It was good to see Neil Harris, new assistant manager David Livermore and goalkeeping coach Andy Dibble present for the whole of yesterday’s goalless draw between Cardiff City under 23s and their Charlton Athletic counterparts at Leckwith and it must have been a boost for the young players to have the new boss watching them.
Someone who wasn’t there though was the man who had been in charge of the Development side this season, Andy Legg, who, according to this story in the local media, has left the club.
Although the report is short on detail, it appears that Leggy’s departure so soon after Neil Harris’ arrival is coincidental and is part of an internal review of the club’s Academy which began before our new manager was appointed.
However, with the only person named in the report being someone who was not directly involved in the Academy and had been employed by the club for a relatively short period,, it would seem odd if the only change of personnel made in this restructuring of club policy in the age groups up to under 18 level was the bloke in charge of the under 23s – especially given the almost complete failure of the Academy to produce first team Cardiff City footballers for the majority of this decade.
It shouldn’t be forgotten of course that Craig Bellamy also left the club after very well publicised allegations of bullying, but the problem with City’s Academy dates back well before he and Leggy arrived at the club in a coaching/management capacity. There is nothing to indicate any bullying on Leggy’s behalf I know of anyway and although I’m not going to break a confidence by going into more detail here, it is my understanding that any bullying of young Cardiff players did not begin and end with Craig Bellamy.
As to the game, I’ve remarked on here before this season that, under Leggy, the under 23s were playing in a manner more akin to Neil Warnock’s first team with plenty of long throws and long balls into the channels. Well, yesterday saw a return to the old, build from the back, more patient, passing style employed by this age group before this season and there was some effective and pleasing build up play at times from the team in a match that they were dominant in almost throughout.
It really was a game that Cardiff should have won as they constantly pushed a Charlton side unbeaten in six matches and sitting in third position in the table back onto the defensive.
When you consider that City had Joe Day in goal, Sol Bamba and Jazz Richards at the back and Danny Ward leading their attack and Charlton had those injury and suspension problems at first team level for the game on Saturday, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we were on top for long periods – especially as the visitors side looked to be a very young one.
In saying that, it was good to see youngsters such as Joel Bagan, Sam Bowen and Ntazana Mayembe all on the pitch for the whole ninety minutes. The first named shone in an unfamiliar left back role (he has played far more as a central defender for the Academy team), but Bowen (who was so good for Wales Under 19s against Kosovo last week) and Mayembe were well to the fore also.
So, with all of this dominance why was it that City didn’t win? For me, perhaps the main reason was that, for all of their, at times, slick build up play, they tended to run out of ideas in the final third and the quality of the final ball wasn’t good enough.
It wasn’t until well into the second half that Charlton’s rather unconvincing keeper Nathan Harness was given any serious work to do – until then it had all tended to be about crosses that were just out of an attacker’s reach or dogged defending by the visitors.
The truth is that Charlton should have won because they squandered a penalty given to them in the first ten minutes when Bamba and Day got into a mess dealing with what seemed a straightforward long ball and the keeper was forced to bring down an opposing forward – City got lucky as centre forward Okran blazed the resultant penalty well over the bar.
Luck was against the home side shortly afterwards mind when Harness was completely beaten by a fiercely stuck long range effort by Bagan which looked to hit the junction of post and crossbar. I’ve seen it said that the shot came from twenty five yards out, while someone else claimed it was five yards further out than that, but I would say that it might have been from as far as thirty five yards.
Bowen wasn’t too far over from about twenty five yards either, but the fact that it was long range shots that City came closest from in the first half tended to emphasise their inability to create what I would call proper scoring chances – for example, I cannot remember Ward having any sort of opportunity as, a few nice flicks and first time passes aside, he was kept pretty quiet.
Jacob Evans, again from long range, finally tested Harness in the second half and the way the keeper dealt with the shot suggested to me that City should adopt a shoot on sight policy but although the keeper was given more to do, he was never seriously tested and Charlton were able to extend their unbeaten tun without ever suggesting, the missed penalty apart, that they had a goal in them.
