Quality goals win it for the Under 18’s.

Posted on December 4, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

City’s Academy team ensured that this weekend’s double feature with Birmingham City got off to a winning start yesterday with a 2-1 win that was more conclusive than the scoreline indicates in a match which was switched from Leckwith Athletics Stadium to the pitch about 100 yards away on which the Under 16’s normally play their games.

Perhaps the fact that the Under 21 Development team played Plymouth Argyle in midweek was the reason why it was an unfamiliar Under 18 team that turned out yesterday. City beat Plymouth by the same 2-1 scoreline thanks to a couple of fine goals by Jesse Darko and Theo Wharton and these two were amongst a group of players qualified to play for the Academy side who weren’t there yesterday – you don’t expect to see Joe Ralls turning out for them nowadays, but the French pair Kevin Sainte-Luce and Yannis Drais weren’t there along with Josh Yorwerth and Mamadou Diallo (I suppose it could be that some of them were being rested for the FA Youth Cup match at Bury on Tuesday?). Adedeji Oshilala who hadn’t played at this level for the last couple of months because of his selection in the Development side, was there alongside Ben Nugent at the back, but it was something of a shadow side that faced Birmingham.

Whatever the reason for the absences, it didn’t stop City continuing their run of improved results (it’s now five wins from the last eight Academy fixtures) and there certainly wasn’t anything flukey about what was a thoroughly deserved victory. It wasn’t just the final score that matched the Plymouth game in midweek either, because the quality of City goals were, if anything, even better than the ones at Home Park.

Jordan Carter, seen here playing for Farnborough Town, put us 1-0 up with a sweet half volley.

Because of all of the changes, this is going to be a bit of a vague report, but at least I hope I get the names of the scorers right because they both deserve particular credit for their classy finishes. The first came around the twenty minute mark, but City could easily have gone in front a minute or two earlier when Nugent’s header from a corner looked to have crossed the line before being scrambled clear (Neil Ardley wasn’t happy about the way some of the team were celebrating a goal rather than try to make certain that the ball would cross the line!).  Within a minute or two though, City had scored when Jordan Carter crashed in a beautifully struck left footed half volley from the edge of the penalty area. Carter, who was generating plenty of interest from Premiership sides before he signed for us, has had to see Joe Ralls, the other signing we made from Farnborough, grab most of the attention during their time with us – Carter was meant to be the better prospect of the two, but he has found it more difficult at Cardiff than Ralls has. However, there have been signs in recent weeks that Carter is coming good and he coped better than most yesterday with the cold, swirling wind.

It was difficult to gauge exactly where the wind was coming from, but the suspicion that it was helping us in the first half grew as City got right on top and the visiting keeper had to be in fine form to keep the score down. The nagging doubt that City had not sufficiently cashed in on the seeming advantage of the elements they had enjoyed in the first forty five minutes grew early in the second period when Birmingham’s number seven scored with a header which flew over Liam Matthews. The goal had come from what was a routine free kick tossed into the penalty area from a wide position near the halfway line – it was a poor goal to give away, but, truth be told, it was just about the only chance Birmingham had throughout the whole ninety minutes,  so it would be a bit churlish to condemn our defending too much.

It looked ominous that the visitors had managed to equalise so soon after the change of ends, but within a few minutes, City had gone in front again when their number eight (and captain) swept in a low volley from about the same distance as Carter had scored from. Now, I have always found it hard to tell Jason’s son, Jay Bowen and Tom O’Sullivan apart – ordinarily, I would have said that Bowen had scored because the number eight looked taller than O’Sullivan to me, but as his team mates were calling him Tom when he was in possession, I can only assume that it was O’Sullivan’s goal – it’ll probably turn out that neither of them scored it now! Anyway, it was a goal fit to win any game and with City still having the better of play without really creating the chances they had in the first period, that’s exactly what it did – the only slight criticism I would have of the team is that they shouldn’t really have have been just the one goal in front at the end.

Posted in The kids. | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Cardiff City do their bit to lighten the gloom.

Posted on November 30, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Leaving party politics aside, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer presents such a gloomy picture of the country’s economic outlook for the next five or six years as George Osborne did yesterday, then you know we’re in trouble! Yesterday’s  Autumn statement made for dismal listening, but for football fans and, indeed, many of those with only a passing interest in the game,  it was still the totally unexpected and, seemingly, pointless death of Wales manager Gary Speed that was the primary reason for any downbeat feelings they might be experiencing.

Well, at least Cardiff City (and by that I mean supporters as well as the team) did their bit to lighten the mood last night with a convincing 2-0 win over Premiership strugglers Blackburn Rovers to make it into the last four of the League Cup for only the second time in their history. With Liverpool, Manchester City and, in all likelihood, Manchester United joining them in the last four, perhaps we shouldn’t be thinking of booking trips to London for the last weekend in February just yet, but this is still an outstanding achievement by Malky Mackay’s rapidly developing team.

Make no mistake about it either – this was a fully deserved victory. Once they had taken a nineteenth minute lead which spelt the end of Blackburn’s only spell in the game where they could have been said to have been the better side, the result was never really in doubt – indeed, there were grounds for thinking that there could have been more goals there for City if they had really wanted them.

In saying that mind, it has to be admitted that Blackburn were not very good – having seen all of our previous Carling Cup matches except for the First Round tie at Oxford, I would say that last night’s game was more one sided than any of the previous four we have played in the competition against Football League clubs. Blackburn didn’t appear to have much stomach for the fight once they had gone behind and never really looked like working their way back into the game after going 2-0 down like Third Division Huddersfield did in Round Two back in August.

Kenny Miller puts City ahead in the nineteenth minute - from that moment onwards there was only going to be one winner.

Embattled manager Steve Kean talked about “forfeiting” the game afterwards and also tried to say that the second goal should have been disallowed because of a handball by Kenny Miller long before the ball hit the back of the net, but he sounded like a man desperately looking for excuses. Kean chose to rest five of his normal starting line up, but as Dave Jones used to say, the absence of senior players gives those below them a great opportunity to show what they can do – from where I was sitting though, there wasn’t one player in a yellow shirt whose performance demanded inclusion in Saturday’s match with Swansea.

Therefore, perhaps it’s fair to say that the win wasn’t quite as noteworthy as a 2-0 triumph over a Premiership team might look on paper, but, by the same token, this shouldn’t hide the fact that City played well. There was a panache about the side which mocked the accusation that they are just a bunch of fit, hard working scufflers – for example, although he was his normal skilful and influential self, I thought Peter Whittingham was outshone to some extent by his midfield partners.

Conway, Cowie, Kiss and Gunnarsson all put in very good shifts which featured ability to go with their usual industry. The last named was my City man of the match after what was, perhaps, his best game in a City shirt so far. Gunnarsson supplied the pass for the first goal and had a part in so much of what was good in City’s display – he looked more of a Premiership player than many of his opponents last night.

There were plenty of candidates for the best player award mind, besides Gunnarsson’s midfield colleagues (I thought Kiss, especially, did well), Kenny Miller showed in that brilliant piece of play which led to him hitting the post shortly after he had scored that he has more ability than I for one sometimes give him credit for and I thought he gave the Blackburn central defenders a torrid time of it all night.

At the back, Ben Turner continued to show that he offers a lot more than your common or garden big, lumbering stopper, while Anthony Gerrard looked more secure than he was in his two previous matches. Kevin McNaughton was his usual self and will surely get a goal soon, but I thought Andrew Taylor did as well as any of the back four – like Gunnarsson, I thought that was as well as I have seen him play for us. Finally, behind them, Tom Heaton followed up his appearances against Derby and Palace where he didn’t concede a goal with another clean sheet highlighted by a couple of good saves in either half from Dunn and Goodwillie.

Our second goal, but who scored it? Filip Kiss for me - I was sat directly in line with the direction Gerrard headed the ball and I'm not sure it would have gone in without Kiss' touch.

So, City end the month which used to cause Dave Jones so many problems with four wins and a draw from five matches – if Malky Mackay can win a Manager of the month award for November as Cardiff City boss, then I think all that’s left for him to prove is that he can walk on water! Actually, last night also saw City do something that they always used to find very difficult under our last manager – they won both matches in a Saturday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Saturday combination of home fixtures (if they could make it three home wins in just over a week by beating Birmingham on Sunday, then we would really be heading into unchartered waters!).

Yes, there is plenty to be upbeat and optimistic about at the moment as far as both the manager and players of Cardiff City are concerned  (you can’t help thinking that the job Malky Mackay is doing is not going unnoticed in quite a few Premiership Boardrooms), but last night praise was also due to the club and it’s supporters for the way the pre match memorial to Gary Speed was carried out and observed. After that, the noise levels from the crowd were as good as they have been for some time as frequent songs of support for Gary Speed broke the dank night air. There were plenty of messageboard comments last night about how proud the City team and supporters had made individual fans feel and I’d just like to add my agreement with those sentiments – last night Cardiff City, in all of it’s different components, did itself proud.

Yet, it’s impossible for me to finish without coming back to Gary Speed. Last night’s events (not just at Cardiff City Stadium) offered further proof of how well respected and liked Speed was. I would doubt it if I’m the only person who never met him who has only realised since he died how much I admired the man. This partly explains the goodwill shown to him throughout the country since Sunday’s awful news, but, more telling for me is the unanimous praise he has got from those who knew him – and let’s get this straight, we are not talking about the crocodile tears that are cried at the death of many “celebrities” here (Craig Bellamy was the latest in a series of high profile individuals who have been absolutely distraught at Speed’s passing – we are seeing and hearing genuine grief from so many in the often cynical world of professional football).

If only there was a way that Gary Speed could have known how his death would impact on so many people from ordinary fans, to hard bitten media hacks and to superstar millionaires often accused of being out of touch with reality. If that could have happened, then he would have seen that, even if there were what he thought was an awful secret which drove him to do what he did, there were thousands or even millions who would have forgiven him virtually anything – it’s just so, so sad and so, so unnecessary.

Posted in Out on the pitch | 2 Comments