Lincoln City clinched promotion to the Championship this afternoon with a 2-1 win at Play Off contenders Reading with their goals coming from their only on target efforts out of the six goal attempts they had all game.
Meanwhile, Cardiff City, the team most likely to take the second automatic promotion spot, were having twenty nine goal attempts, eight of them on target, and fifty touches of the ball in the opposition penalty area in their game at Peterborough.
A neutral not used to watching either side play would, no doubt, have enjoyed what was an entertaining affair and probably would have thought City had been unlucky to get nothing more than a 1-1 draw.
However, as someone who has watched all of Cardiff’s games since the home loss to Lincoln which seems to have drained so much of the confidence of their attacking players, the surprise to me was that we managed to score at all.
City have had a 4-0 away romp at Exeter since that Lincoln game, but, that apart, the team that had been the division’s hot shots for so long have been making goal scoring look almost impossible. The irony of all ironies today was that having finally managed to score, it only took seventeen seconds of playing time for the ball to hit the back of our net for the equaliser!
I think the best way to sum up City’s current dilemma is to look at the performance of one player, Cian Ashford. The Rhondda product was excellent in many respects, strong, hard to shake off the ball, skilful, bright and inventive, yet give him a shooting or heading opportunity and all of that poise and belief evaporates and the ball ends up going anywhere, but on target.
It’s harsh in many respects to single out Ashford because all bar one of his team mates were unconvincing in the final third today. The exception to the rule was, amazingly, Ryan Wintle, with his one goal all season and yet here he could have had four.
Alex Bass was made Peterborough’s man of the match and it was almost entirely due to saves he made from Wintle from shots outside the penalty area. The first one came in the first half as he tipped over a twenty yarder. There was a better save to turn over a shot from a bit further out after the break, another low effort that seemed to be kept out by a combination of keeper and the upright and then a daisy cutter which appeared to beat the keeper, but also was inches the wrong side of the post.
It was somehow typical of City’s finishing that Bass’ other fine save came from a Perry Ng effort that deflected off a defender and the keeper managed to kick it away while diving the wrong way.
Apart from that, Ashford was a little unlucky to see his header from almost point blank range hit a defender and bounce out although you couldn’t help thinking a goal would have been inevitable if he’d been a bit more positive in his movement towards the ball.
Alex Robertson and Ollie Tanner saw efforts miss the same post Wintle shot past by no more than a foot, but, too often, City wanted that extra touch or their final ball was lacking.
One “after you Claude” moment in the first half showed City in all of their current uncertainty as they opened up the home defence, but instead of shooting, three times they opted to pass and each time they made the opportunity more difficult.
There were also concerns at the other end of the pitch as the home forwards, particularly the debutant Bolo Shofowoke, had a definite edge in pace over their markers.
Shofowoke left Calum Chambers for dead in the first half before forcing Nathan Trott into a good save on his near post and they must have known there would be further chances after the interval given that City were playing with their usual high line.
Chambers had injured his wrist in the first half and was replaced by Ronan Kpakio, while David Turnbull was a little fortunate to avoid a red card as his tackle forced Tom Lees off and having been cautioned, it was understandable to see him replaced by Alex Robertson.
The Aussie had only been on for three minutes when he broke the deadlock as the home defence made a mess of clearing Tanner’s cross and the ball dropped to him stood close to the penalty spot. The contact wasn’t the cleanest as the shot went into the ground and then bounced past Bass.
Even when they were at their best either side of Christmas, City’s opponents always thought they had a chance of getting back into a game after falling 1-0 down and Posh took no time in replying here as a ball was played forward to Kyrell Lisbie who got there before Kpakio to play Harry Leonard clear of a statuesque, square defence and he went on to easily beat Trott. Kpakio was at fault to an extent, but the worst bit about the goal was that we were in possession of the ball for a few seconds before Joel Bagan I think it was gave it away with a careless pass.
Sadly though, Kpakio looked devoid of confidence as he made what was a rare appearance in the team in recent months and he was nowhere to be seen as Lisbie, who he was supposed to be marking, was played through by a ball out from the back only for the highly rated winger to shoot tamely straight at Trott. Again, Kpakio was culpable, yet it was still very concerning how Lisbie was put through beyond the centrebacks so easily and, for all City’s pressure, this was probably the best chance of the second half.
Bradford took advantage of our failure to win (again) with an impressive come from behind win at Wycombe to cut the deficit to seven points, but our goal difference is far better than theirs and we have a game in hand on them – the most points Bradford can get is eighty six, so three wins from our last six matches will mean we finish above them whatever they do and two wins and two draws would almost certainly be enough for us.
Bolton and Stockport can both reach eighty five points, so, again, given our much better goal difference, two wins and a draw should be enough for us to finish above them. A 2-2 draw this afternoon between those two clubs was of little use to either of them as far as automatic promotion is concerned, but our running out of steam in recent weeks has left three other sides still thinking they could still go up in second place.
The best news of the day was the return of Yousef Salech for the last twenty five minutes. In truth, after he made some useful contributions when he first came on, his lack of game time showed, but, nevertheless, his return couldn’t come soon enough.
Yes – yet again we create the chances but fail to score … how many times have Ashford and Tanner been with the ball in the opposing team’s penalty area and have actually aimed a shot at goal but missed? It must be double figures. So : training sessions need to have a section for players who claim to be ‘forwards’ actually practising, and so hopefully improving, their shooting so that when they do so in a game they do so with more confidence and so with more success.
Thanks, Paul as ever.
Your report rightly ‘names names’ and does not duck the issue. Bravo! Just one line puzzled me… how you thought a neutral might well have enjoyed viewing that game.
Eh? Well there is no accounting for taste: I guess there must be people about who long for a reappearance of the old ‘Potters Wheel’ interlude the BBC used to run back in the 1950s whenever there was a breakdown in television transmission.
Like Graham has just said: SHOOT PROPERLY… and I define that as AIM properly… do not aim to get the ball enter the goal 18 inches inside the goalpost or a similar distance under the crossbar… but aim more centrally, and above all, give it some WELLY.
Our allegedly brilliant coaching pair should be telling them this… but I fear this is something they have never considered.
Right… preamble over. Down to business…
I culled this ironic gem from Press Reader…
‘…
“LEE Riley is the brains of the operation.” That was the verdict of Ollie Tanner back in January.
Riley laughs when reminded of it. “I’d say Brian is the brains of the operation!” the Cardiff City assistant head coach replies. “I’m just helping deliver the ideas.”
…’
YCNMIU, eh?*
I am reminded of that great line of Bill Shankly’s … and I turn it from the singular to the plural here… ‘if they had gunpowder for brains, they could not blow their caps off’.
Desperately witless stuff served up yet again by Cardiff City… pass, pass, pass, backwards and square. Oh for attempts at goal, that are what it suggests on the tin… and not attempts at overplaying in and around their penalty area, that end up being harmless deflections or toe pokes into the goalie’s hands.
Oh for wingers with the speed and cutting edge of their little black guy on the right… who was reminiscent of that chap who scored the last minute of injury-time winner for Bolton following that insane crossfield pass from our boy currently on loan at Newport. Is that chap still playing for Wanderers, Paul? He was on loan from Brighton. (Alas I am too rushed today to Google…)
The explosive speed off the mark from that boy yesterday, made Calum Chambers seem like he was running in treacle.
Only one City outfield player can be truly proud of his performance: Ryan Wintle. Turnbull was poor, and replaced only by a marginally better Robertson… Tanner missed decent chances by aiming for the far corner of the goal… instead of shooting far more centrally (as Robertson wisely did for his goal)… Ashford, as usual, worked earnestly but with no end result; Colwill is a show pony when we need a PIT pony; Kpakio does not have a true ‘defender bone’ in his body… and should not be anywhere near team selection when it comes to the back four and central midfield.
How I would love it if we played 4-4-2, or 3-5-2, with Kpakio maybe on the right wing, and Tanner moved inside to partner Salech… as it is now, Tanner lacks the speed (and guile?) to skin a full back and get away toward the byline…
Is Kellyman really worth his £19 million price tag? If he is, then all I can conclude is that the total collapse of fiat currencies is far closer than we all think.
Yesterday’s borefest had its crowning moment in that free kick in the last seconds of injury time. The moment screamed out ‘put it into the mixer!’… especially as Salech had come on for the last 20 minutes. But the idiots play it 3 yards backwards, and the very good referee blows his whistle. Well done referee… you put us all out of our misery.
Do you know what that BBM last second nonsense free kick brought to mind? Omer Riza. That fella spent the whole of the crucial game against Luton instructing his goalie to play out from the back even though it kept drawing a blank… and in injury time when the ball needed to be ‘put into the mixer’… what does Hovarth do? Yep… you’ve got it in one.
And yesterday, that fiasco in the last few seconds, was so indicative of the Titanic’s band deciding to ‘play on’ rather than take to the lifeboat stations.
The ghost of Dave Jones’ horror implosion is hovering here. It is vital we put matters right against Bolton… nothing short of a win will do.
We are helped by the suspension of John McAtee (who had just come back from longterm serious injuries, and who I rate far higher than his more celebrated brother). He was sent off at Home Park as a result of a pincer movement from a baying home crowd and wicked play acting from Plymouth’s Alex Mitchell influencing a weak referee.
He lies face down, clutching his face and kicking the turf with the intensity of an enraged cuckolded husband trying to kick down the door of Johnny Lothario. And thus the gifted McAtee gets his first red card since he got one for Grimsby in 2021.
Of course, once he takes the long walk, Mitchell leaps to his feet, grinning to his teammates now that he has got an opponent sent off. I watched the whole game live… and studied recordings of that incident five or six times.
Mitchell had been needling McAtee several times up until the incident just before half time. So McAtee, fearing Mitchell is going to come through the back of him, 17 year old Don Murray style, spots him about to arrive and decides to move to the left and jump early to avoid getting his legs kicked. No flailing arms, let alone elbows.
Not a clever move from McAtee, but an understandable one. And what does Mitchell do? As he makes contact with his opponent’s back, he then cheats most blatantly.
It was indeed a red card incident… but that card should have gone to the man in green for his duplicity.
But one thing to note about the result of that game… Bolton may have gone down to ten men for the last 50 minutes, but they beat the big ‘in form’ team of the moment.
So Perry NG… none of your play-acting nonsense please against Bolton… getting one of them dismissed against us might only serve to harden their resolve.
*= You Could Not Make It Up (even if you tried!)
TTFN,
Dai.
Comprehensive and accurate analysis as usual Paul, many thanks. I don’t think any amount of training can instil what I call a nose for goals. Teams that have as much possession as we have need someone with that inbuilt intuition to be in the right place at the right time and take advantage of it. Not easy to find of course and it wouldn’t matter if they are lacking in other attributes. I like Dai’s idea but don’t see Tanner in a front rwo somehow Could Issak Davies be that man? I don’t know but I would like to see us trying him up front with Salech once both are fit. I would sacrifice one of our wingers but give the one selected freedom to switch as much as he liked. Two wingers is a luxury when neither can contribute on the goal front but I cannot see BBM changing for the Bolton game. Hopefully one or either will not have left their shooting boots in the dressing room!
Ta, as ever Paul, for your comments on the Peterborough (a) game. To answer our repeated question of why don’t we score when we are on top?; well, if you don’t have a can opener you are going to find it difficult to open can of beans, aren’t you? Our wastefulness in front of goal has been ridiculous in some matches. Yet, this is the City team of 25-26. To have gone into the season with only Salech as a target man / striker was plain daft. It is certainly coming home to bite us after the novelty of a false or withdrawn number nine wore off. Even after the first few games of the season where we could witness how Salech was being manhandled, to not go into the transfer market was stupidity. We should have sorted the issue out then, last August, but to have done nothing in January was plain lunacy.
Arriving at my car at 7am in South Wales to ice on the windscreen, I left, prepared for the worst the Arctic could throw at me. What a difference a few hours make. Leaving the coach at Peterborough, I was completely over-dressed for a balmy afternoon.
Weather apart, the game was almost a carbon copy of the recent away game at Barnsley. In both, City could and should have wrapped proceedings up within the first 30 mins with a hatful of goals. But in both games City could have suffered an unjust defeat. The second major facet of our play in recent matches has been the poor final ball into the box. Numerous times either the wrong option was chosen or the correct one poorly executed.
During the interval the hosts drenched the half we were defending with water whilst choosing to leave their defensive half dry. Herald a change of tactics. For the remainder of the game Peterborough either pumped the ball over our advancing full backs or between the back four. Their speedy players made the most of it. Many times our defenders lost their footing when turning.
After all the huff and puff of the first half it was pleasing that Robertson’s half-time introduction resulted in a well-taken goal withing three minutes. Good though that was, City imploded immediately. Within a minute the home team equalised. For seasoned watchers of football you often get a feeling about incidents at games. I felt it was offside from my view behind the goals. Watching the video of the highlights on the coach home, when the through ball was played the Peterborough player was a good yard offside before he ran on and scored past Trott.
Turnbull was booked for a nasty challenge whilst the forceful shoulder barge on Chambers by #36, which resulted the City captain’s subsequent substitution at half-time, just saw a free kick.
This was another game we should have won but didn’t. Fish was composed throughout, Wintle imperious, Kellyman rarely got the ball, Tanner & Ashford had good moments but created nothing clearcut and how many times do we need to say it? Kpakio is a winger and not full-back!
The Peterborough home programme absolutely kicked City’s shabby offering miles into the long grass. That a club with an average home attendance of barely 8,000 can produce its excellent, larger, shiny 84-page match programme needs to be commended. The print-font was larger and consequently easier to read, whilst photos were clearer and the content interesting. It was a very good and professional effort. That both programmes cost the same at £4 reflects so much about the two clubs’ off field setups.
So City and I were wrongly prepared for the game. I was overdressed and City lacked fire-power. My mistake can be remedied next Saturday whilst City’s has not all season. Salech’s second half re-introduction, after his 10-week injury lay-off, is to be welcomed but his loss has been felt far more than an extra layer of clothing.
FAO Dai: I did post a reply to your comment at the end of the Blackpool (h) blog.
Yes, thanks Steve, re your last line there… I spotted it and appreciated it at the time.
And talking of responses: I still live in hope that you might answer one or more of the questions I posed in the 10th response under the Exeter report. To date only The Governor has kindly taken a stab at answering…
Regarding your ‘two up front’ clarion call… I too have been banging this drum ever since Salech joined us, as it was instantly evident he is no Drogba/Mark Hughes capable of being a one-man wrecking machine up front.
Alas the combined superbrains of Riley and BBM are incapable of grasping the fact.
DW.
Hi Dai,
Ta for the reply. I’ll try to answer your question regarding the, “two up front,” issue. BB-M, being wedded to playing two defensive central midfielders and three in front of them means we simply can’t as we are limited to 11 players. I may be wrong but I don’t think we’ve played two strikers for any game this season. The nearest we’ve got to it are the few times he has played a variant of 3411 at the end of the game. He clearly doesn’t like 442. You know my views on it, if not for every game then certainly far more than we’ve done. That said, also expecting Salech to play the lone role when the opposition play with a sweeper is putting a huge burden on him.
Just watched the latest VIEW FROM THE NINIAN.*
There are two Bens and a Tom in Oz.
The head honcho Ben makes a very Freudian slip at 35.10. He accidentally calls BBM ‘Pep’.
I rest my case.
*I only watched after consuming with relish the latest ‘de rigueur’ Pieface blog re the Green Army in Barnsley. I adore that unlikely band of men on the Banana Bus.
DW
Thanks all for the responses, I’ll just make one point in reply. there’s a lot from Monday’s game which wasn’t perfect from both teams, but, I stick by my comment that a neutral would have been entertained by it. Looking at it from a City perspective, we, as the away team, had just short of thirty goal attempts and tried to play on the front foot throughout. A month ago, the criticism was that we don’t shoot enough, well, one hundred and four goal attempts in our last four matches has put an end to that line of thinking. The trouble is, most of those twenty six shots a game on average fall into the “hit and hope” category with too many of them being from distances where scoring a goal is very unlikely by the law of averages – particularly, when so many of the shots involved are struck so poorly.
To be fair, Robertson scored a great goal from distance at Exeter, but, apart from Wintle on Monday, the rest of it has tended to make me think that BBM may have a point when he has talked about how he wanted us to pass our way into positions where better scoring chances might arise rather than have a go from twenty five yards plus out. On that score, City’s cause has not been helped recently by the lack of a player who thinks in terms of getting in the six yard box when we’re in a crossing position on the byeline. We scored quite a few goals, a few of them winning goals, in the early months of the season by pulling back low crosses, particularly from the right, into the path of an oncoming Salech or Robinson – we’ve, by and large, stopped scoring goals like that recently and I can only hope that the return of Salech will see us better equipped to take advantage of situations like that in the last half a dozen matches.