Cardiff City emerged from their last game of 2022 at Coventry tonight with a good point. A fourth consecutive draw since the resumption of fixtures is an okay return overall, but the result was the most impressive thing about this game as far as City are concerned – it’s best to draw a veil over the performance.
Of course, the most likely result if this team draws is 0-0 and so it was tonight. I suppose the two City efforts on target, as reported by the BBC, is an improvement on Monday’s none, but we had some good chances against QPR, whereas I can only recall a single decent opportunity for Jayden Philogene, who was set up by the hard working Mark Harris, which flew well over – it was an effort of a player not expecting to score.
Going back to the BBC’s two on target shots, I can only presume that our second one came during the minute or two in the first half when the stream I was watching packed up. I say that because the only one I can remember was a Harris dribbler straight at ex City keeper Ben Wilson after a good pass by Rubin Colwill got the forward in behind the defence.
Colwill had a well struck free kick which went a couple of yards wide and that’s it as far as vaguely threatening moments by City went as far as I can recall.
Indeed, unless a Ryan Allsop boot up the middle straight to Wilson qualifies as a shot (maybe this was the missing second one?), City did not have a single goal attempt during a truly wretched second half performance.
I should qualify that – City were wretched when in possession of the ball. For a team that is wanting to be thought of as a passing side this season, we stank the place out as far as that part of the game went and poor ball control only added to the frustration of this fan as the second half dragged on.
However, when it came to the parts of the game when they didn’t have the ball, City were pretty good throughout. It’s now twenty eight goals conceded in twenty five league games for us and that’s a record that a top six bid could be based on under different circumstances.
Coventry will, rightly, feel this was a game that they could have won, but, although play was continuously headed towards the City goal in the second period, they probably had more close shaves in a first half where they actually got caught on the break once or twice.
The first forty five minutes saw City pass the ball quite neatly at times and there was a nice link up down the left between Colwill and Callum O’Dowda – the Irishman may prefer to play on the wing, but he’s been very good at left back in the past two games. It was typical 22/23 City in some respects though with plenty of passes which had me thinking we’re not doing badly here, but then you realise that there is no end product – it’s like they turn into a different team when they get in their attacking third.
To emphasise what I mean, I said earlier that O’Dowda and Colwill combined well down the left, but, in truth, when both of them got themselves into a promising crossing positions they could not pick out a team mate with their crosses – in their defence, I should point out that, as usual, they had few targets to aim for in the middle..
Indeed, I’d say City were the better side for the first quarter of the game, but Coventry grew into things as the match went on and it was they who looked the more likely scorers even when City were having the best spell.
Gustavo Hamer forced Allsop into a save with a chip that looked to be going wide to me, but the keeper was probably right to turn it aside. Kasey Palmer then drew another save from the keeper with a well struck effort from outside the box and the same player was just wide with a low shot from ten yards, as was Jamie Allen with a jabbed effort that flew no more than a foot wide. It was Ben Sheaf who came closest to scoring though when he toe poked a shot off the outside of the post after Philogene had done well to block his initial effort.
By comparison, despite their awfulness with the ball, City were able to cope better defensively in the second half. However, it could well have been that their inability to retain possession meant that, by accident or design, they had to sit deeper because they were unable to establish any semblance of the sort of possession that would enable them to come out a bit more and try to win the game.
So it was that the centre backs Cedric Kipre and Perry Ng came to the fore as they kept Victor Gyokeres, the Championship’s top scorer, quiet with some fine anticipation and strong tackling. O’Dowda did well defensively and although Joe Ralls, Andy Rinomhota and Ryan Wintle all saw very little of the ball and didn’t do a great deal with it when they did have it, they all did their fair share of good work out of possession.
Nevertheless, Allsop had to make the save of the game to deny Palmer and he then did well to block a cross from sub Todd Kane in added time after Sheri Ojo, on as a sub, made his one mistake in the makeshift left wing back role he had to fill as O’Dowda, like right back Mahlon Romeo, had to go off with an injury – in both cases, it sounded in Mark Hudson’s post game interview as if the two players were suffering with cramp..
That mention of Ojo at left wing back tells you that we were playing with a back three in the closing minutes with Jack Simpson on to become one of three centre backs as City battened down the hatches. Tom Sang took on the right wing back role and there was a welcome return for Isaak Davies as he took over from Harris in the role of isolated front runner (football’s equivalent of solitary confinement) as City held out for their point.
It was a lucky point in some ways as well, but it was also quite impressive how the squad pulled together in the face of pressure from Coventry and the injuries to both full backs – it’s also worth noting that both Kion Etete and Callum Robinson were missing with injuries which Hudson did not go into details on, but he did think they’d both be fit to be considered for the weekend match at Blackburn.
However, although the backs to the wall stuff showed that the spirit and ability to all pull together is there, this was a game which I’d say would’ve been lost by City seven times out of ten. The fact is that the defence knows that, with our lack of goals, there’s every chance that we will be lose if they let one in.
Our last three games have seen us fail to cash in on almost total domination in the first of them and then grind out goalless draws in the next two in matches where we’ve, supposedly, had a total of two on target goal attempts. We’re not going to stay up if we keep on playing as we have done in our recent matches because you cannot expect the defence to mask the inadequacies further up the pitch indefinitely – the strain will become too much.
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
.Finally, I’d like to wish all readers a Happy 2023 – we’ve been promoted the last four times the year ended with a three, somehow I don’t see us extending the sequence!
