Gates class proves decisive despite the presence of Paul Evans in the City starting line up.

Posted on March 4, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Ipswich Town were a team in transition when they came to Ninian Park for a third round FA Cup tie in January 1984. Bobby Robson had left to manage England, while their Dutch midfield pass masters Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen had departed for Manchester United and Nottingham Forest respectively (they were also to lose the prolific goalscorer John Wark from their midfield within weeks as he signed for Liverpool). Although Ipswich, now under the management of former City full back Bobby Ferguson, were  still a useful team, their days of being league title challengers and FA and UEFA Cup winners were over – they were one game into a horrendous run of ten defeats in eleven league matches which would see them drop into the relegation places, before a late season rally took them to the safety of mid table.

Therefore, with cash strapped City not doing too badly at all in the Second Division following their promotion the previous season, you would have thought that the game should have been seen as one where there was the real possibility of a Cup upset – the reality was somewhat different though. I say that because Ipswich were facing a side that was going to be well under strength in the striking department. Although Gordon Owen had done a good job in taking over from the talented Dave Bennett, the further loss of Bob Hatton through retirement and Jeff Hemmerman through injury meant that City had lost all of the strikeforce that had seen them to promotion in 82/83 and, hardly surprisingly, manager Len Ashurst had struggled to replace their goals.

Recent signings Ian Baird and Trevor Lee did as good a job as anyone as replacements for Hatton and Hemmerman, but, with Southampton not allowing the on loan Baird to play and Lee already cup tied, the England centreback pairing of Terry Butcher and Russell Osman were set for a relatively quiet afternoon.

Cardiff City 1983/84 - Paul Evans is third from the right in the back row.

Having tried all manner of players up front already that season, Len Ashurst decided that drastic action was called for and brought in Paul Evans for his first Cardiff City start. At the age of twenty seven, I would have been at my peak as a footballer, but I’m afraid that our manager must have thought that a balding, five foot eight and slightly overweight (there might have been a few who disagreed with the use of the word “slightly” there!) central striker was not quite what he was looking for and so, instead, turned to Brentwood born Wales youth international Paul Evans who had been scoring lots of goals for City’s reserve and Under 18 sides over the past year or so.

Having featured as a substitute in the recent league defeats by Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday, Evans followed youth products Chris Townsend, Wayne Matthews and Russell Heycock into the side, but. although Matthews went on to make around twenty first team appearances, none of those three ever really suggested that they could prosper at Second Division level and did not stay at the club for long (Townsend did make a scoring return to Ninian Park five years later though as part of the Cloucester City side which drew 2-2 in a Second Round FA Cup tie in 1989/90).

Unfortunately, much the same happened with Paul Evans – he never featured again in the first team and left on a free transfer at he end of the 1984/85 season. From what I can remember, Evans’ performance matched the rest of City’s under strength team that day in that he gave his best and, for long periods, competed well against top flight opponents, but, ultimately, that extra bit of class proved decisive.

Eric Gates - his hat trick is up there with Buchanan's against Sheffield United and Chopra's against Leicester as the best I have seen "live".

On this occasion, the majority of that class came from Eric Gates who won a couple of England caps during a career which saw him make over 350 appearances for Ipswich before moving on to Sunderland and, finally, Carlisle. Gates was one of those players who it is hard to classify because he wasn’t exactly a midfield player or a striker in much the same manner as, say, Paul Brayson and Jason Bowen were during their time with us. Not being the best defender in the world, Gates was given few responsibilities in that area by his Ipswich managers and it was his stylish contribution that proved decisive this time as he scored all of the goals in a 3-0 win that was probably a bit harsh on hard working City.

Gates’ goal had Ipswich ahead at the interval, but it was his two from distance (with one being a lovely curled and placed effort from about twenty yards) in the second half that really took the eye as the visitors repeated their Third Round win of six years earlier (Paul Mariner had scored both goals in a 2-0 victory as Ipswich began on the run which would see them beat Arsenal in the Final). By the time the third goal went in, the outcome of the game had been obvious for some time and there was even some applause (not much mind!) from City’s fans in appreciation of Gates’ skill.

City banked the cash from their big pay day (it’s incredible to think now that the disappointing looking attendance was actually City’s fourth biggest of that season) and continued to fight a losing battle on the financial front which would eventually culminate in us dropping two divisions over the next couple of seasons while Paul Evans went on to score goals galore for a host of non league sides in this area. There was one more brief acquaintance with league football as he scored a couple of goals in ten appearances for Newport County during their last season as a Football League club in 1987/88, but, looking back at it now, the day he was up against Butcher and Osman in an FA Cup match might well have been the highlight of Evans’ career.

6 January 1984

Cardiff City 0 Ipswich Town 3

City Dibble; Elsey, Dwyer, Bennett, Bodin; Tong, Gibbins, Vaughan, Burke; Owen, Evans; Sub (not used) Heycock

Ipswich Sivell, Burley, Buthcher, Osman, Gernon; Parkin, Wark, McCall, O’Callaghan (D’Avray); Mariner, Gates (3)

HT 0-1

Att. 10,118

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A round up of on and off pitch matters at Cardiff City.

Posted on March 2, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

One of the categories I use on here is called “Up in the Boardroom” – it’s meaning is self explanatory in that I use it to cover primarily off field matters which tend to centre on the club’s finances. Since this blog started in August 2009, I have posted fifty two pieces before this one in that category and the fact that forty six of them were posted before the season started back in August says an awful lot about how much quieter things have been off the field this time around compared to 09/10. Now, I have to say that, having become heartily sick and tired of writing about unpaid wages and tax bills and egocentric Chairmen, I had resolved to write less on the off field happenings at the club this season, but, thinking about it, I can only remeber about two or three matters that I would have posted on using last year’s critieria but didn’t this time around.

However, the filling of the club’s accounts for the year ending 31 May 2010 is something worth commenting on – people expecting or wanting a knowledgeable and in depth analysis of them need to look elsewhere mind! The first thing to say is that they were filed at Companies House three months earlier than they were last year – something which, to this financial ignoramus at least, seems to be a good thing that signals a far less turbulent situation than a year ago. As to how good or bad they are, well, depending on which ones you look at (the days of one limited company – and, therefore, one set of accounts – which cover everything a football club gets up to appear to be long gone I’m afraid), we either made or lost around £900,000 over the period.

Whichever figure you choose to use though, that is a lot less than has become the norm over the past decade or so, but this can be explained away by the fact that £7.2 million was received from the proceeds of the sale of Ninian Park. Turnover was up by over £4 million (mostly as a consequence of higher season ticket sales for the new ground and increased television income) to around £15 million, but much of this was eaten up by wages and “staff costs” which rose by about £3.5 million and it seems to me that, in terms of wages paid, we are getting to the stage where promotion should be expected given what most of our rivals are paying.

The possibility of a 09/10 type financial calamity is raised this morning I suppose in this story from thes Guardian. Again, better qualified people than me will be needed to say precisely what is going on here – to me there are mixed messages, on the one hand, it seems we haven’t broken any rules, but, on the other, why the need for the “negative pledge” if it’s all as innocent as Alan Whiteley makes out?

While on the subject of finances, I should also record that, despite the passing of a deadline which, I think,  means the latest agreement between the two parties is null and void, “amicable” discussions between the club and Langston/Hammam are continuing regarding the loan note debt as our former owner issues bizarre rallying cries regarding our promotion bid.

One last thing on the financial side – I have a copy of the latest accounts and would be happy to send them, in Adobe format, to anyone who wants to read them.

There are a few on field matters to record as well. Firstly, Chris Kirkland’s loan move is off, reportedly, because he is suffering from a virus. While this news will hardly come as a great shock to anyone aware of the player’s “sicknote” reputation, it does mean that, all of a sudden, City find themselves in a very awkward position regarding goalkeepers. With David Marshall out for the season after an operation on his elbow and Tom Heaton carrying a groin injury, we really do need someone in quick.

Despite the comments last week from Arsene Wenger about Aaron Ramsey being recalled by Arsenal at the end of his one month’s loan, Dave Jones has sounded fairly bullish about keeping him a little while longer with a twenty four hour recall clause for the London team. Our manager reasons that Rambo is not ready for Premiership football yet and so thinks that he would be better off playing regular games with us for now – he has also hinted that the player would prefer playing first team football for us to occasional matches with his contracted club (Ramsey is only eligible for two of the four games Arsenal have scheduled for this month). Anyway, there are rumours now that Dave Jones might be right about what Rambo would prefer to be doing over the next few games and that a final decision from Arsenal will be made in the next day or two – I’m not getting my hopes up just yet, but it looks like there is a small chance that Aaron might not have played his last game for us.

Finally, our reserves played one of their rare games yesterday at the Vale (they played Swindon). As to how they got on, well it all depends on who you believe. The Echo’s Terry Phillips is saying that it finished 0-0, while the official site’s video coverage of the game has them losing 1-0 with pictures of both the winning goal and the celebration which followed it – I think I know which version I believe!

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