Say what you like about Mick McCarthy, and there’s not a lot I can say about his time in charge of City that is complimentary, he did take charge of a Cardiff City side which beat Swansea City – it might have been thanks to a typically Cardiff set piece goal and the second half may have resembled the Alamo at times, but it’s put into perspective by what has happened in so many of the matches between the teams since fixtures resumed in 2019/20.
That win and a grim goalless affair in January 2020 apart, Swansea have won as they pleased against a variety of managers who have travelled through the revolving door to the “boss’” office in the last four years – McCarthy took charge of a 3-0 surrender at the Liberty last season with one of his notorious five centrebacks selections as well mind, while Neil Harris mixed that stalemate at Cardiff City Stadium with a limp 2-0 loss at the same venue eleven months later.
It’s an exaggeration, but not much of one, to wonder if City managers are asked in their job interviews if they have a problem with a club policy which demands the sending out of teams that perform like rabbits caught in the headlights when they play Swansea!
After all, Messrs Warnock, Harris, McCarthy, Morison and Hudson (to be fair to him, his cause was not helped by a sending off after seven minutes) all managed to follow the rabbits in headlights requirement in at least one of their encounters with the jacks. Today it was Sabri Lamouchi’s turn and although this was a completely different type of derby to the other spineless showings, that rabbit in headlights reaction was there in important respects as Swansea recorded a second consecutive double in a rivalry which never used to do them, thanks to a goal in the ninety ninth minute which secured them a 3-2 win.
I must admit that it was a bit dispiriting to hear Lamouchi talk about the need for his team to stay “compact” in his pre match briefing – taken with some of his other comments from our manager, it seemed pretty clear that we were going to defend deep and play on the counter attack in a home game against a team whose record this season signals mid table mediocrity (or maybe even worse than that actually).
Lamouchi’s team selection echoed such cautious thinking. To be fair to him, his cause was not helped by the news that Callum Robinson had not recovered from his hamstring injury (it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that he could be missing for a while yet as well) and Kion Etete who, presumably, had not recovered from the injury which forced him off at Rotherham a fortnight ago (a black mark to those at the media briefing for, seemingly, not asking Lamouchi about the striker’s availability) left him short of attacking options.
The manager also decided to keep Mahlon Romeo and Romaine Sawyers on the bench following their late return from international duty, so Jaden Philogene and Callum O’Dowda, ruled out of the Republic of Ireland’s midweek game with France with injury, were the wing backs, while there was a hard working, some may say uninspiring, midfield trio of Joe Ralls, Andy Rinomhota and Ryan Wintle and Sheyi Ojo was left to try to help out what looked like being an isolated Sory Kaaba up front.
At least Connor Wickham was fit enough to return to the squad and, while remembering the lack of options available to the manager, it did all look like we were paying far too much respect to a Swansea side that have been no great shakes this season.
Still, you’ve got give everything a fair chance haven’t you and, if we could keep things tight for half an hour or so, well you never know.
The trouble is, Lamouchi’s cunning plan made no allowance for the obligatory goal start we give Swansea these days when they come to Cardiff. In their previous two visits here, Swansea had only taken six minutes to score, today it took half that time for us to go a goal down.
It doesn’t bear thinking about where we’d be now if it wasn’t for a defence which has been well above the standard you’d expect from a club as close to relegation as we find ourselves tonight. Today however, Cedric Kipre got punished for one of those errors he often gets away with and Mark McGuinness had what, by some way, was his worst game since returning to the club in my opinion. Meanwhile, Perry Ng was short of his best and was not helped by being switched to full back for the second half, a position in which he looks less comfortable in now than centreback (a bad afternoon for Ng ended with him going off with the injury which was responsible for stretching the signaled five minutes added time to nine).
Swansea’s opener was a fine goal from their point of view as the gifted Joel Piroe worked himself the space to shoot impressively beyond Ryan Allsop from fifteen yards, but it came straight from a throw in and, although there were three defenders close to Piroe, he didn’t have to do that much to take them out of the game – it was poor, rabbits in the headlights, defending on our part.
Given how so much of this season has gone and our record against Swansea lately, I don’t think I was the only City fan who thought “game over” when Piroe’s shot hit the net, but I was wrong.
This was a different type of derby – we may be a poor Championship team this season, but, like us, Swansea’s record says that they are that club’s poorest side since they were relegated and the evidence of this was there over the near one hundred minutes that followed.
For a while though, it looked like it would be service as normal in this fixture. O’Dowda made an encouraging start as he made it to the bye line on a couple of occasions, but it was a different story going the other way as the left side of our defence became a problem area as the jacks came close to making it 2-0 when right back Harry Darling fizzed a shot just wide with Allsop looking beaten.
City’s one paced and limited midfield were also finding life a struggle as Ralls was reduced to frequent fouls (he really has regressed in the last year or so – I still wonder how far short of full fitness he is), Wintle had little influence and I’ll never understand the thinking which places Rinomhota as our most advanced midfielder when he’s scored a total of three league goals in a five year career.
Somehow though, City gained a foothold in the game and Swansea’s defensive weaknesses began to be seen as we enjoyed some success in turning over possession about thirty five yards from their goal. Ojo, who seems to have lost that improvement in form seen in January and February these days, had a shooting opportunity from twenty yards, but Swansea keeper Andy Fisher, who has been the subject of a lot of criticism this season, was given an easy first save to make as Ojo’s shot was akin to him fielding a back pass.
The consensus on the messageboard this morning was that City had to press Swansea high up the pitch and harry them into errors and there were some signs of that when a frantic penalty box scramble ended with O’Dowda unable to control his effort from six yards enough to get it on target and a header by Kaba over the bar suggested there might be a way back into the game for City this time.
However, any positivity disappeared on thirty three minutes when Piroe was sent through a yawning gap in City’s inside left channel. There may have been a suspicion of offside, but, with McGuinness caught upfield, City’s defence was seriously under manned. Faced with what seemed to me to be an easier chance than the one he scored from, Piroe was not as impressive this time as his shot hit Allsop’s feet, bounced off the near post and straight into the path of Liam Cullen who stooped to head into the unguarded net.
Swansea weren’t given much time to enjoy their two goal lead mind as Philogene burst past a couple of defenders to shoot from the edge of the penalty area – the wing back’s effort was pretty well struck, but it was a surprise to see the shot burst through Fisher’s hands and into the net to register City’s first home goal in the fixture since Steven Caulker’s winner seven months short of a decade ago.
Philogene’s goal lit the touch paper on a great ending to the half by the on loan Villa man and Swansea, with a suspect keeper behind a leaky back four looked as under pressure as they’d been against City at any time in years. However, in spite of working plenty of decent crossing positions, the poor delivery which has blighted us all season was there to the fore again as a series of crosses failed to meet their intended targets (if there were any!), yet despite our limitations being plain for all to see, half time was reached with hopes high that City could end their run of defeats by the jacks.
Both sides made a change at half time, City’s looked enforced as Ralls moved to left back as O’Dowda was withdrawn. There was also a change of formation with Ng going to right back in a back four, Sawyers slotting into the midfield and Philogene moving forward to play more as a winger.
Swansea swapped Jay Fulton for Luke Cundle who had been operating in a number ten type role. Fulton played deeper and that one, simple, move changed the game as it shored the visitors up in the area in front of their back four where City had been enjoying some success.
Maybe I should say it was a combination of Swansea’s tactical switch working and ours failing because the dangerous Philogene was now barely getting a kick. While the first half had given us the chance to show our lack of quality in crossing, we weren’t able to get into areas where we could attempt to deliver the ball into the Swansea box now – the introduction of the more creative Sawyers and, later on, Rubin Colwill bore very little fruit when it came to our attacking threat. although Colwill did have one influential moment.
Piroe let a Cullen cross run away from him when a third Swansea goal looked on, but, that apart, there was far less goalmouth incident at either end of the pitch now- Swansea were breaking the game up and in control as City brought on Wickham and Colwill for the disappointing Ojo and Rinomhota.
While there is always hope when you’re just a goal behind, there’s been so many situations this season where we’ve slid meekly to defeat when 1-0 or 2-1 down and this looked like being another one until we finally put something together on eighty three minutes – Philogene, finally able to make an impact after the break, fed Colwill down the right and he just managed to reach the ball before it crossed for a goal kick to deliver City’s best cross of the match leaving Kaba to head in from point blank range.
Once again, Kaba made little impact other than scoring, but that gift makes him someone who has to start every week in a team with our scoring record.
I would gladly have accepted the final whistle being blown at this point for all sorts of reasons, so I suppose I’m being a bit of a hypocrite if I now criticise City by saying that there was only one side interested in winning the game at 2-2 and it wasn’t us.
Swansea captain Matt Grimes had the crossbar shuddering with a shot from twenty five yards within a minute or two of Kaba’s goal, but, with the five minutes added time being extended to nine, we were to be denied the draw when Kipre was suckered into a naive foul on the edge of the penalty area. The danger seemed over as Fulton’s weak looking free kick was blocked by the wall, but the rebound went straight back to the Scot who this time opted for power as his shot flew back off an upright, there was another rebound, the ball dropped to Ben Cabango and the man deemed not good enough for City when he was with our Academy, smashed in the winner from six yards out before wildly celebrating a goal against his home town club.
Rebounds went Swansea’s way for their second and third goals and so they had luck on their side, but, given how they went for it at 2-2 and we didn’t, I’d say they deserved it.
As for City, there were interviews on the club website with a few of our players before the game saying that they knew what the derby means to supporters, but, yet again, they didn’t back up such sentiments – I can only arrive at two conclusions as to what the game has meant to the last few City squads, either they don’t care about it or they do, but they’re like a bunch of rabbits in those headlights. Whatever the truth, it’s become a custom in recent years that their performances in this game are an embarrassment for the club’s supporters and, although I repeat it was a different type of game today, the 22/23 squad, and manager, stuck with what is now becoming a tradition. .
The day started well with Blackpool losing 3-1 at Preston in Sky’s lunchtime game, but that was as good as it got as Wigan beat ailing QPR 1-0 and a Warnock inspired Huddersfield beat Middlesbrough 4-2 meaing that, once again, it’s only goal difference keeping us out of the bottom three.
City have had a game they were dominating abandoned and lost in the ninety ninth minute in their last two matches – that’s the sort of thing which happens to relegation teams. As for how the season will end, I’m sure many will disagree with me when I say I still think we have the ability to avoid the drop, but, after today, I have to wonder if we have the character to do so – we’ve been a soft touch for much of the campaign and we were again today.
Another defeat for the under 18s today, this one by 4-2 at Sheffield United with our goals coming from Morgan Lewis and Troy Perrett.
In the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division, AFC Porth’s latest defeat was by 4-0 at Ely Rangers who are candidates for the drop themselves, while in the First Division, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were 2-1 home winners over mid table Aberdare Town to keep their handy lead at the top of the table.
Finally, there are still a few signed copies of my latest book “Tony Evans Walks on Water” available from the Trust Office (near Gate 5) on matchdays at the reduced price of £9 for Trust members.
