Nine man City send Leeds closer to the drop – despite Mark Clattenburg!

Posted on October 25, 2010 by The other Bob Wilson

In February 2007 Mark Clattenburg was very much a bright young thing in the refereeing world. He was only 25 when he took charge of his first Football League match in 2000 and was made a FIFA referee at 30 (both of these being a record for an English official). Like all officials in this age of of wall to wall television coverage, Clattenburg made his share of controversial decisions in those early days, but I can remember my opinion of him at the time was that he was one of the better officials out there and I certainly didn’t see his appointment to take charge of the Cardiff v Leeds match on 17 February 2007 as a problem – how wrong could I be!

Since the explosive FA Cup tie between the two teams in January 2002, Cardiff v Leeds matches were thought of by the powers that be as high risk affairs with all sorts of travel restrictions being imposed on away supporters  (in December 2005 many Cardiff fans chose to boycott the game at Elland Road because of them) and with former Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale (the man many of their supporters held responsible for their financial meltdown) ensconced at Cardiff, you could, perhaps, understand why the authorities might have felt the need for a high profile referee used to pressurised occasions to take charge of matches between the clubs.

In truth though, the obvious bad feeling between the rival supporters and the enmity between the two Boardrooms had not transferred itself onto the pitch in the five previous matches between the clubs since the great FA Cup upset five years earlier – while they were all hard fought affairs, in my opinion they were no dirtier than your normal Championship fixture.

Before (above) and after - the curious case of Clattenburg's returning hair.

With an in form City looking to maintain their Play Off challenge and bottom of the table Leeds desperate for points, there was certainly a lot riding on the game and it turned out to be a scrappy affair. With so much at stake, there was bound to be a bit of niggle about, but nothing that a referee as highly regarded as Clattenburg (who, despite his age, was used to taking charge of Premiership matches in front of much bigger crowds) couldn’t handle.

There was nothing much in the opening stages about Clattenburg’s refereeing to get the home supporters up in arms – indeed, it was the way that Leeds were taking the game to City (whose defence included Kevin McNaughton in a makeshift centre back role) which would have concentrated their minds more than the performance of the officials. Steve Thompson picked up a booking for dissent and Michael Chopra got one for a foul in the first half hour, but neither caution looked unduly harsh and seemed to reflect a frustration on the part of the players that the team were not playing with the fluency which had characterised some of their recent displays.

Leeds might have been dominating in terms of possession and territory, but there was very little to indicate that this was going to be reflected on the scoresheet though. With players as inventive as Eddie Lewis and Robbie Blake in their team, Leeds weren’t short of flair, but, for some reason, Lewis was being used as a left back while Blake (who I would have loved to have seen in the City team at some time in his long career) was unusually quiet. The scufflers in the Leeds midfield were preventing City from having much of the ball, but were also showing their limitations when it came to using it themselves as the game turned into something of a stalemate.

It was now that attention began to turn more towards Mr Clattenburg as he issued a third yellow card to a City player as the on loan Simon Walton (who was Leeds born and made his debut for them as a sixteen year old) was pulled up for a foul. Once again, the decision in itself was hard to argue with, but when set against the the numerous fouls being committed by Leeds players (the worst of the match so far, by the visiting captain Kevin Nicholls, had only led to a warning) without Mr Clattenburg feeling the need to get his cards out then you did begin to wonder.

In the five minutes before half time though, a couple of things happened to push the refereeing into the background again. Firstly, a nasty collision between a couple of Leeds players led to them both leaving the field with head injuries. One of them (defender Rui Marques) was immediately substituted, but Jonathan Douglas spent the rest of the first half off the pitch receiving treatment and it was during this time that City took the lead when Michael Chopra completed a hat tricks of free kick goals at the Canton Stand end in consecutive games by firing past Ankergren in the Leeds goal from twenty five yards.

Chopra’s fine goal gave City the confidence to step up their performance a bit in the opening minutes of the second half and they were looking relatively comfortable when the game was turned on it’s head as the goalscorer was given a second yellow for leading with his elbow when he challenged for a header with Leeds substitute Foxe (who had, finally, become the first visiting player to be cautioned a few minutes earlier). Although Chopra protested his innocence and the crowd were predictably up in arms at Clattenberg’s decision, watching later television replays had me understanding why the ref had acted as he did.

In truth, although he could be accused of favouring Leeds at times, there had been nothing in Mr Clattenburg’s performance up until then to deserve the notoriety he now enjoys amongst City fans who there to see his inept display, but, from then on, his performance went rapidly downhill as the expected Leeds onslaught failed to materialise – such was the lack of confidence amongst the visiting players that Leeds’ one man advantage was hardly noticed. While City were, understandably, restricted to attacking on the break, they were now looking more likely to score than their opponents and when Roger Johnson’s goalbound header from a corner was kept out by Tresor Kandol’s arm, Clattenburg pointed to the spot. Bafflingly though, the referee only saw fit to give the Leeds striker (who City had been linked with a few months earlier) a yellow card for what looked for all the world like a deliberate handball and City were unable to take advantage when Thompson’s effort was superbly saved by Ankergren.

Simon Walton has to be dragged off after his farcical red card.

Five minutes later Clattenburg made the decision which promoted his performance to the ranks of being a realistic candidate for the award for the worst refereeing performance in a City game that I have seen. Simon Walton has proved throughout his career that he doesn’t need help when it comes to finding ways to be sent off, but the second of his three red cards that season came about when he challenged for the ball with Lewis and fell to the ground. I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that the vast majority of people in the ground thought it was an obvious City free kick, but Clattenburg chose instead to show a second yellow card to Walton, apparently for diving, and all hell broke out as the player took an age to leave the field and the crowd went bananas!

The last ten minutes saw Paul Parry incredibly almost add to City’s lead as his lob was cleared off the line by Foxe and Leeds finally fashion a worthwhile strike on goal as Douglas’ effort from twenty yards was well dealt with by Neil Alexander, but City held on for a famous win amid signs that Clattenburg had realised what a mess he had made of refereeing the game – it’s hard to explain otherwise his decision not to show Steve Thompson a second yellow card for dissent which appeared far worse than that shown for his first one.

A miserable end to the season saw City fall well short of the top six, while Leeds, cynically, took a ten point penalty for going into administration after their relegation had been confirmed. As for Mark Clattenburg, an eccentric performance in a Merseyside derby in October 2007 (I would argue he wasn’t as bad in that match as he had been at Ninian Park eight months earlier) resulted in his reputation being questioned and he then spent much of the 2008/09 campaign serving a suspension because of business and personal issues.

Clattenburg is back refereeing Premiership matches now (he did the Man City v Arsenal match yesterday), but you get the feeling that he is no longer thought of quite as highly in the corridors of power as he once was. He has not refereed a City game since that one against Leeds and I can only hope that he never does again – in my book, he isn’t quite in the Barry Knight v Cambridge United class, but he’s definitely the worst I’ve seen at one of our games in the last twelve years or so.

17 February 2007

Cardiff City 1 Leeds United 0

City Alexander; Gilbert (Gunter), Johnson, McNaughton, Ledley; Parry, Walton, McPhail, Whittingham; Chopra, Thompson (Byrne); Subs (not used) Forde, Flood, Redan

Leeds Ankergren; Armando Sa, Rui Marques (Foxe), Heath, Lewis; Westlake (Cresswell), Nicholls, Douglas, Blake (Healy), Moore, Kandol; Subs (not used) Stack, Howson

HT 1-0

Att. 16,644

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No 2006/07 style fade out for City this time?

Posted on October 20, 2010 by The other Bob Wilson

I was out last night and so didn’t even get to listen to the game – in fact, I didn’t even know how we had got on until I got in at around 11 o’clock. Since then I have seen the goals on Sky Sports News, read a few match reports and taken in what is being said about the game on the messageboards. It’s seems a bit pointless therefore me going into great detail about a game which, to be honest, I don’t know a great deal about so, apart from a few general comments on it at the end of this piece, I am going to compare how we have done so far with the wonderful start we made to the 2006/07 season and give my opinion as to whether this team can avoid the sort of gradual fade out which, eventually, saw their predecessors finish the campaign in thirteenth place.

On 17 October 2006 City beat Southampton 1-0 at Ninian Park – just like the current team, they had played twelve matches and the Championship table after that match made for amazing reading as we led by six points with twenty nine points taken from the first thirty six on offer. By comparison, the table currently has us three points worse off than the team from four years ago and we have scored less and conceded more than them as well. Furthermore, the 06/07 team had got to where they were largely through taking on, and mostly beating, sides at the top of the table. They had already faced five out of the top seven teams at that time and only three of their matches had been against sides from the lower half of the table. By contrast, we have got to second this time around largely by doing what any side with promotion aspirations should do – that is, beat sides in the bottom half of the league (eight of our matches have been against teams that are below twelfth position and we have not yet played any of the current top six).

Steve Thompson celebrates scoring his late winner against Southampton in 06/07 as 19,000 City fans look on scarcely believing what they are seeing!

Furthermore, the 06/07 team had already won one game by a four goal margin and two more by 3-0 and 4-1 whereas, up to now, apart from the Doncaster match, all of our wins have come from pretty tight affairs. In view of all of the above, it must follow that my conclusion has to be that the current team are not as good as the one from four years ago mustn’t it? Well, no it isn’t actually – although, having looked again at the question I just asked, I should really have swapped the word “squad” for “team”. They never got the opportunity to prove me wrong, but I just can’t believe that we would have had so many points in 06/07 if September 2006 had seen the sort of injury crisis that we had to cope with last month.

The position we found ourselves in after twelve matches four years ago represented the high water mark if you will of that season – true, there was a great win at eventual champions Sunderland and high flying Burnley were also beaten in the next five games as we stayed at the top of the table, but they were the only victories gained until well into the New Year as talk of going up as Champions gradually changed into optimistic thoughts of us squeezing into the Play Offs.

However, for me, the most significant difference between now and four years ago is how I perceive the two teams. I can only speak for myself here, but I would doubt it if I were the only City fan who watched those first twelve matches of 06/07 with a sense of wonderment. Now, some of that feeling came from the fact that it had been more than thirty five years since City had been so high in the league system and it also needs to be said that when that City side slipped into gear, they played some tremendous stuff. However, all of the time this was happening I had the feeling that the team were going flat out – although I clung to the hope that they could maintain their blistering form and that they had already put enough distance between themselves and many of their rivals to secure a Play Off spot, there was also this suspicion that it just couldn’t last.

By contrast, I find myself being more critical of this team because my expectations have grown – FA Cup Final appearances and two seasons spent fighting long and, ultimately unsuccessful, promotion challenges where the number of wins far exceeded the number of defeats partially explain that feeling. There is also this perception though that, despite them being only three points behind what was achieved in 06/07 after twelve matches, there is so much more to come from the current side/squad – I think that other supporters feel the same way and I definitely get the impression that the players and manager do.

A class goal by a class player - Jay Bothroyd's winner.

When I compare the squads of 06/07 and this season, we look stronger now in virtually all areas of the pitch than we did then. You only have to look at names like Malvin Kamara, Luigi Glombard and Kevin Campbell to realise that we have far more strength in depth in the forward and wide midfield areas then we did then and when you consider the number of players we now have who can do a decent job in central midfield as compared to 06/07, I reckon the same applies there. Goalkeeper is a bit tougher because I am sure that there will be some who’ll argue that Neil Alexander was better than either Tom Heaton or David Marshall, but , once again, in terms of strength in depth, the current squad wins for me. Much the same applies at full back – the Gilbert/McNaughton partnership in their pomp was, arguably, better than anything we can put out now, but Kerrea Gilbert’s form soon faded and the number of options we now have in that position again makes me favour the current squad.

It’s only when you get to centreback that the current squad suffers when compared to the one from four years ago. To my mind, you could put up a decent argument to say that all of the trio of Loovens, Johnson and Purse were better than what we currently have in that area. Indeed, I see that Mark Hudson has been copping some flak for gifting the ball to Coventry in the build up to their equaliser last night – Hudson and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Gyepes are more error prone than certainly Loovens and Johnson were, but that shouldn’t mean that they have to be rubbished as much as they sometimes are because, in my view, what we are seeing in the centreback positions is a reversal of what we have seen throughout the squad in the last two or three years.

From the moment Danny Gabbidon started playing centre back at the start of the 2001/02 campaign to the time last summer when Roger Johnson was sold, City fans were used to having at least one high quality centre back in the team. Those standards are not being maintained at the moment, but we have to keep a sense of perspective about this because, let’s face it, we were spoilt rotten for centrebacks for almost a decade. If there is money available for more signings in January then a centreback has to be the number one priority in my view. However, if we do have to make do with what we have got, then Hudson, Gyepes, Blake and, hopefully, Riggott are a quartet that many of our rivals in this league would love to have on their books.

There is a more solid look about Coventry this season and last night City were up against a team whose manager, apparently, knows only one way to play – this meant that the game was always going to be a battle and, although a mistake was made in the build up to the goal we conceded, the low number of saves Tom  Heaton had to make seems to prove that the team, and Gyepes and Hudson in particular, didn’t do too bad a job in handling Coventry’s physical, long ball approach.

The 06/07 side only took another thirty five points from their remaining thirty four matches after that win over Southampton. In all honesty, I just cannot see the current side coming anywhere close to such a poor return and, while it needs to be borne in mind that we are almost into November which is, traditionally, a poor month for Dave Jones’ Cardiff City sides, we are now beginning to justify the favourites tag that we were given when we signed Bellamy and co. If the current habit of “winning ugly” (which is something I can certainly live with) becomes transformed into one where we begin to win with a bit of style, then, although I don’t really like saying things like this because it is Cardiff City we are talking about here, you begin to wonder if the vast majority of teams in this league could live with us.

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