Alan Hansen’s second career as a TV pundit is, surely, best remembered for something he said early on in it about Manchester United after they were beaten by Aston Villa on the opening day of the season. The Manchester side featured quite a few of the “class of 92” who were still teenagers or in their very early twenties and Hansen opined on that night’s Match of the Day that you “win nothing with kids”.
Of course, Manchester United went on to win the title that year with a team which regularly featured the likes of Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and David Beckham to go along Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe who weren’t much older.
Hansen was clearly wrong, but you could see where he was coming from and tonight City’s team of mostly kids came a fairly distant second to an AFC Wimbledon side that had too much experience, power, know how and finishing ability for them as they eased to a 5-1 win in the EFL Cup round of 32 at Cardiff City Stadium.
People were, rightly, excited by a much less experienced City team’s 3-1 victory over Arsenal’s under 21s last month, but, apart from the first twenty minutes or so, it always felt like Wimbledon, who fielded what I’m fairly sure was their first choice back three and wing backs, were in control.
The disappointing aspect of the night for me was that with Matt Turner, Dylan Lawlor, Gabriel Osho, Joel Colwill, Cian Ashford. Omari Kellyman and Tanatswa Nyakuhwa all starting, City had a nucleus of players who have played a fair amount of first team football this season and yet none of them made a significant impression on the game – indeed some of them were downright poor (the younger, less experienced players were hardly going to prosper under such circumstances).
Not all of the players I named struggled – it was typical of Osho’s luck since joining us that he picked up an injury which forced him off at half time when the score was 1-0 and Ashford looked good on the too rare occasions he was involved in the game, but the rest will have been disappointed with their showings, although Lawlor did give us a reminder of what all the fuss is about with a thrilling run past four opponents before seeing his shot saved by the keeper.
Lawlor was beaten by the very impressive Aron Sasu for the first of his four goals as he went on to beat Turner on his near post on what was not a good night for our second choice keeper. Nyakuhwa had one of those games where nothing he tried came off, Colwill, who was captain for the night, looked lightweight and lacking in pace in a way he never has in his league appearances and Kellyman had some nice touches, but, as happens too often with him, he made no significant impact on proceedings.
Of the others, I thought Luey Giles did okay and our youngest ever player, Axel Donczew built on his decent showing on his debut against Newport with a nice bit of skill soon after coming on which gave him the chance to get away a shot that was, somewhat fortuitously, turned on to the crossbar by keeper McDonnell.
There was one debutante for City, Noah Williams came on in place of Osho and had a difficult first few minutes as the visitors scored three times in five minutes. City lost the ball cheaply on Williams’ side in the build up to Sasu’s second goal although there were others more culpable than him and he was unlucky when a corner skidded off his head into the path of Omar Bugiel who headed in the third at the far post. A crisp finish by Sasu made it four and gave him his hat trick shortly afterwards, but Williams settled after that and did some good things as the half wore on.
Sasu’s fourth came from a near post header from a deflected cross which Turner should have saved, but at least City got on the scoresheet late on when Giles’ free kick from twenty five yards found the net via a deflection.
City’s youth ranks were stretched by the fact that the under 21s also had a game this lunchtime at Barnsley from which they emerged with a creditable 1-1 draw, no details yet as to who scored for us.
Before the under 21s’ 1 pm kick off, the Welsh Women’s team had already won their first game in game of 2025, thereby ending a run of twelve without a victory. Sophie Ingle, Heather Cain and Lily Woodham got the goals to overcome a Switzerland side ranked eight places higher than them in the world rankings 3-2. It was back to the walls stuff in the last half an hour as Wales seemed to run out of steam after being worth the 3-1 lead they held very early in the second half and, by the end, the Swiss had a right to feel that they had done enough to at least earn a draw.
BRIAN BARRY-MURPHY… J’ACCUSE.
Chickens came home to roost last night, and our miracle-worker young manager was exposed as the copycat Guardiola ‘tribute act’ he is. I am ashamed to say that I went to bed a happy man, having seen this man’s total disrespect for the EFL trophy come back and bite him on the bum… big time.
From the moment we realised we’d be participating in this tournament, he has done his best to assure us that it was a tinpot affair that was really beneath us.
How dare he…!!
At the start of last night’s round of games, we were the highest placed team taking part, with an excellent chance of getting to a Wembley final. And the EFL Trophy (currently, known as the Vertu Trophy) is a prestigious challenge to win: try telling the 85,021 spectators watching the final at Wembley in the season before Covid-19 first hit.
I myself attended the Wembley EFL Trophy final in 2008… travelling with Grimsby Town fans in a record number of coaches carrying them to London.
Last season, over 43,000 Birmingham City supporters made their way to the HA9 OWS ‘fans Mecca’ fully expecting to beat The Posh… but got the shock of their lives. To see Tom Wagner take the defeat so badly that he did something unseen before in the history of ‘medal presentations’ at Wembley: as his downcast team trooped past, heads-down, with their Loser Medal around their necks, he suddenly stopped them going down the steps… and demanded they all shuffle together to listen to his heady mix of a dressing down/pep talk.
No… sorry dear BBM… how dare you dismiss this trophy as only worthy of experimenting in. I may have praised you in my MAYA posting yesterday for your ability to show some spark of passion… but that was only relative to the über lifeless Tom Cleverly (more on his club later in this piece). What arrogance you exhibited after last night’s game, when you were asked if it was a mistake to field so many kids against grown men. Astonishingly, you disgracefully ‘doubled down’ with ‘actually, if I had to choose the starting Xl again, I’d have chosen even younger’. (The arrogance of Pep, without his humility. Remember the other day, Guardiola having the decency to apologise for making 10 changes in his team selection which rebounded on him vs Leverkusen?)
Now Paul, as you rightly say, City fielded a slightly older team against Wimbledon than against Arsenal. But the really enjoyable Arsenal game was against a team that Brian Andrews has told us was even younger than that of our kids.
Yesterday, Johnnie Jackson out-coached our miracle worker without needing to do so on the pitch. How come? Well, just by selecting a full strength team… an outfit who had taken us to stoppage time just this August before we could fortuitously score our deflected winner.
Think please, what this win will do for Wimbledon’s team morale… and what conversely it will do for City’s…
BBM, and his mouthpiece Glen Williams, is now trotting out the twaddle that it is great experience for the kids.
Is it, be b^gg^red…!!? Au contraire… it was a hugely DAMAGING experience for our young team. At 5-0, with still 20 minutes to go including injury time, I genuinely expected 7 or 8… particularly with our inept goalkeeper who is clearly the number 3 goalie at our club (and judging by last night, maybe number 4?) almost throwing them in.
Look if I put my hand in a fire, that too is ‘experience’… but an experience that makes me look nostalgically on the days I had fingers.
Let me put it into the Irish vernacular BBM, that you’ll understand: you are a ‘total flute’… or if you prefer, the slightly less insulting ‘blinkin eejit’.
Were I Vincent, I would fine you a month’s wages for ‘talking down’ a competition we had a good chance of winning. And the EFL should fine us for talking down their trophy and thus putting off our fans and thus drawing a pathetic 2,107 supporters… of which 712 travelled to support The Dons… so that meant just 1,407 City fans thought it worth crossing the road for.
Ponder on it folks: they would not even fill three quarters of the seats in St David’s Hall…!!
Jeez… I remember catching a train from Porth to Cardiff General (and back again) on an incredibly windy night on 07 March 1962 to see the Anglo-French Friendship Cup, 1st round 2nd leg game… no chance of a Wembley final there… but even the terrible weather and (that time) a true tinpot trophy, still brought a crowd of 3,000… of which I was proud to be one.
So, 1,407 home fans last night is something to shame Cardiff City forever. Both Swansea and Wrexham have won that trophy this century… we will never have had a better chance.
Blame it on our Pep ‘tribute act’. A chap who got real karma last night for his wicked ostracising of my favourite overall City goalkeeper in the last 60 years.
His treatment of Jak Alnwick tells us all about him as a man.
To say that the very fine Nathan Trott is a better shot-stopper, is just about acceptable… though Trott’s famed distribution is definitely inferior. But I cannot accept that Jak be excluded from squad photos at the start of the season … and our boy Turner from Pembrey be absurdly given the second goalie’s jersey before Jak… a man remember who captained our first team in several games last season. From the start of this season I have been saying that Matthew just does not cut the mustard… and last night, boy oh boy, did he not prove it…!!?
But do you know what I conclude from this? It is again BBM’s lack of homework.
Just as he clearly knew nowt about Ryan Wintle’s exploits at Bloomfield Road, and thus kept a perfectly fit Ryan on the subs bench, never using him – despite us being humiliated by a currently bottom 4 Blackpool – so BBM has only superficially studied our last disastrous season. For had he really done the hard yards, he would not have assumed that because we shipped in more goals than almost every other Championship team, our goalie was the problem.
Not so. The opposite is true. He was my City player of the season.
But this guy BBM has a superego… but not methinks the talent to match it. Yes that squad photo sees him channelling his Field Marshall Montgomery*, smug smile, seated centrepiece amongst his 8th Army, but he has to watch that his pride does not come before a fall. I still see Stockport, Bolton, Bradford pipping us for going up… though I hope I am wrong.
When the game finished last night I quickly switched to the Orient vs. ‘Pilgrims’ (sic) game. It was 0-0 and just entering injury time. ‘Oh penalties’, I thought.
And guess what? Fantastic signing Lorent Tolaj scores the most brilliant improvised back-heeled goal. It resulted in ‘limbs’ in the joyous amazing Plymouth fans who packed that whole end behind the goal… fans who followed a desperately poor team on a 512 mile round trip because they wanted to get into the last 16. Travelled MIDWEEK to boot… many having to get back to work in Plymouth at 9am, probably not getting home until 4am.
What a contrast to our fans from a top of the table team who could not – on average – make a 20 mile round trip… being talked out of it by a manager who thinks he is still at The Etihad.
*sorry, still ‘General’ then…?
TTFN,
Dai.
Oops, just looked again at the brilliant goal from Tolaj. Bear in mind, no sooner had I switched over at the end of our game, than the goal was scored… in the first of three minutes injury time. So forgive me not getting my bearings, so to speak.
The camera immediately focussed on the away fans celebrating… and they were not filling the stand behind the goal at Brisbane Road at all… but on the halfway line…!! Silly me.
Apols.
And as for their numbers… I would estimate that there were ‘only’ about 500.
Still impressive for a 512 mile round journey on a coldish December midweek.
DW
Dai, I don’t think there are many City fans who share your opinion of BBM’s worth following the midweek defeat by Wimbledon. I’m not sure where you got the 721 Wimbledon supporters from. The commentator on the club video said there were about 50 of them and this video seems to back him up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKKUH1AsUU
However, even if that figure is much nearer the truth than yours, it still means that there were around 2,000 City fans there which says it all about how much they value the Vertu Cup. In truth, interest would start to perk up if we got to, say, the Quarter finals of the competition and the notion of a Cup Final appearance at Wembley became more realistic, but it’s a very poorly supported tournament in its early rounds (the 3,000 or so for the Arsenal Under 21s match was the biggest crowd in the competition on the night it was played). We are playing midweek and weekend throughout this month and so this game was the obvious candidate for fielding a weaker team – the attendance on the night reflected where the Vertu Cup stood in our list of priorities and that the Cardiff team on show was going to be a long way from the sort of side that faced Mansfield and will face Huddersfield.
Regarding Jac Alnwick, he would be my number two keeper if I were manager and that’s not me being wise after the event following Matt Turner’s poor showing on Tuesday, I’ve thought it all season. However, there has been some talk of him having family issues back in the North East and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he gets a move nearer to the area in January.
I watched the podcast of Plymouth’s trip to Leyton Orient as well and, like you, thought it was a decent away turn out especially after watching the pervious one about the Northampton game which brought home just how toxic the atmosphere at Home Park has become. If we’d appointed Tom Cleverly in the summer, I wouldn’t have been too disappointed, but he surely can’t be in the job too much longer and Derek Adams, who I have no time for after that Newport game, looks an obvious candidate to take over. Plymouth finished just above us last season and their current struggles bring home that it could easily be us finding ourselves 23rd in a division which I don’t think is as bad as many City fans believe it to be – I think a portion of the credit for the fact we aren’t should go to BBM.
News and views from East Anglia – via Wells Fargo and Pony Express.
I’m still here and I’m still following.
That 5-1 defeat the other night finally aroused me.
I’m with Dai. That kind of event, that kind of result, that kind of SHOW (crowd, selection, performance, result, dull-eyed reaction) can only end in tears – and with Cardiff City FC it always does (usually mine).
It’s already left me feeling less piqued by promise and possibility and excitement and theatre and sheer success.
I profoundly hope I’m wrong. I usually am, but Dai isn’t.
Out of 24 teams in Division , only Luton Town have a squad paid higher than ours. And whilst we don’t have the 2nd biggest budget, ours is a respectable joint fourth. Therefore, if we did NOT go up this year with our relatively highly paid personnel, then there should be a Stewards Inquiry.
Dear thanks to Lindsay in Norwich for his support. I dearly love the boy, and wish he would comment more… not that our views are in any way the same on lots of issues in football. But I know that he subscribes to my view that only dead fish swim with the stream… not that either of us are even remotely contrarian.
First, let me explain my figure for travelling Wimbledon fans. Alas I made the mistake of asking AI what the total was… and this is what it came up with…
https://tinyurl.com/y56yby4w
I was prepared to believe that total because the noise their fans made with each of their five goals, was not indicative of a mere handful of Dons devotees.
But in future, I will give AI short shrift. Thanks Paul, for your correction.
But Paul boyo, please don’t feel that the number of City fans on the night changes things much. Okay, if we now accept that they would indeed have exactly filled the auditorium at St David’s Hall, they still would leave 20% of the old Capitol Theatre empty… the long demolished theatre where I saw the Rolling Stones in October 1963, and many other concert giants like Bob Dylan in May 1966. Whereas tickets for the Dylan gig were over-subscribed about 4 times, the Stones nearly 3 years earlier had not even had a Top Twenty hit… their re-working of Chuck Berry’s COME ON had only got to #21.
So for fans of the highest-rated team still in the Vertu Cup last Monday… to fail to fill the 2,500 seat Capitol (the theatre had been reduced from over 3,100 seats in the early 1960s), well, they should be deeply ashamed. But their manager set them no example.
I will agree with you that BBM is a considerable upgrade on the Turkish speaking duo of Bulut and Riza. But let’s be frank… that would not be difficult. Even Cleverly would be an upgrade on them.
However, the egos of all three of the last named COMBINED, cannot hold a candle to that of BBM.
TTFN,
Dai.
Good to hear from you again Lindsay, even though I cannot be as upset about Tuesday’s game as you and Dai appear to be.