Wales’ slump continues, but shadow City side see off Oxford in League Cup.

Posted on August 11, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

The ridiculous situation of a year ago whereby Wales and Cardiff City played games on the same night was repeated yesterday as Australia were the visitors to Cardiff while City had to go to Oxford for a First Round League Cup tie with a squad missing ten first team players through international call ups and injuries.

I was at Cardiff City Stadium to watch the international game on a night of mixed results which saw Wales continue the slump that has seen them drop to bottom seed status for the recent World Cup 2014 qualifying draw (we were paired with Croatia, Serbia, Belguim, Scotland and Macedonia – not a bad group, but we’ve got no chance on current form) and to 112th in the Fifa World rankings and City eventually prove too strong for their League Two opponents after a hard fought tie that went to extra time.

“Hard fought” is certainly not the description that comes to mind when recalling the first half (and much of the second period) of the Wales match! The game started with Wales dominating possession, but it was never to any purpose as slow and “safe” passing saw them playing in front of Australia all of the time with the visitors perfectly content to let us have the ball. Thinking back, I’m not sure Wales, with Aaron Ramsey sometimes the furthest man forward,  even had an effort on goal in the first half – if they did, it was a punt from fifty yards or more! For a long time, Australia were little better, but they did at least carry some goal threat and a thunderous drive against an upright by former wurzel Luke Wilshire awoke every one from their slumbers around the half hour mark.

Tim Cahill’s smartly taken goal on the stroke of half time put the visitors into a lead which they deserved on the basis that they were the least bad of the teams, but it also set up a second period which proved to be  a lot more lively and competitive than the first forty five minutes. Wales substituted Darcy Blake for an out of sorts Danny Gabbidon (any one who is a regular reader of this blog will know how highly I rate Gabbs, but he looked like a player whose time at this level had gone last night) and Jack Collison for a subdued Ramsey, but, while the latter added some much needed urgency to the home midfield, Australia were getting increasingly on top and it took a combination of a fine save by Wayne Hennesey and the upright to keep them from doubling their lead. However, it was only postponing the inevitable and when they got in down our left again, the keeper’s parry dropped to Kruse who tapped in from two or three yards out.

Darcy Blake heads Wales' goal - I would have thought he would have been "bar these" in the betting for the scorer of the game's last goal!

From then on, we saw the usual and numerous substitutions that you get in these sort of games, but what was unusual this time was that they increased the game’s entertainment value. Australia were still able to show some of the form that enabled them to win in Germany a couple of months ago at times, but the introduction of Steve Morison, Joe Allen and Adam Matthews definitely improved Wales and, with Gareth Bale becoming increasingly influential, they finished the game the stronger. There was a treat for City fans when Blake scored a goal (which he has never threatened to do in a City shirt!) by heading in a corner and Aussie keeper Mark Schwartzer was as busy in the closing ten minutes as he had been in the eighty that had preceded them as Wales swarmed forward.

It was all in vain though as the visitors held on to their 2-1 lead and, truth be told, Wales’ late rally couldn’t hide the fact that the better side on the night had triumphed. Australia are not ranked at twenty three in the world rankings for nothing, but, the frustrating thing from a Welsh point of view is that in terms of individual talent, I don’t think there is much between the two sides. When you look at the players Wales have to choose from, they should never be as low as they are in the rankings and Gary Speed has to take some responsibility for the way the talented individuals available to him are not gelling into a team, but, he was as critical as most supporters were about the way his side started the match and the Welsh side has been under performing for a couple of years now under three different managers.

As for City, well I might have had a different view on things if I had been there to see it because quite a few who were weren’t over impressed. From a distance though, their 3-1 win over a team I have seen tipped by some to be League Two champions looks a tremendous result when you consider who wasn’t available for us. Nine of the sixteen man squad for the West Ham match didn’t start last night as well as two more (Kiss and McPhail) who are on the injured list – first year pros Alex Evans and Ibby Farah made their first starts in the senior team and fellow ex Academy player Nat Jarvis joined them when he made his first team debut as a second half substitute for Rudy Gestede.

Besides that, second year Academy trainees Adedeji  Oshilaja and Joe Ralls were on the bench and the latter got to play nearly an hour when he came on for Martin Taylor midway through the second half. Ralls (who is a left footed play maker) acquitted himself as well as any of the youngsters apparently, but Evans’ performance was praised by the radio team I was listening to as was Farah’s. Ibby almost got himself a goal when his twenty yard shot came back off the post, but Jarvis did manage to find the net when his header from a long ball forward looped over home keeper Clarke to put City out of sight at 3-1 deep into extra time.

A moment he'll never forget - local boy Nat Jarvis celebrates a goal on his first appearance in a competitive match for City's senior team.

Judging by what I heard during the second half though, City were a little fortunate to get to extra time. They seemed to be under continuous pressure for much of the time from a home team that recovered from Craig Conway’s deflected effort (having now seen it on the telly, it looks more like an own goal to me) which put us ahead in the twelfth minute to level on the half hour through Simon Cliss. Besides wasting a great headed chance to put us 2-0 up, Jon Parkin also had what seemed to be goal ruled out at 1-1 when it was deemed that the ball had not crossed the line – independent witnesses (well they were City fans actually!) swore blind that it was a foot or so over, but the home side could also point to them hitting the woodwork and a series of efforts just too high and too wide and so it’s probably fair to say that extra time was the least Oxford deserved.

Of course, as soon as you go into extra time, then thoughts immediately turn to penalty shoot outs. However, when City found themselves in a similar position against League Two opposition in Burton Albion last year, they showed their superior class to score three times and ease to a 4-1 win. This time around, it sounded like it was the class of an individual rather than the side as a whole that saw them through as Peter Whittingham, on as an early sub for hamstring victim Soloman Taiwo, fired in a low, left footed shot from twenty five yards that was too good for Clarke. By common consent, Whititngham was the best player on the pitch last night and he seems to have continued a very encouraging start to the season – far from being moved on, as many initially suspected, when Malky Mackay arrived, it would appear that our new manager sees Whitts as, possibly, the player we can least afford to lose.

Speaking of our manager, you cannot but contrast his approach to young players with that of Dave Jones. To be fair to our former boss, he did give Aaron Wildig (who was conspicuous by his absence from the squad last night – given his limited time on the pitch in our pre season matches, it’s beginning to look as if Malky might not rate him)  his debut in a League Cup tie a couple of years ago, but I think someone like Joe Ralls would never have got the opportunity he got last night under him. As a rule, youngsters might have been selected on the bench for this type of game in the past, but they would never get on the pitch. Indeed, there were times in the League when injuries and suspensions meant that Dave Jones would go with less than the allowed number of subs rather than use a youngster(s) from the Academy – hopefully, we’ll not be in a position where we don’t have enough senior players to fill the bench this season, but, if we are, I believe Malky Mackay would think differently.

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Miller does what he does and City pocket the points.

Posted on August 8, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

There’s no harm in being proved wrong now and again, I reckon it helps make you a more rounded person and, not for the first time or the last, I was miles out in my pre match predictions yesterday. I looked at the West Ham team, and in particular, their midfield and decided City were going to get beat with my selection being by 2-0. What I had done though was look at the Premiership quality individuals in the middle of the park for the Hammers and just assume that they would blend into a unit which would dominate proceedings. For a short while they did just that and, after the kick off was delayed for a while to present Hammer’s captain Kevin Nolan with this season’s Championship trophy, City endured a rocky first twenty odd minutes during which they could easily have conceded a goal or two.

However, an incident about a quarter of an hour into the game offered a microcosm of what was to follow as Scott Parker (who I have always thought of as a superb player) found himself with what looked like a clear run in on goal, but the England midfield man lacked the pace and, ultimately, the composure to finish the chance off as Anthony Gerrard came across to cut out the danger with a good tackle. Parker wasn’t alone in lacking a bit of pace – apart from the erratic Sears, West Ham looked short of it in midfield and up front and, gaining confidence from this, City were able to work their way back into the game. They were never dominant, but, for the last hour of the match, City were able to often pass the ball with more purpose than their illustrious opponents and, increasingly, they began to look like they carried a goal threat.

The deciding goal - dodgy goalkeeping maybe, but still an example of the sort of skills that have made Kenny Miller a proven goalscorer.

If I got the outcome of the game wrong, then there were others left with egg on their face following City’s late winner. About half an hour into the game, threads were started on both of the main City messageboards  condemning Kenny Miller. Now, speaking as someone who likes to give any new players five or six games before I start forming any firm opinions on them, that seemed way, way too early to start having a go to me, but I wasn’t altogether surprised to see it happen because, from what I have seen of him throughout his career, Miller is not a player who impresses too much when he isn’t sticking the ball in the net. You’re not going to get him dropping deep, then showing neat control to turn his man before hitting a raking crossfield pass like Jay Bothroyd used to. When that one chance came along though yesterday, he instinctively found a bit of space before taking a touch and firing off a well struck shot towards the corner of the net – yes, Rob Green probably should have done better with it, but I think he might have been surprised by the power and the placement of a shot hit when the ball was heading away from his goal.

Have a look at this video showing the twenty two goals Kenny Miller scored last season for Rangers – how many of those goals could you call eye catching? There was a decent lob, a good header and a shot from outside the penalty area, but in the main, they were just examples of a striker efficiently putting away good chances – Miller does this better than most and that, rather than his footballing ability, is why he has fifty plus international caps and has had so many big money moves in his career. He didn’t do much before his goal though and, if there was a negative aspect to yesterday’s match, it was that there was little or no proof offered to show those (like myself) who feel a Miller and Earnie partnership won’t work because they are too similar,  that they are wrong. Perhaps it was because of the emotion of his first game back at Cardiff, but there was none of the awareness of what was going on around him from Earnie that had impressed me at the end of last season – he showed his old habit of keeping his head down when in possession and only seemed interested in getting shots away when within about twenty five yards of goal.

If Championship defences know exactly what they are going to be up against when they face Miller and/or Earnshaw, I don’t think the same can be said of Rudi Gestade. Perhaps this unfamiliarity was a factor in the impact that Gestade made when he came on – the West Ham defence didn’t seem to know how to cope with someone who showed himself to be good in the air, but also mobile and quick enough to cover a lot of ground before robbing Ilunga in the build up to the goal. Whatever the reason, Gestade showed that he can be a viable option for us at this level and it seems to me that a strong performance on Wednesday against Oxford in the League Cup (surely he has to start that night?) would put Malky Mackay under pressure to include him against the wurzels – I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say that Gestade’s introduction turned the game yesterday.

An Ayatollahing Kenny Miller celebrates his goal with another debutante, the quietly effective Aron Gunnarsson.

If City didn’t entirely convince up front then, there was much to commend in other areas. David Marshall was a serious candidate for City Man of the Match and looked what I believe he is – a good quality Championship goalkeeper. In front of him, McNaughton and Taylor were solid at full back and, even when playing at the ground of the favourites to win the league, showed more inclination to get forward than we became used to seeing under Dave Jones. Although they both made early mistakes that could have cost us dearly, Hudson and Gerrard both had strong games with the former making some fine blocks and the latter showing the confidence he must have gained while playing for a team who kept plenty of clean sheets away from home last season.

As mentioned earlier, I thought it took our midfield a little while to come to terms with their opponents, but, once they did, there was much to admire – it’s too early to come to any firm conclusions yet, but what I saw definitely made me hopeful that we will be stronger in this part of the pitch than we have been in the last few seasons. City played pretty narrow and so even our one “winger” was often seen in central positions – Craig Conway wasn’t as effective as he had been against Parma, but he epitomised the work ethic that Malky Mackay is insisting on. Aron Gunnarson didn’t do anything spectacular, but he  showed a nice range of passing in the second half and was effective in neutralising Nolan as he patrolled the area in front of the back four, while Peter Whittingham didn’t suffer by comparison with the high quality midfielders that he was up against and became an increasingly influential figure as the game went on. Watching the match again last night, there were three occasions where I said “that was good” about something a City player had done and, each time I went back to see who it was, it turned out to be Don Cowie. Like Whittingham, Cowie lasted the game well and, although I suppose a bit more pace would come in handy for someone who plays wide midfield a lot of the time, I’m struggling to see any real weaknesses in his game at the moment.

Finally, just a few words about Sam Allardyce – is he delusional or what? Okay, I accept that we rode our luck at times and that a draw would have been a fairer result, but to claim that his team created fourteen chances to our three as he does here is just not true. I’m still not convinced that the appointment of the arch pragmatist Allardyce at a club with the reputation of West Ham is going to work. Because of the type of football his teams have played in the past (to be fair, I saw little evidence of it from West Ham yesterday mind), the fans at Upton Park will not be as tolerant of him if things are going wrong as they would be of, say, Tony Mowbray – despite what happened yesterday, I still see West ham as strong promotion contenders, but there have been suggestions that Allardyce has lost his last two jobs because of the type of football his teams play and I certainly wouldn’t rule out that becoming three over the next few months.

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