Seven decades of Cardiff City v Luton Town matches.

Posted on January 29, 2023 by The other Bob Wilson

With more than a third of the season left, Cardiff City go into a game with their fourth different manager of 22/23 on Tuesday when they travel to Luton for Sabri Lamouchi’s first match. City should have a slight advantage in that their hosts picked what looks close to their strongest team for their home FA Cup game with League Two side Grimsby yesterday, while we’ve enjoyed a free weekend.

The game with Grimsby offered further proof of what Luton’s league record suggests – they are a better team away than they are at Kenilworth Road. Just like in the Third Round when they faced Wigan, Luton had to settle for a draw, this time it finished 2-2. Put this alongside seven draws and just three wins at home in the league for Luton and, maybe the outcome in two days time might not be the dead cert home win that the league table suggests?

City’s Under 18s were beaten 2-1 at Charlton yesterday despite scoring first through Tana Jones, while in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance, the problems of AFC Porth were put into sharp focus by a 10-1 defeat by Ton Pentre in a Rhondda derby in the Premier Division yesterday. In Division One, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were 5-0 winners over struggling Canton Rangers to stay top of the league, but there are a lot of sides not too far behind them with games in hand on the side who play their home matches on a 4G pitch.

Back to Luton, here are the normal seven questions dating back to the sixties on our next opponents, I’ll post the answers on here on Wednesday morning.

60s. Born in a place in the Midlands with a zoo, he played in defence, midfield and attack through the middle during a long career, but it was as a striker that he was best known. Luton were his first club, but homesickness meant that he was to leave them without having played a first team game and he next represented Peacocks who have a slightly different name now than they did sixty years ago. His next two moves were to prove he was over his homesickness as he first moved, south west of the Midlands to play at the highest level he was to reach in his career and then, after a successful two years in terms of goals scored, he dropped down a level to play in yellow for north westerners by the seaside. The rest of his Football League career was spent back in the Midlands, first alongside a river with small mammals and then on the back of larger ones. By the time he was finished with league football some sixteen years after leaving Luton, he’d played over four hundred games and, considering the matches he played in midfield and the back late on in his full time career, a return of one hundred and forty nine goals was impressive proof of his finishing ability, but who is he?

70s. This Glaswegian defender’s Luton career amounted to no more than fifteen league games, but he did enough in them to persuade a London club to fork out what was a club record fee for them in 1978 and, over the next six years, he was a regular in their team. The rest of his career was spent alternating between two west country clubs (he had two spells with both of them) and he’s probably best remembered now for a run in with Bryn which had far reaching consequences for the Devon team he was playing for then and dire ones for some little devils to the north east – can you name him?

80s. Guitar legend at the crossroads ends up at full back for Luton!

90s. I make it that this forward had nineteen different clubs (including non league) over a twenty year career. He also had four different spells at Luton and, although he usually came up with goals wherever he played, he never matched the rate he scored them at in two of his spells with the Hatters and one with a club which plays within site of a very famous bridge – actually I’m wrong there because in sixteen games for his final club, Melton Town, he scored eighteen times, who am I describing?

00s. He played for us against Luton during this decade and as recently as 2020 was turning out in the third tier of his country’s league structure. A striker, he never scored for us and apart from two spells with some blues back home, he has never really managed to find the net on a consistent basis for any of the other ten sides he’s played for, yet Alex Ferguson really rated him at one time. Who?

10s. Go to Bird Lane and then take first left to find journeyman goalkeeper. (4,5)

20s. Mix of two brands, one still in use apparently (news to me) and the other officially stopped being used in 1984, although I’d say it’s still iconic for some even now,

Luton answers.

60s. Dudley born George Andrews left Luton as a teenager due to homesickness and dropped into non League football to play for Lower Gornal Athletic (they now dropped the word “Lower” from their name). Andrews’ form over the next four years persuaded Jimmy Scoular to sign Andrews, and his team mate Gary Bell, for City in 1965 and Andrews was to score twenty one times in his forty three games for us, before moving to Southport a couple of years later. Andrews then had a three year stay with Shrewsbury (the Shrews) and a four year one at Walsall (the Saddlers) before leaving the pro game in 1977.

70s. Brentford paid a record fee of £33,000 when they signed Jim McNichol from Luton, but, if he is remembered now it is for what happened in 1987 during one of his two spells with Torquay United (he also had two spells with Exeter) – here’s how Wikipedia describes what happened on the final day of the 86/87 season;

“On 9 May 1987 Torquay were heading out of the Football League, 2–0, down to Crewe Alexandra at half-time in the last game of the season, they needed two more goals to ensure survival—McNichol, Paul Dobson and a German shepherd called Bryn saved the day for Torquay.[4] McNichol scored from a free-kick, then in the dying moments ran to the corner flag to whip in a cross, little realizing his run would confuse the police dog into thinking he was about to attack his handler.[4] The dog bit McNichol on the leg and the player had to be treated; during the minutes added on due to the injury, Dobson scored and Lincoln City were the ones to lose their league status on goal difference.[4] The story of McNichol’s injury was featured in the Netflix documentary series Losers

80s.Robert Johnson was a full back who played for Luton, Lincoln, Leicester and Barnet in a career hit by injuries. Robert Johnson was also the name of the very influential blues guitarist who wrote of his fateful meeting with the devil at a crossroads where he supposedly sold his soul in order to acquire his guitar playing skills.

90s. Tony Thorpe first played for Luton in 1992 and moved to Fulham six years later. Thorpe had two more loan spells with Luton as well as signing p ermanently again for them in 2002. Thorpe was a prolific scorer for Bristol City as well as in his two permanent stays at Kenilworth Road and this ensured that there were always clubs interested in him until he hung his boots up in 2012.

00s. Andrea Feretti was recommended to City by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2005, but his substitute appearance in a 3-3 draw at Luton on St. Valentine’s Day 2006 was one of just four he made for us. Apart from an unproductive loan spell at Scunthorpe, Ferretti has spent all of his career in Italy and enjoyed most success at Pavia (“the Blues”) where he scored thirty seven times in eighty eight appearances in two spells with a club currently playing in the fifth level of the Italian domestic game.

10s. Dean Brill.

20s. Carlton Morris – Carlton cigarettes are still being produced it appears, while Morris stopped being a tradename for cars nearly forty years ago.

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Lamouchi and Bamba – Cardiff City’s dream ticket?

Posted on January 28, 2023 by The other Bob Wilson

I’d always planned to do a piece on City this morning . It was going to be about giving it both barrels to Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo and asking the question do they want Cardiff City to be relegated?

However, after close to a fortnight of nothing in terms of a new manager and players, we finally have something to show that, no, there does not seem to be some cunning, unfathomable, plan whereby it is to the Three Amigos’ benefit for us to drop into League One.

Sabri Lamouchi, who won sixteen caps for France in the nineties and early noughties and managed the Ivory Coast in the 2014 World Cup has been appointed as manager (no details were given as to the length of his contract, but he said he was looking beyond this season – my guess though is that, one way or another, he won’t be our manager next season if we’re in League One) and I think it’s fair to say that the large majority of fans are quite positive about the decision the club has made.

The presence of Sol Bamba at Lamouchi’s side in yesterday’s press conference is one reason why the appointment has been greeted well. The connection between the two men dates back to Lamouchi’s time in international management and it’s been reported that it was our new manager’s suggestion that Sol be his assistant. If that is true, then it shows that, whatever else he is, Lamouchi is a good politician with an eye on how to make life easier for himself!

My feeling is though that there would have been enthusiasm for this appointment even without Sol’s involvement, For myself, I’m pleasantly surprised by the appointment as my confidence in those making the decision was probably as low as it’s ever been, but, credit to them. This seems to be, appointing Dean Smith apart maybe, as good a candidate as City were going to get if you take into account things like our current situation regarding such things as league and financial situation, the Sala case and the perception of the club within the football community.

In saying that, I am, as always, influenced by what a previous clubs fans have to say about a new arrival at City and a look at a Nottingham Forest messageboard told me that, remarkably, it’s virtually one hundred per cent positive!

Lamouchi was Forest boss for all of the 19/20 season and the opening month or so of the following campaign and, on the face of it, the regard for him is surprising when you consider that the team collapsed in a manner reminiscent of City in 08/09 as what looked a certain Play Off, or even possible top two, place was transformed into a humiliating near miss in the last month of the season. The hangover from losing out on the final day to Swansea for the last Play Off place, understandably I suppose, lasted into 20/21 at Forest and, Lamouchi was dismissed after they’d lost their first five games in all competitions.

Despite this, Lamouchi is widely praised and liked at the City Ground as someone who brought club and fans together at a difficult time. It needs to be said as well that surviving a season as Forest manager was very much a rarity in the pre Steve Cooper era and must be a contributory factor as to why I read quite a few comments along the lines that, their current manager aside, Lamouchi was the best boss the club has had in recent memory.

It should be said that all of this praise does not mean that their aren’t criticisms of him to be found among fans of his former club. I can remember Lamouchi’s Forest being described as very much a sit back and counter attack type of outfit when they were featured on Sky and a low scoring record for a team chasing promotion suggests that the manager had a pragmatic approach.

Indeed, despite Lamouchi’s popularity, there are plenty among the Forest fans who say that the football was not entertaining under Lamouchi and one opinion I read had it that there were many matches spent almost wholly on the back foot that were somehow won by a moment of individual brilliance. I should say that there were dissenting views from that who held that Forest were capable of playing some good stuff when they went forward, but it is a fact that their total of fifty eight goals scored over a forty six game season was higher than only one team in the top half of the table that year, while their fifty goals conceded was the fourth best in the division.

Looking beyond Forest, Lamouchi managed Ligue 1 team Rennes for just over a year. When he was appointed in November 2017, Lamouchi brought about an improvement which saw Rennes climb the table to finish fifth, qualifying for the Europa League in the process. Maybe the extra fixtures brought on by European football had an effect on the squad because the 18/19 campaign was going poorly when Lamouchi was sacked in December 2018 with his team in fourteenth place in the table.

Although two is a small sample size, I suppose it may be possible to deduce from his record at Forest and Rennes that Sabri Lamouchi has a positive effect when he takes over as manager of a club, but he struggles to maintain it.

One other thing about our new manager’s time at Rennes. While a record of seventy one goals scored from fifty four matches in all competitions represents an improvement on what happened at Forest, only in one of those games did Rennes managed to score more than twice in a game – there were plenty of examples of them scoring once or twice, but it’s a bit odd that, for what was a relatively successful side, they never really put an opponent to the sword.

So, on the down side, there’s a hint within Lamouchi’s record that,, first, he finds it hard to sustain the positivity of a bright start and, second, there is some evidence to suggest he is a defensively minded manager/coach whose sides tend to be low scoring.

I think regular readers of Mauve and Yellow Army will be able to gauge that I’m someone who has been a regular critic of the team when it comes to the lack of entertainment on offer from Cardiff City over the last decade or so. Therefore, those two possible negatives on the Lamouchi CV do ring an alarm bell although, for now at least, I’d say not too loudly.

The fact of the matter is that we’re in a scrap to avoid a relegation which would have a huge effect on the club. As someone who is old enough to remember instant promotions in 1976 and 1983 after relegations from the second tier, I’m less inclined to believe there is no way back if we do go down, but things like the Sala case and the very large amount of money owed to Vincent Tan and, to a lesser extent, Mehmet Dalman makes a relegation now more fraught with danger I’d say than those two I mentioned from decades ago.

If Sabri Lamouchi can bring about the sort of improvement seen early on at Forest and Rennes, that may be enough to secure out safety, then, in the apparent absence of any sort of long term deal for him at the moment, the decision to hire him will have worked. As for a defensive outlook, well, teams seldom get themselves out of trouble by playing swashbuckling attacking and entertaining football – I accept we’re in a situation where beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to entertainment value.

Anyway, it seems to me that, although our attacking options are very thin this season, we are better suited to a counter attacking approach with the pace of the likes of Isaak Davies, Sheyi Ojo, Jaden Philogene, Mark Harris, Callum Robinson and Callum O’Dowda.

This does lead me on to my biggest doubt about the appointment in the short term though. Currently, with thirty one goals conceded from twenty eight Championship games, we’re on course to matching, or getting very near, to the goals against figure Forest achieved in 19/20, so, based on what I can gather of his managerial record so far, you’d like to think Sabri Lamouchi can at least maintain a goals against record which is, by rights, deserving of a place in the top half of the table.

Clearly, the reason we’re where we are is that woeful goals for record of twenty one from twenty eight games. While eighteen games left sounds, and is, quite a lot, maybe the fact that we would need to score more twice a game on average over the remainder of the season to match Forest’s modest fifty eight scored in 19/20 does rather put things in perspective.

You’d think that we’d need to score forty goals at least to give ourselves a chance of staying up and that would mean an average of just over a goal a game from now on. I’d like to believe that is eminently possible, but, certainly at Forest and Rennes, there is little in Sabri Lamouchi’s record to indicate that he will come into a club and dramatically improve its goalscoring rate.

With four days of the transfer window left, there is still the possibility that we’ll see new players arriving soon (the likely departure of Curtis Nelson to Blackpool should free up a place in the squad and there have been numerous loans out of the club in recent weeks).

Our new manager made it sound very much like he had no plans to bring in anyone himself in the time which remains, but there has been constant media reporting that as many as three new signings could be coming in – albeit, they’d have to be free transfers or non loan fee temporary deals because of the continuing impact of Emiliano Sala transfer embargoes despite us now having paid the first instalment of his transfer fee to Nantes.

So, there is the chance at least that players who could improve our goals tally may be arriving. Therefore, barring a total collapse defensively over the last third or so of the season, a not too big improvement in our scoring rate should see us safe. If we have to go with just what we have already, then that makes things harder, but not impossible if Lamouchi and Bamba can restore a bit of confidence within the squad.

There are two, very differing, interpretations of our squad I see and hear quite a lot – first that they’re crap and relegation is inevitable and, second, that we’re underperforming mainly because of our chronic lack of goals. Although my faith has taken a bashing in the last six weeks or so, I’ve always been more on the side of the second option and I feel more confident than I did that, with Lamouchi and Bamba in charge, this will be the one to win out over the coming months.

I have to finish on a reminder of how low morale had got at the club however, as last Tuesday the Under 21s produced a season’s worst performance to go down 3-0 to Watford at Leckwith. While I always remember the old line about it being about performance rather than result at this level, it has to be pointed out that Watford had won just the one game, were bottom of the table with three points and had only scored seven times all season.

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