A rare good day for Cardiff City fans.

Posted on January 11, 2023 by The other Bob Wilson

I would have entitled this a perfect day for City fans were it not for a disappointing loss last night by the youth team at Oxford United in the Fourth Round of the FA Youth Cup – this is not the first time in recent years that our youngsters have gone out of that competition to a club with a lower Academy status than us and it came after we’d got the perfect start by taking the lead on just three minutes thanks to a long range goal by Will Spiers.

However, two goals in a two minutes early in the second half turned the tie around and another one with around fifteen minutes left saw City bow out of the competition by a margin of 3-1 against a side that included two players with first team experience.

Of more impact though will surely be the confirmation of the news that City have paid the first instalment of the Emiliano Sala transfer fee to Nantes just as we near the fourth anniversary of his death.

You will not have found very much to read in this blog about the legal arguing which has followed the tragic and awful death of the man who, it seems, was our player for about three days before the plane crash which claimed him and David Ibbotson, the pilot of the plane which crashed into the sea somewhere off the Channel Islands on the evening of 21 January 2019.

This is because I lack the expertise to comment in any great detail in the matters which will decide the culpability or otherwise of individuals and/or clubs involved in the tragedy. Therefore, apart from a view that City were always going to struggle to win a case where they had announced the player as theirs and then had, it seems, based their defence on the argument that he wasn’t in reality because someone had cocked up when filling in a form, I’ve refrained from saying much.

City have been under a EFL and FIFA embargo for not paying the first instalment of the transfer fee and, from a football point of view, it is a good news for fans that both embargos will be lifted (this has not been officially confirmed yet mind) during a transfer window. As it was, there appeared to be the chance that the embargoes would bite so deep that we wouldn’t even be able to recall Mark McGuinness from his loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday – if we do nothing else on the transfer front in January, at least it looks like we’ll have the services of the player who has been hailed as the best player in what is, arguably, the best team in League One this season.

You’d like to think that the payment would be the first step towards a situation whereby the Sala family, who have suffered terribly in the aftermath of Emiliano’s death, would be able to start living something which qualifies as a “normal” life, but, I fear this is probably wishful thinking.

As for the hierarchy at Cardiff City, I’m not sure that yesterday will qualify as a good day for them. Although I suppose for an owner, whose family we’re told are desperate for him to end his association with Cardiff City, it may represent a first step in a process that renders such an outcome more likely. It seems logical that no potential buyer of the club will make a move for it while the consequences of the Sala transfer remain dependant on the outcome of legal arguments.

Going back to football, yesterday lunchtime at Leckwith saw a game which I claimed on a messageboard produced City’s best result of this season. Now, that sounds a bit over the top when you consider that I was talking about an Under 21 game against Bristol City, but, hear me out, and maybe you’ll end up agreeing with me.

Starting with City, the Youth Cup tie later in the day meant that a lot of players who may have been starters for the under 21s were not available. This meant that Darren Purse had to bring a couple of players still qualified for under 16 football into the starting line up. Lewis Benjamin is very tall for his age age and, on yesterday’s evidence, a very composed goalkeeper with the ball at his feet who also is able to do what I consider the primary requirement of his position (keep the ball out of the net!) well – under 16 or not, the younger of City’s two Benjamins was a commanding presence.

In midfield, Dakarai Mafico was a new name to me, but it’s one I’m going to keep an eye out for from now on. Dak, as he was called by the commentators, looked like an Under 16, but there was the same composure seen with Lewis Benjamin, an intelligence and awareness way beyond his years and a passing ability which manifested itself in the first few minutes with a lovely pass inside the Bristol right wing back. Dak will no doubt be disappointed to have missed two of City’s best chances either side of half time, but, that apart, I thought he was excellent.

Dak was replaced for the last twenty minutes by another under 16s player Troy Perrett who immediately settled in with another pass which showed he was not out of his depth at this level in the slightest.

In the last under 21 fixture before the Christmas break, City had picked a side full of players with first team experience to face Sunderland, but there was none of that this time – Vontae Campbell was the only player in the team which had played league football for City this season, it was the opposition this time which had the side packed with first teamers.

City were helped by the return of Eli King, Chanka Zimba and Taylor Jones from their loan spells at Crewe, Newport and Weston Super Mare respectively, but there was a huge disparity in experience between the two sides.

This is why I rated City’s 1-0 win so highly – it came against a team which Owen Pritchard on summariser duties (he was very impressive as well, as was another young professional, Jac Clay, who took over from him for the second half) pointed out had around a thousand first team appearances in their side. I was sceptical of this remark when I first heard it, but then I saw the wurzels side and realised he was right – in fact, if anything, he may have underestimated slightly!

Bristol were captained by the very experienced former Wales international Andy King and, besides him, Joe Williams, Jay De Silva, Republic of Ireland international Mark Sykes and Han Noah Massengo have all played over a hundred senior matches – there were others such as Steve Bell who had also played Championship football this season.

Yes, a side featuring plenty of first teamers isn’t always a guarantee of a good performance at second team level, but Bristol seem to be in the habit of doing this and they sat top of the table having thrashed City 5-0 earlier in the season.

For much of the first half, City were forced to concentrate almost wholly on defence, but Benjamin with some fine saves and central defenders Jones, Aidan Macnamara and captain Xavier Benjamin presented a formidable barrier to the visitors. King and Cameron Antwi (who has grown on me as the season has gone on) dug in through the middle with young Dak fully playing his part as well.

Gradually, City began to edge their way into things – goalkeeper Stefan Bajic had to turn aside a Jack Leahy shot and when Dak worked his way into a one on position the goalkeeper was able to keep out his shot.

It had been hard work, but City got to half time with the game goalless and, from then on, they prospered to the extent that, by the end, they could justifiably claim their win was deserved. Bell missed a good chance early on after the break, but, that apart, the goalmouth action was at the other end of the ptich.

Notably, Zimba had a shot turned aside by Bajic and Dak was again foiled by the keeper, but, with Campbell and Jai Semenyo now getting forward more on the wings, it wasn’t a surprise when the former burst on to a neat pass from Leahy to outpace his marker and then dink a lovely shot over Bajic and into the net.

City were able to see out the half an hour or so for a fine win and consolidated their hold on third position in the table, but, realistically, the wurzels and Millwall are probably too far clear to be caught – there can be no denying though that the under 21s have improved as the season has gone on.

Finally, I want to wish Sean Morrison all the best at his new club Rotherham even if they are in the relegation fight with us – as long as we stay up, I’ll be wanting Rotherham to as well.

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City shadow team restores some pride as Premier League Leeds gain late FA Cup draw.

Posted on January 9, 2023 by The other Bob Wilson

It’s typical of how things are at Cardiff City these days that a goal in added time prevented them from giving the whole club a huge lift with a “giant killing” win in the Third Round of the FA Cup this afternoon, but, truthfully, it would have been something of a case of daylight robbery if we’d hung on to beat Leeds.

Still, it’s pleasing that, in a cup weekend that has had some memorable televised live games, we were involved in what must have been a good watch for any neutrals and, despite a team selection which suggested otherwise, this was also a tie at which the usual criticisms about Cardiff City’s commitment to cup competitions could not be directed.

It’s always galling not to win when you’ve been 2-0 up, but, let’s face it, having watched our previous three games, I was expecting it would take us until about March for us to score a couple more goals. Instead, we got them in just over thirty minutes and we did so by showing intelligent movement and, for the second goal at least, an aptitude for a killer pass.

Nevertheless, a goal attempts figure of 26-5 in favour of the Premier League side shows that those two good goals apart, there was still not a great deal on offer from City in terms of an end product although all of the individual performances from our front four attacking players offered hope for the months ahead.

It should be mentioned as well that I wouldn’t have thought any more than two or three of the starting eleven Mark Hudson picked would be in what he regards as his strongest team – I’d say much the same applied to Jesse Marsch and his Leeds selection.

City started with Jak Alnwick in goal, a back four of Tom Sang, Curtis Nelson who was captaining the team, Jack Simpson and Joel Bagan with Andy Rinomhota and Romaine Sawyers sitting in front of them. The attacking four were Jaden Philogene and Mark Harris out wide and Sheyi Ojo playing behind lone striker Isaak Davies, who was making the first start of his injury ravaged season.

Quite how much the illness which had hit the City camp during last week affected team selection is not clear, but there were a fair sprinkling of first team regulars on the bench, so my guess is that it was the side Hudson wanted to pick, or very close to it anyway.

The reaction to the selection from supporters on and off line was overwhelmingly negative from what I heard and read and I’ll admit that I was expecting nothing more than a pretty limp defeat myself.

Indeed, that’s what we looked set for during the first twenty minutes or so. It was hardly as if Leeds were battering us, but they were sharper and far better than us in possession.

There was one chink of light though, right from the start of the game, the Leeds centrebacks looked very Ill at ease in the face of Davies’ combination of pace and sheer nuisance value. This continued throughout the first half and although he, understandably, tired in the second half, I’d rate his performance for that first forty five minutes as good as we’ve seen from a City forward this season in terms of never giving an opposition defence a moment’s peace.

It was runs from behind the striker in a manner that I can barely remember seeing this season though which unlocked the Leeds defence for the two goals.

Sang picked out Harris’ run in behind the unhappy Pascal Struijk with the first and although Joel Robles was out quickly to block the shot, Harris was able to tee up Davies whose shot was blocked again into the path of Philogene who calmly side footed in from eight yards.

Sang’s pass was a good one, but Rinomhota’s clipped ball over Diego Llorente seven minutes later was a better one and Ojo, having made a clever run in behind the defender, gave it the finish it deserved with a great first touch and then hooking the ball in from around the penalty spit.

So, the team that finds it so hard to score at home had got two quality goals with barely more than half an hour played and were well in charge for the fifteen minues that remained of the opening half.

Leeds were booed off by the six and a half thousand visiting fans at half time and a repeat of the famous 2002 Third Round win, along with a continuance of our domination of this fixture since then, looked on the cards.

There was little in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half to suggest a Leeds fight back either – Davies had run his race by now and the threat to the Leeds goal was negligible for the whole of the second period, but City were still looking comfortable at the back.

The whole game turned on the introduction of three Leeds subs including our loan player from last season, Cody Drameh. From the moment they were introduced, Leeds’ intensity levels increased dramatically and the pace they were playing at was ratcheted up. City had put an awful lot into their first half and were Ill equipped physically to cope with this increased energy from the visitors.

The Leeds fans sensed a way back into the game and almost straight away, Struijk headed inches wide from a corner when he really should have scored.

Having almost been caught out once from a set piece, it was disappointing that within two or three minutes, the visitors were able to work a short corner and another of the subs, Rodrigo, headed in Sam Greenwood’s cross from close range.

Faced with twenty five minutes plus added time to hang on to their lead (they were never going to increase it now), City could only offer stern defence with Rinomhota, voted man of the match by Ally McCoist as part of ITV’s coverage, doing sterling work on that score.

However, Leeds were now frequently getting in down the flanks where both City full backs had been booked quite early on and the goal attempts and misses were racking up. When Leeds cut through City’s right flank again, Junior Firpo’s shot from the cut back was palmed aside by Bagan for a clear penalty which earned the youngster a straight red card. However, Rodrigo’s spot kick, although well struck, was too close to Alnwick who dived to his left to turn the ball away.

For a short while, it felt like this fine save would be the fillip to speed City to victory, but the reality of their situation soon became clear as sub Ollie Tanner was left alone upfield in what became a very deep lying 5-3-1 formation when first teamers Ryan Wintle, Joe Ralls, Callum O’Dowda and Perry Ng were introduced for attackers and midfielders.

Amid great tension, Leeds brought on two teenage striking substitutes, Mateo Joseph and Sonny Perkins, who both missed excellent chances to equalise.

Now, I know the fans of nearly every side in the world say “typical (insert name of their club)” when things like late equalisers are scored against them, but I’ll always maintain that Cardiff City supporters have more reason than most to think that way.

So, although the Leeds goal attempts were piling up without testing Alnwick too much and we were now past the ninety minute mark, I had no confidence that we were going to hang on. So it was, that Perkins flicked in the leveller from close in to ensure that the teams will meet again at Elland Road in ten days or so to see who has the dubious pleasure of travelling to Accrington Stanley or Boreham Wood in Round Four.

I wouldn’t completely dismiss City’s chances in the replay on this evidence, but, to return to a recent theme, it would be typical us to go to Leeds and win and then get beaten at Boreham Wood!

Other matches this weekend saw City’s Under 18’s beaten 3-2 at QPR with Kyle Kenniford (pen) and Cody Twose the scorers, while Ton Pentre were winners by the same score over Cardiff Airport in the Premier Division of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance and Division One leaders Treherbert Boys and Girls Club went down 2-1 at Sully.

Off the field, there was a pre game meeting where club Chairman Mehmet Dalman gave details of the current position regarding the embargoes the club finds themselves subject to and the ongoing sage that is the Emiliano Sala dispute regarding which club he belonged to at the time of his tragic death – it will be the fourth anniversary of his death later this month. Details of the main points to emerge from the meeting can be read here.

Anyway, on to happier times, a further reminder that my book on our 1975/76 promotion is on sale now in paperback form or as an e book – it’s called Tony Evans Walks on Water and can be bought from Amazon at

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