Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

Following today’s 2-1 win over Derby at Cardiff City Stadium, Omer Riza is now in a position where he’s won more games as our manager than he’s lost – if you include the FA Cup win at Sheffield United.

Riza has had an unusual time of it so far, a defeat in his first match, then six unbeaten, followed by nine without a win and now it’s four wins and four draws since we lost. 

Our manager, rightly, says that he and his team have been playing catch up following the record breaking poor start to the season under Erol Bulut – we had one point and one goal scored from six games when Riza’s took over and that soon became one from seven, but within a month, he had repaired the damage. 

Now, after a sequence of results through much of November and December which put us in greater danger given we were now half way through the season, we’ve put a bit of daylight between ourselves and the bottom three. However, the likely ending of our unbeaten run at Leeds next weekend may just see the onset of another poor run in this unusual season of switchback fortunes where the months of October and January will be remembered with affection by fans, but August and September and November and December forget it, because we’re not doing boring two wins, two draws and two losses months this season!

I’ve just watched Derby manager Paul Wayne’s post game press conference and, although an awful lot of supporters of his club want him out after six straight league losses and a feeling that he’s a little like Neil Warnock except a division lower in that he’s a very good League One manager who’s never really proved himself in the Championship, it’s easy to see why he’s a well liked figure in the game.

I also thought he talked a lot of sense when he said, with the possible exception of one team, they’re all much the same in Championship and that’s why he had a feeling that fifty points are not going to be enough to keep you up this season.

Warne thinks that even Plymouth have shown they have it in them to beat high ranking sides at home and, by drawing at Sunderland today, the West Country side showed they’re not giving up the ghost yet. Last night, Hull went to Sheffield United and won 3-0, so that’s two of the four sides supposedly running away with the division this season embarrassed at home by strugglers this weekend.

Warne used today’s game to illustrate how fine the margins are between teams – although the two sides started today’s game alongside each other in the table, one was on their longest unbeaten run of the season and the other had not experienced anything but defeat since Boxing Day. I’d seen pre match predictions talking about 3-0 wins for City, but given what was at stake, I didn’t think it would be anywhere near as straightforward as that.

According to their manager, Derby have not been playing poorly, they’ve just not been putting their chances away and they will have been rueing their failure to cash in on their first half domination today.

City, with Perry Ng at left back for illness victim Joel Bagan, Joe Ralls in for Manolis Siopis, Alex Robertson back for Rubin Colwill and Cian Ashford replacing Yakou Meite were lethargic and clumsy through the first forty five minutes. Chris Willock did knock over a cross which was crying out for someone to attack it on the far post, but no one did, then he wasted a chance gifted to him by Craig Forsyth by not getting his shot away quickly enough and Ralls’ twenty five yard effort forced Jacob-Widell-Zetterstom into the first of a number of good saves.

All of this happened in the first fifteen minutes, but the rest of the first half saw City distinctly second best to a visiting side that spent most of the time driving forward because City kept on presenting the ball back to them when they had it, gave them numerous dead ball opportunities through poor defending and/or discipline and were unable to retain the ball because their basic techniques were sloppy.

Having conceded in the second minute at Millwall in midweek, City almost did the same thing here as Derby’s top scorer Jerry Yates forced Jak Alnwick into a diving save. Shortly afterwards, Yates netted after Forsyth had headed on a free kick and all I’ll say is that my instinct which causes me to look for a linesman’s flag because a goal “feels” offside didn’t kick in this time because the raised flag disallowing the goal came as a surprise. 

New signing Lars Jorgen-Salvesen twice forced Alnwick into saves, as did defender Eiran Cashin and the matchwinner in the first game between the teams, Kenzo Goudmijn, while Corey Blackett-Taylor wasted a good chance because he didn’t get a very good contact on his shot when unmarked twelve yards out.

Having, largely, been in agreement with what the Derby manager had to say after the game, I was the same with the Cardiff one. Omer Riza said that our improvement lately owed a lot to us being more competitive and winning more first and second balls, but we’d not done that in the first half and yet had managed to play through Derby on the rare occasions when we were able to string four or five passes together. The key word Riza used for me was composure – we improved a lot in the second half and much of that was down to us being more composed on the ball.

That said, apart from an Ashford cross which dropped over Zetterstrom and would have left someone who attacked the far post with a tap in from a yard out (instead, Callum Robinson stayed in a position on the corner of the six yard box and saw his shot scrambled away), City did little to threaten in the opening fifteen minutes of the second period.

Robertson, who’d missed the Millwall game with the same stomach bug that kept Bagan out today, was not really at the races suggesting that he still wasn’t quite right and Willock’s performance was going from ordinary to worse when he was replaced by Anwar El Ghazi.

City’s improvement can be traced back to the time after Boxing Day when we traded in one Callum Chambers for another – out went the error prone, sometimes missing in action, centre back and in came an assured and competitive central midfielder who was getting others around him to play. Well, it’s taking a little longer for us to get a look at him, but it seems we also changed Anwar El Ghazi’s after the Oxford match as the diffident, often anonymous pre Boxing Day performer has made way for someone who is seeking responsibility, showing a bit of pace and also an eye for goal.

El Ghazi’s introduction changed the game. He may not have had much to do with the first goal, but, rather like at Millwall, we started playing when he came on. Just six minutes after his introduction, a cute right footed pass by Ralls low in towards the edge of the six yard box found Robinson who got a yard on his marker and jabbed a shot towards goal. Zetterstrom blocked the effort, but will probably feel that he should have done better than parry the ball straight back at Robinson who rolled in his eleventh goal of the season to break the deadlock.

At the time, I thought that one goal would win the game, but was proved to be completely wrong over the next thirty five minutes or so as what had been a cagey affair erupted into something of a thriller.

Just two minutes later, City doubled their lead with the best bit of football of the game as Ashford won the ball in that understated way of his, found Ralls who fed Robertson. The ex Manchester City man then made his most significant impact in the game by sending Ashford clear down the right.

One of the reasons for our poor scoring record in the first half of the season was that we had an unfortunate habit of choosing the wrong option when a forward found themselves in a promising position, but since Ashford’s introduction for the closing minutes at Oxford, we’ve scored fifteen times in eight and a bit games and one reason for that is that he usually makes the right decision when he gats close to the opposition goal.

Here, Ashford slipped a pass square to Robinson who immediately fed the ball on El Ghazi who calmly shot across Zetterstrom and in from fifteen yards.

We might have ended up with that three goal win or better if Ashford had not, uncharacteristically, blazed over from six yards after Zetterstrom partied El Ghazi’s volley into his path. Instead, Derby got back into it almost straight away as Ebou Adams broke up a City counter attack on half way, drove forward twenty yards and released Yates who clipped a lovely cross in that an unmarked Salvesen nodded home from six yards out.

The Norwegian was at the centre of the two incidents which might have earned Derby a point or even three as he went down under challenge from the excellent Andy Rinomhota (my Man of the Match) and, again, I thought Derby had reason to query the decision when a penalty was not awarded. The second time though, Derby’s goalscorer really should have done better than guide an unmarked header from a corner straight at Alnwick.

However, the fact that the match stats only showed City as having one effort at goal in the first half and seventeen (nine on target) by the end of the game rather shows that, if Derby had the better of the first period, City were on top in the second. Indeed, the reason why the visitors didn’t concede again could be put down to Zetterstrom’s right foot as he made good saves with it to deny Ashford, El Ghazi and sub Yousef Salech.

With Luton losing at home to Millwall, Stoke having to settle for a goalless draw against Oxford and Portsmouth again showing their schizophrenic tendencies with a 5-1 loss at Portsmouth, City have moved up to eighteenth which, interestingly is just one below imploding Swansea who must now be looking over their shoulders after being thrashed 5-1 at Norwich.

2025 has been pretty good for City so far, but the under 21s must be wishing it was still 2024 as they slumped to a third straight heavy defeat yesterday, this time by 6-1 at Charlton with Morgan Wigley getting the goal. 

However, the under 18s were able to add to the sense of crisis down west by beating the jacks 5-0 (our under 16s also beat the same opposition 2-0) at Leckwith this lunchtime despite finishing the game with ten men after the sending off of TJ Parfitt. Robert Tankiewicz and Mannie Barton both scored twice and a Dan Ola penalty completed the scoring.

Locally, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were knocked out of the Ardal South League Cup on penalties after their game at Cardiff Corries finished 1-1. In the Highadmit South Wales Premier League, Ton Pentre going through the season without winning a game must now be starting to become a realistic notion after their 6-1 loss at Porthcawl and there was also defeat, by 2-1, for Treorchy Boys and Girls Club at Penrhiwceiber in Division One East.