Seven decades of Cardiff City v Wigan Athletic matches.

Posted on January 3, 2026 by The other Bob Wilson

We seem to be going through a run of games against opponents that are very hard, or impossible, to set seven decades quizzes for. Wigan are always a challenge when it comes to the days before they joined the Football League in 1978, but, so far anyway, I’ve managed to get questions for all seven decades for them and, although you could say my sixties and seventies questions are more suited to other decades, I’ve done so again today.

Wigan are unusual when it comes to League One this season in that they are perhaps the only team in the division you could say have been mid table throughout with no great promotion aspirations or relegation worries to get excited or worried about.

I daresay Wigan fans reading the last paragraph will point out that inn this barmy league they’re only three points above Plymouth in the last of the relegation places, albeit with a much better goal difference, so there is every chance that they could go down. I’d counter that though by saying I’ve not heard them mentioned as relegation candidates on any of the League One podcasts I regularly listen to. Now, I accept that this might be a dangerous situation for Wigan as my mind goes back nearly fifty years to when we lost to Orient in our final game of the 77/78 season – a result which kept the London team up and sent down a Blackpool side which had been thought of more as promotion challengers for about eighty per cent of the campaign.

I don’t see Wigan as relegation candidates, but, by the same token, I don’t see them bridging the eight point gap to the last of the Play Off places unless they bring more goals into the team during this month’s transfer window. As it is, Wigan’s record is one of an archetypal mid table side – they’ve won and lost the same number of matches, but they’ve drawn more than they’ve won or lost. Also their goal difference is zero with them having scored and conceded goals at a rate of just over one a game.

So, all of that makes it a game we should win tomorrow, but with six of their twelve away matches ending all square this season, Wigan like a draw on. their travels and I believe we’ll have to improve our play in the final third from last Thursday if we are to stretch our run of consecutive home league victories to eight.

On to the quiz then, the answers to which will be posted on here on Monday.

60s. Valentine is a middle name which hardly suits the rugged defender who bore it. He began his first team career at one of his home city’s clubs towards the end of this decade and had done so well that a power in the land, which was undergoing something of a rebuilding job at the time, had snapped him up before it was out. I’ve always thought that he never really established himself at his new club and was more of a back up, but 150 league appearances in the five years he was there says otherwise. When he moved on, it was to the Midlands for a club record fee. His new team were still something of a novelty in the top flight at the time, but they would establish themselves and their stay in what was then Division One lasted decades. However, our man never really settled there as he lost form following an injury and his next move looked to be a real downward step which, in the event, turned out to be anything but that as he added another international cap to the three he had gained eight years earlier. As far as I can tell, he played against City twice and lost them both with the first time being with his fourth club in what turned out to be a very notable result. The second time he faced us was when he was with the fifth, and final, club of his playing career, Wigan, but can you name him?

70s. Butchery involving a soldier?

80s. How are a footballing knight, Gary Bennett and the number 4.447 connected in the context of Cardiff v Wigan games?

90s. Oi, waddle v Wigan! (5,4)

00s. Alliterative and 110 times capped.

10s. Can you identify this player from the following clues? He’s only ever had three clubs, Wigan were his second one and he only played eleven times for them, while he played just twice for his first club who wear a different shade of stripes to Wigan. However, he was loaned out to six teams from his first club during which he played a total of seventy two matches – he was also loaned out once by Wigan, playing a further dozen matches this time. He has made a total of 367 league appearances for his third permanent team, scoring ninety eight times despite playing as a defender for most of that time.

20s. Time traveller at number six?

Answers

60s. Larry Lloyd was signed by Liverpool from Bristol Rovers in 1969 and made his debut for England in a 0-0 draw against Wales in 1971. Lloyd was signed by Coventry in 1974, but his time there was blighted by an injury and he dropped into the old Second Division when he signed for Nottingham Forest early in the 76/77 season. Despite a 1-0 home loss late in the campaign to City which turned out to be their last loss at the City Ground in forty nine games, Forest were promoted that season and, incredibly went on to win the First Division title the following season with two European Cups and League Cup triumphs following. Lloyd’s form won him an international recall, but it did not go well as England were thrashed 4-1 by Wales at Wrexham in 1980. Lloyd was appointed player manager at Wigan in 1981 and steered them to promotion from Division Four the following year. He was still registered as a player when his team visited Ninian Park early in 82/83 and they were defeated 3-2 in the Billy Woof match.

70s. Tommy Gore.

80s. Gary Bennett was sent off in a game at Wigan in April 1983 as City closed in on promotion from the Third Division. There was a crowd of 4,447 at Springfield Park to watch the match which finished as a goalless draw and Wigan were managed by Bobby Charlton who was doing the job in a caretaker capacity after Larry Lloyd had left to become Notts County boss.

90s. David Lowe.

00s. Kevin Kilbane.

10s. James Tavernier was loaned out to six different clubs while at Newcastle and then to Bristol City after he had joined Wigan. Tavernier went on to sign for Rangers in 2015 and has since become the highest scoring defender in the history of British professional football.

20S. Matt Smith plays as a deep lying midfielder for Wigan and shares his name with the actor who played the eleventh Doctor Who.

Posted in Memories, 1963 - 2023 | Tagged | 3 Comments

Three C’s haunt Cardiff as they miss a chance to stretch their lead at the top.

Posted on January 2, 2026 by The other Bob Wilson

I suppose when you’re top of the league, have won seven out of your last eight league matches and go ahead in five minutes against a team who struggle to get out of their own half for the first quarter of an hour, there is a chance that you begin to think it is all a bit too easy.

The first word that sprang to mind for me at the end of Cardiff City’s 1-1 draw at Wycombe today was “careless”, but, after thinking a bit more about it, I’d add the word “casual” as well.

I don’t want to be too critical because City again played some lovely football at times, football of a standard that I’ve not seen any other team in this division match. They were also up against a team in the top ten of League One that appeared to be perfectly willing to sit back and let us have the ball while soaking up pressure, this from a team that was playing at home and you would have thought would be looking for a win which make the Play Offs more of a possibility than relegation.

Yet, it seemed to me that Wycombe were happy to settle for a point before the game and they certainly appeared content with the draw at full time. This has to be a tribute of sorts to City, but even though Wycombe defended well for much of the time, as exemplified by Danish centreback Hagelskjaer’s two second half clearances off the line, it seems to me that we really could have won this game pretty easily if we’d knuckled down and  played with the intensity we’ve shown in the closing stages of lots of home games lately.

To be fair, Wycombe will point to a possible penalty in the first half and in Fred Onyedimna they had the best forward on the pitch, but the stats do rather tell a story – 66/34 possession, 17/9 in goal attempts, 6/2 on target and 35/15 touches inside the opposition penalty area all in City’s favour.

Yet, those figures could have been even more in City’s favour if the quality of crosses in particular had been better. “Careless” springs to mind when I think of most of the crosses Chris Willock, Omari Kellyman (who offered more evidence that he is more effective in central areas than he is out on the wing) and Ollie Tanner put in – Cian Ashford, who also came on to play on the wing, looked to cut inside and join in with more general play more than cross it.

Still, no real harm done – Lincoln also drew 1-1 at home to Huddersfield, as did Bolton at struggling Doncaster, it was a point as well for Stockport in a goalless draw at Northampton and Stevenage had to settle for a 1-1 at home to Plymouth, while Bradford came a cropper, going down 3-0 at a streaky Mansfield which means the gap between us and third place has grown to five points with our much better goal difference meaning it’s effectively six points.

BBM made six changes this time with three of them in the back four as Ronan Kpakio came in with Perry Ng switching to the left as Joel Bagan, along with Isaak Davies, was given a rest and dropped out of the squad. In the middle Dylan Lawlor and Gabriel Osho replaced Calum Chambers and Will Fish. Alex Robertson and Joel Colwill came into the centre of midfield as David Turnbull and Callum Robinson returned to the bench and Kellyman came in on the right in place of Davies.

For me, it was someone who never seems to miss a game, Ryan Wintle, who was clearly our stand out player (my careless and casual criticisms do not apply to him) and it was his cross which just missed Yousef Salech that found its way to Willock whose fierce angled shot would have caused problems for keeper Will Norris even if it had not got the slight deflection which sent it into the net.

As I mentioned earlier, it all looked pretty comfortable for City after that and you can’t help but think that the outcome would have been very different if Colwill had shown more composure when a lucky rebound fell to him in glorious isolation stood around by the penalty spot. Maybe Joel, understandably, felt he had less time than he actually did and he opted for power over placement as his shot smacked off the crossbar and rebounded to safety.

It felt like it could be a turning point and Wycombe responded by having their best spell so far. They were level on the half hour mark when Caolan Boyd-Munce swung in a much delayed corner after Ng and Hagelskjaer twice indulged in the usual, and boring, pre set piece grappling. To be honest, it was a poor corner which should not have got past the first man, but having mentioned two “C” words in careless and casual, I’ll add a third, “concentration “. 

Maybe the long delay in getting the corner affected Kpakio’s concentration, because his air shot as he swung at and missed the cross gave the rest of our defence no chance to adjust as the ball found its way quite gently into the net with no one getting a touch on it. Now, Kpakio has his critics when it comes to his defensive work and he didn’t have his best ninety minutes in that part of the game today, but his technique is good and that corner should not have caused him the problem that it did – again, the word careless springs to mind.

Onyedimna headed another corner over from close range as the pendulum swung in the home side’s favour for the rest of the first half – if it ever was easy for City, it wasn’t any more.

City, who had brought on Turnbull for Robertson early on as the Australian midfielder had picked up a booking and had been committing fouls (at least referee Alan Young, who was a bit of a homer, thought he was), were much improved in the early stages of the second half as they established a dominance that was pretty complete in two thirds of the pitch, but not in the third which counted as crosses and final balls constantly went astray.

That said, there were still opportunities for us to get the decisive goal. City brought on Tanner, Ashford and Robinson for Colwill, Willock and Kellyman and Robbo soon saw his shot from Salech’s knock down beat Norris, but Hagelksjaer was back to knock it off the line.

Tanner’s best cross of the day picked out Salech who, again, beat the keeper with his header only for Hagelskjaer to get the ball away just as it was about to cross the line. Salech was also off target with a decent headed opportunity, but when his clever header found Robinson no more than five yards out, he miscued horribly to send the ball wide – Robinson apologised to supporters on social media after the game for his miss, but, apparently, the linesman had put his flag up for offside, so it wouldn’t have counted anyway.

City’s final substitution saw Chambers replace Osho (who, with Lawlor, had formed an effective central defensive partnership) for the last fifteen minutes and City’s captain almost won it in added time when Norris dived full length for his twenty five yard shot. Just for a split second I was thinking goal as the shot beat the keeper’s dive, but the ball flew a foot or so wide.

All Wycombe had to offer in reply was a header from an unmarked Cauley Woodrow which he couldn’t direct on goal and a shot by Jamie Mullins from a decent position which flew over.

As I say, no real harm done this afternoon, but this game will be remembered come the end of the season if we miss out on promotion or the Play Offs by a margin of less than two points because it really should have been three points, not one, today.

Posted in Out on the pitch | Tagged | 5 Comments