Ninian Park’s greatest ever goal?

Posted on January 29, 2010 by The other Bob Wilson

Right, so you know about football? In that case, how would you rate Darren Utley? What do you mean, you’ve never heard of him – you must remember him! Truth be told, I had to look him up as well this morning to find out that he was that Doncaster left back who scored a wonder goal against us back in March 1997.

After two of the worst seasons in the club’s history, the City side of 1996/97 offered some hope that better days were on the way as they spent most of the campaign in the top ten of what is now called League Two. After a summer clear out that had seen many of a squad which were ranked the ninetieth best in the ninety two team league system leave the club, Manager Phil Neal started virtually from scratch as he put together a team that, on it’s day, was capable of beating the best in the division.

The signing of the talented Jason Fowler from Bristol City added creativity and some flair to the midfield, while the versatile fans favourite Jeff Eckhardt, who arrived from Stockport for a a fee of £15,000, scored a fine goal on his debut to secure a first win of the season by 1-0 at home to Brighton. With Carl Dale not having the best of seasons, the main goal threat came from veteran Steve White and the emerging youngster Simon Haworth who impressed bigger clubs with a skill and elegance that you would not normally associate with a six foot plus lower league striker.

Although they were never really in contention for automatic promotion and lost more matches than most of the teams around them, City’s total of only  nine league draws was the joint lowest in the division (the following season saw them draw an incredible twenty three times!) and so, by picking up so many wins, City were always in contention for one of the Play Off places.

The departure of Phil Neal to become Steve Coppell’s assistant manager at Manchester City saw him replaced by a returning Kenny Hibbitt and former England centreback Russell Osman who effectively became joint managers, but it did not have too much an effect on results as City went into November on a run of one defeat in nine matches. However, seven losses in their next eight games saw them plunge to thirteenth position only for a fantastic 4-1 win at top of the table Fulham in televised game to kickstart another fine run that had them climbing the table as quickly as they had been falling down it a few weeks earlier.

So it was then that City went into their home game with lowly Doncaster Rovers on Friday 14 March 1997 in the last play off position (i.e. seventh) on the back of a run which had seen them claim nineteen points from eight matches. With Doncaster languishing in twenty third place and having conceded fifteen goals in losing their previous five away games, it was a fixture which had home win written all over it, but then that’s just what we all thought when we played Plymouth a month ago!

To be honest, the only thing I remember now about the game is Doncaster’s second goal – an early goal by Darren Moore put the visitors ahead so, given that Moore, who went on to become a Premiership player at Portsmouth, West Brom and Derby, is an absolute giant of a man, I’ll assume it was a header, but the truth is that I don’t have a clue whether it was or not.

Doncaster went in 1-0 up at the break and then put the game beyond City around the hour mark with a goal that has to be the highlight of Darren Utley’s short professional career. I tended to sit in the Bob Bank at the Canton Stand end of the ground in those days and had the sort of perfect view that you get sometimes when you know that the ball is going in as soon as it leaves the player’s foot. What made this goal so special though was that Utley was out on the Bob Bank touchline not far inside the City half when he hit his shot (and it was definitely a shot not the sort of mishit centre that you can occasionally end up in the net).

City’s keeper that night was Tony Elliott who certainly wouldn’t feature in any list of best goalies I have seen at the club didn’t have a chance of saving Utley’s shot, but neither would the likes of Marshall, Alexander, Dibble and Healey as the ball arrowed into the top corner of the Grange End net. Sadly, I am pretty sure that there is no video footage of the goal (I couldn’t find anything on You Tube) and, of course, there is always a tendency to exaggerate these things as the years go by, but I would be very surprised if he wasn’t forty yards from goal when he hit his shot.

Utley played twenty two times for Doncaster that season but then was released after featuring only four times the following season in what was an awful Donny team that finished fifteen points adrift at the bottom of the table when the season ended – they were so bad that even Andy Saville managed to score twice in a 7-1 City win at Ninian Park a year to the day after Utley’s scorcher!

Actually, Donny’s transformation from Conference nobodies to Championship somebodies has to be one of the footballing success stories of the decade just ended and when you consider that they have achieved this by playing quality passing football under one of the most under rated managers around, then I think that if City couldn’t get promoted, Doncaster would be the side I would like to see go up in our place.

As for City, defeats like this one highlighted the inconsistency the side showed throughout the season. Their record against the top sides, especially away from home, was superb as they followed up  that win at eventual runners up Fulham with a win at Champions Wigan courtesy of a Haworth goal on Easter Monday and by doing the double over third placed Carlisle. Mixed in with that though, there were four defeats against the bottom five sides which goes a long way towards explaining why the last day of the season saw City needing a draw at Darlington to definitely seal the last Play Off place by finishing seventh when five sides they had beaten finished above them.

As it turned out, City did make it into the Play Offs, but only because of the failings of others as their 2-1 defeat at Darlington counted for little as rivals Lincoln and Cambridge United both lost at home. City then faced Northampton in the Play Off Semi Finals who were, at that time, something of a bogey team for us. Northampton won 1-0 in the First Leg in front of an 11,000 plus crowd at Ninian Park before a 3-2 win in a fiery return at Sixfields which saw a player from both sides dismissed booked them a Wembley date against Swansea in the final which they won with a last minute goal.

14 March 1997

Cardiff City 0 Doncaster Rovers 2 (Moore, Utley)

City Elliott; Jarman, Perry, Davies, Lloyd; Fowler, Middleton, Stoker, Partridge (Dale); White, Haworth Subs (not used) Rollo, Philliskirk

Doncaster Williams; Cunningham, Moore (1), Gore, Utley (1); Schofield, Esdaille, McDonald, Ireland;  Mike, Cramb (Larmour)

HT 0-1

Att. 5,347

Posted in Memories, 1963 - 2023 | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

A Curates egg of a press conference from Peter Ridsdale.

Posted on January 29, 2010 by The other Bob Wilson

At about midday yesterday, news broke that there would be a press conference at the Cardiff City Stadium at 2 o clock. With the messageboards carrying posts about how Steve Borley and Paul Guy had burst into Peter Ridsdale’s office in the morning demanding to know why the previous day’s statement on the official site had said that Peter Ridsdale had the full backing of the board when this wasn’t the case, speculation soon began that a resignation, administration or a combination of both was imminent. Indeed, in the hour leading up to the press conference, it was announced on one of the messageboards that Peter Ridsdale had definitely resigned.

In the event, those reports were shown to be well wide of the mark as, within seconds of a fraught press conference starting , Peter Ridsdale announced that he would not be resigning. What followed was a bizarre mixture of our Chairman’s normal poise when  speaking in public, edgy, evasive and unconvincing answers to some questions, downright rudeness and arrogance on his part when answering another and ineptitude and naivety in answering  others.

I thought Mr Ridsdale was at his least convincing when answering questions about how the club had seemingly budgeted for receiving investment that they didn’t know for certain would be forthcoming and when he tried to justify previous comments  of his concerning the money owed to HMRC. Also, when trying to explain why there was no need for an AGM, his views on democracy reminded me of a group of trade union leaders who cast their million votes each on something and then say “the members have spoken”!

However, it was in his answer to a straightforward question about whether the tax debt would be paid before the scheduled court appearance on 10 February that Peter Ridsdale really got it wrong in my view as his flippant reply of “you will find out on 10 February” ticked absolutely none of the right boxes. Now, people under pressure sometimes blurt out things that they instantly regret and Mr Ridsdale was being questioned very rigorously by Steve Tucker in particular at the time, however, he then had an opportunity to qualify what he had said in a more “user friendly” manner and refused to take it as he instead went on to express opinions that led one to believe that he was not interested in what minority shareholders were thinking.

Strangely enough, I thought that one of the occasions when our Chairman came across as his normal convincing self was when he stated that the potential investors would walk away if he was no longer at the club. Although this was not confirmed by our Chairman, I think that the widespread view is that the potential investors that we are still talking to are the Malaysians. Assuming this is correct, I have to say that I had believed those who have been expressing the view over the past couple of weeks that, given TG had said in an e-mail that he was not aware of the original winding up order beforehand and that Peter Ridsdale had confirmed that he hadn’t informed the man he had been negotiating with about it, people like Steve Borley and Paul Guy had been carrying out negotiations because the Malaysians refused to deal with our Chairman.

Therefore, to have Mr Ridsdale now claiming that his presence was essential if the ongoing negotiations with potential investors were to succeed seemed very strange. However, when you consider that he was speaking from a position of having been given what he said was the unanimous backing of the board, I for one, was beginning to think that, despite all that had gone on, we should stick with Mr Ridsdale for the time being at least.

This view was reinforced somewhat by the two best messages I read on the messageboards yesterday as Gwyn Davies and a poster called Robbie S argued for calm thinking at this difficult time. In his message Gwyn said that he had talked to Steve Borley, who is regularly portrayed as the one genuine City fan on the Board, and would keep faith with him in spite of the way that he had, seemingly, thrown his weight behind our very unpopular Chairman earlier in the day.

Therefore, it was interesting to see Mr Borley himself put a message on one of the boards last night. Unfortunately, what he had to say didn’t offer any clarification as to why the Board agree that Peter Ridsdale continuing in his job is essential to our chances of securing investment. Instead all we got was another call for us not to show that we “are too hot to handle” as if the whole deal with any potential investors hinges solely on us all behaving ourselves on Saturday. Supporters have been perfectly well behaved in the months since Mr Ridsdale first started talking to the Malaysians for all the good it has done as far as concluding a deal is concerned, so,  I’m sorry, but that just does not wash with me.

One thing that Steve Borley said in one of his follow up messages did confirm that the club are also negotiating with HMRC regarding the unpaid tax bill. I am hoping that this means that the funds are in place to pay all of the money owed, but they are trying to negotiate a part payment. Unfortunataly, I get the uneasy feeling that it doesn’t mean this – I can’t help thinking that it means that, despite supporters giving the club enough to pay off the original £2.7 million in full, the money is not there to do that and we are hoping that they will accept a part payment for now.

So, the question has to be asked are supporters being hot headed in asking for thinking of demonstrating at tomorrow’s match while looking for more information as to what is going on at Cardiff City Stadium? I don’t think they are and, in the absence of any hint as to why someone like Steve Borley is prepared to stick by a Chairman who, on the face of it, is in an untenable position, more pleas to “keep the faith” aren’t going to work. Supporters have come up with £3 million worth of faith in the last few months and no one in authority at the club is prepared to tell us where it has gone.

I think I am right in saying that the 28th of the month is pay day at Cardiff City so it is possible that, while Peter Ridsdale was telling us how he was going to battle on regardless in the club’s cause, another £30,000 or so had found it’s way into his Bank Account. That’s the problem I have with those who are making the decisions that effect the future of my football club at the moment. Are they thinking more of their own pockets than the club’s? Is the club heading towards the rocks of administration with much needed investment being delayed while the major shareholders haggle with other parties about how much money they are going to make in the sale of their shares?

Posted in Up in the Boardroom | Tagged , , | Comments Off on A Curates egg of a press conference from Peter Ridsdale.