sheffield Wednesday on 9 December. All of Bell’s goals came from penalties, but with one of them he netted with a follow up header after Jeff Wealands of Hull had saved his spot kick.
- Aaron Wildig, best known in his Cardiff career for the assist which led to Michael Chopra’s last gasp winner against the Jacks in 2010, was loaned to Hamilton Academicals and Shrewsbury (for whom he later signed permanently). While at Shrewsbury, he was loaned out to Kidderminster and Morecambe – he signed for the latter upon his release at Shrewsbury and scored three times for them in their last five matches before fixtures were stopped due to the virus.
- Richie Morgan’s first team career at Cardiff City. His debut was in the famous 1-0 win over Moscow Torpedo in Augsburg in a Cup Winners’ Cup Quarter Final replay and his last appearance was in a 0-0 draw with Millwall at Ninian Park in which he got injured and City had to bring in Paul Went to replace him – the emergence of Keith Pontin a few months later meant there was no way back into the first team for Morgan.
- When Tom Heaton and David Marshall were both injured late in the 10/11 season, Dave Jones brought Jason Brown in from Blackburn on an emergency loan, only to then sign Steven Bywater a day later as his first choice – Brown, surely, couldn’t have done any worse than Bywater in the Play Off disaster against Reading which turned out to be the manager’s last game in charge.
- Lee Camp.
- Wayne Hughes.
- Mike Ford.
- Yakou Meite scored Reading’s equaliser in the first FA Cup match against City at the Madejski Stadium and then burst into tears because it was his first game back after being given time off following the death of his father.
