A shambolic end to the season.

Posted on May 7, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Maybe “shambolic” is too strong a word to describe Cardiff City’s end to the season – after all, they’ve won five and drawn one of their last seven matches and still lie in third place with the chance to put things right today against a Burnley team whose interest in promotion should have been ended last week with their feeble 1-0 defeat at Leeds. However, the nature of Monday’s pathetic 3-o loss to Middlesbrough at Cardiff City Stadium and the fall out from it means that at present there is certainly the potential there for this season to turn into a re run of the nightmare that was 2008/09.

As if the nature of the defeat wasn’t bad enough, here have also been stories of players out until the early hours of the morning in the days before the game (there are even some claims of members of the starting eleven being out until 4 a.m., some thirteen and a quarter hours prior to kick off!). Whether they were drunk or not seems immaterial really if there is something to these claims and it has to be said that a statement issued by the club in response to the allegations and Dave Jones’ response to a question about the matter in his pre-match press conference yesterday virtually admitted that a breach of club rules had taken place. Dave Jones is right in my view to concentrate on the playing side for now, but, especially given the importance of last Monday’s match, I believe that supporters will want to see those involved (and the same three names do seem to be cropping up in this matter) heavily punished – the way I feel about it now, I wouldn’t want to see anybody involved playing for the club next season.

The media have also got themselves in a lather about an incident from Monday that saw the, admittedly unwilling, celebrity linesperson Sian Massey knocked to the ground by Kevin McNaughton – although I concede that it does look as if McNaughton does change direction before the collision, I can’t help thinking that the whole thing would have been forgotten about within minutes if the official involved had been Bert Jones from Milton Keynes!

The thing is though that it was something else that helped to give the impression that Cardiff City are a club in crisis when just six days ago we were realistic contenders for automatic promotion. Bearing that in mind, it was good to see Craig Bellamy bringing some sanity to proceedings yesterday as he tried to put things into some sort of perspective. Of course, what Bellamy said will make no difference if the team turn in another performance today that provokes comparisons with the 08/09 humiliation, but his presence at the club is one of the reasons that I still have hopes that the same sort of thing won’t happen this time around.

Dave Jones bridled at the suggestion that he was in charge of a team of “chokers” at Monday’s post match press conference and if the Middlesbrough game had been a one off then he would have been right to do so, but, sadly, that is not the case. You would like to think that, especially, those players who have been here for the last three seasons would welcome the chance they have in the next few weeks to lay such a charge to rest for good. As I mentioned in an e-mail to a fellow City fan yesterday, if I was a professional footballer I think the criticism that would hurt me the most would be to be thought of as a bottler or choker – even if the result goes against us, the team can take a big step towards making sure that that charge wouldn’t stick if they go to Burnley and show some commitment, character and belief (the latter two especially were missing from a few of the side on Monday).

Earlier on I mentioned that Burnley’s promotion chances “should” have gone now, but the truth is that they haven’t quite yet. The current table shows them five points short of sixth placed Forest, but the QPR FA charge factor means that it is still possible for them to end up in the Play Offs with a win today if the commission looking into the signing of Alejandro Faurlin hit the team who have finished top of the Championship with a huge points deduction.

I was hoping not to mention what has become a tedious saga on here until the verdict was announced. That was meant to happen yesterday, but, completely predictably, it was revealed yesterday that it would be delayed and so, although there are some rumours around that say there will be a decision before the final round of matches kick off at lunchtime today, the likelihood is that everything will still be up in the air regarding the identity of the automatic promotion sides and one of those in the Play Off’s when the regular season in the Championship ends in a few hours time.

My feeling has always been that if QPR knowingly supplied the authorities with documents that they knew to be forged (as outlined in one of the charges against them), then they should be made an example of and docked a substantial number of points and it’s the possibility that this still could happen that makes today’s situation such a farce. Apart from casting a huge shadow over what should be a fantastic time for the players and supporters at QPR, it also means that Cardiff City and Swansea City will go into today’s matches knowing that victory might just see them winning automatic promotion. Another consequence of Monday’s hiding is that our goal difference is now worse than the jacks and so if, as they surely will, they beat already relegated Sheffield United at home today, then nothing but a win at Turf Moor will do if we want to clinch what could still be a vital third place.

I suppose the FA’s prevarication means that what would have been a pretty boring last day, in which the only real interest would be to see if Leeds could triumph over huge odds to rob Forest of the last Play Off place, has been made more interesting, but in truth they have again shown why their reputation is currently just about as low as I can remember it being. Yes, I accept that they are currently carefully treading through a legal minefield with the size of the prize on offer meaning that any decision they take will almost certainly being the subject of a further challenge, but what has been a compelling Championship season looks like ending in confusion and recrimination – it deserves better than that.

 

Posted in Out on the pitch, The Championship | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on A shambolic end to the season.

Oops, they did it again.

Posted on May 3, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Yes the officials were poor and yes City had more than twice as many goal attempts than their opponents did (they also won the corner count 8-1), but there can be no denying that their 3-0 home defeat by Middlesbrough was completely deserved as they turned in a woeful performance at a time when the prize of automatic promotion to the Premiership was still so close at hand. That prospect should have been enough have to have guaranteed that the near capacity home crowd saw at least something from their side that showed why they had spent the whole season as genuine candidates for a top two finish. When calm heads and focussed minds were required though, too many in the blue shirt failed to put in an acceptable shift and I’m afraid that, not for the first time, there is going to be a linking of the words “Cardiff City” and “chokers” this morning.

Before going any further though, some credit has to be given to Middlesbrough who produced a committed and very effective performance of a quality far higher than you would expect from a team in their position in the table – the truth of the matter is that they won at a canter. After their first half horror show, City at least had a bit of a go in the second half and, maybe, if Kevin McNaughton had scored from that gilt edged chance seconds after the restart, then there might just have been a way back into the game for them, but Boro were happy enough to sit back and soak up our fitful pressure content in the knowledge that they had done more than enough to have sealed the points in the first twenty one minutes – as their manager Tony Mowbray, rightly, said they “saw the game out quite comfortably in the end.”

Jason Koumas, who didn't do badly in the second half, and Player of the Year Kevin McNaughton look stunned by City's capitulation.

In those opening minutes a City defence that had kept three clean sheets in it’s last four matches simply imploded. Although not up to his recent levels of performance, Paul Quinn could, largely, be absolved of blame for the shambolic start, but Tom Heaton, Kevin McNaughton, Dekel Keinan (who undid much of the good work of his first three months with us and was lucky not to be sent off as, like a few of his colleagues, he lost his discipline in the first half) and Jay-Lloyd Samuel were all found wanting to different degrees as Boro were handed their goals on a plate. In front of them, the midfield were just not good enough as Seyi Olofinjana buckled under the huge workload that has been placed on him this season, there was further proof that the 2010/11 Chris Burke is not a patch on the 09/10 version (perhaps his unresolved contract situation isn’t helping matters?) and, sadly, Steve McPhail (who I have always had a lot of time for) looked a spent force at this level while he was on the pitch.

Craig Bellamy at least kept on trying, picked up his obligatory booking for dissent and was, probably, our best player – his was only a six out of ten performance though where he had been turning in eights or better over the past month. Jay Bothroyd looked like he might be able to provide that missing spark for a while in the first half but faded into the general mediocrity around him long before the end and with Peter Whittingham not doing the business in any of the variety of positions he found himself in during the game, not one of the starting eleven performed to the standard required by the situation. If there was anything encouraging to be taken from individual performances, then I would say Darcy Blake did okay in the second half and Jason Koumas, surprisingly, showed that he could possibly be used as a deep lying continuity type player instead of McPhail in the remaining matches but, in both cases, it has to be remembered that most of their good work was done against opponents who were sitting a lot deeper than they had been and were content to let City keep the ball in their own half.

Deja Vu? A helpless Dave Jones and Terry Burton try to take in what they are seeing.

Predictably, the message boards had people pointing out that it was just one game and that there is still everything to play for as far as the last promotion place goes and they are right of course – my mind goes back to that dreadful 3-0 home defeat to Colchester in 2002/03 just over a month before we were all celebrating promotion at the Millennium Stadium. However, I’ve got to say that so much of what happened yesterday had a familiar look to it – for Preston 6 Cardiff 0 in 08/09, read Cardiff 0 Middlesbrough 3 in 10/11? It’s not just that awful last four matches two years ago though is it – miles clear at the top in 06/07 only to finish below halfway and although I have always thought that last season’s Blackpool defeat was simply a case of being beaten by a better team, it should not be forgotten that City did their best to chuck away a two goal lead in the Play Off Semi Final with Leicester. I accept that now is not the time for witch hunts against the manager, but, by the same token, it cannot be said that what happened last night was an isolated event can it.

Finally, it would be churlish to ignore Norwich’s remarkable achievement of gaining successive promotions. The fact is that, since our 3-1 win over them in October, they have proved themselves to be a better team than us and I truly believe that the best sides over the course of this season are currently in first and second position. While I think it’s fair to say that Norwich never had as much expectation to cope with as Cardiff have since August, they fronted up to the pressure when it did come on them and their team of, mostly, lower division recruits saw it through in a way that our “galacticos” couldn’t – congratulations to Norwich and, in particular, to Paul Lambert.

Posted in Out on the pitch | Comments Off on Oops, they did it again.