Yes, there have been two promotions to the Premier League, but, with the financial rewards they brought completely wasted, all they did was give Vincent Tan’s Cardiff City the opportunity to create a record for themselves as the first, and only, club that have spent more than one season in that division to have one hundred per cent relegation record.
Last season, Vincent Tan’s Cardiff City created a club record by losing eight consecutive matches and now, after their 3-1 home defeat by an impressive Middlesbrough outfit this afternoon, they stand on the brink of another unwanted record*. Failure to win at St Andrews on Tuesday against a Birmingham team that has two impressive wins behind them after a poor run had seen them getting sucked into the relegation battle will mean that the club record for the longest run of games without a win will have been equalled.
It’ll be fifteen since we last won if we don’t get the three points in midweek and in the highly likely event of that occurring, the game against Reading on Friday would take place against a backdrop of another unwanted record for Vincent Tan’s Cardiff City being set on home territory.
Of course, our horror run is making a return to the third tier for the first time in twenty years all the more likely. So, having taken over a club, albeit a financially crippled one, that was chasing promotion to the Premier League when he arrived in 2010, the billionaire owner we all thought would transform the club could certainly be doing that in the form of humiliating club records, a bigger debt than we ever had before he took over, a botched rebrand, the repercussions of which I believe are still being felt today, an Academy that has never produced the number of first team players it was doing before Mr Tan arrived and a boring, dated and, ultimately, unsuccessful style of football for the large majority of the time he has been in charge.
Make no mistake, these are the days that are going to truly define Vincent Tan’s time in charge and, given what we’ve become used to over the last two or three seasons especially, can anyone really see City emerging from this crisis stronger and set to prosper again under this ownership?
For that to happen, the hierarchy at the club would have to start learning lessons and getting things right in ways they have never done so far.
One thing I won’t be critical of Vincent Tan for however is the decision he has, seemingly, made to cut back on his spending on the playing side. My reasons for this are twofold, first the uncertainty regarding the Emiliano Sala transfer fee payment means that priorities lie elsewhere for now and, second, our owner has already spent enough for us for us to ensure we made a decent stab at becoming a Palace, Brighton or Brentford type of club. The money may have been spent poorly and inefficiently, but I don’t think anyone can complain that Vincent Tan has not put his hand in his pocket and then some for Cardiff City.
Sadly though, the sheer amount of money spent only makes the situation City are in now even more of an indictment against the Tan, Dalman and Choo triumvirate.
So, what about the latest one on what has become a conveyor belt of managers Mr Tan has employed? Last week after the loss at Hull, I said that any new manager bounce Sabri Lamouchi has enjoyed can only apply to slightly improved performances and I’m afraid the same stands after today. We had a go and had Middlesbrough a little worried in the second half for a while, but we could have no complaints whatsoever about the outcome – especially when you consider that Boro also hit the woodwork twice.
To be honest, the difference between the two sides was huge in the first half. It’s incredible to think now that we played Middlesbrough off the park in the first half at their place in September and were worthy of a bigger win than 3-2 – the reward for the manager at the time was the sack four days later!.
However, by making the sort of bold and ambitious managerial choice that Vincent Tan’s Cardiff City would never make, Boro have improved to the extent that they look a good bet for the third promotion place through the Play Offs currently.
Certainly,in the first half, Boro were what you’d expect from a Michael Carrick team given the type of player he was – stylish, composed and skillful as they restricted City’s possession figure to under twenty per cent at times.
I say restricted, but, having read one or two Forest fans saying how Lamouchi teams would sit back and let opponents come on to them while dominating possession only for his side to somehow find a way of winning, often by 1-0, I did wonder if the seriously lop sided possession figures were intentional on Lamouchi’s part?
City started off with Romaine Sawyers and Joe Ralls sat in front of a back four which had the fit again Mahlon Romeo and Callum O’Dowda as full backs, while Sory Kaba accompanied Callum Robinson in a front two supported by Jaden Philogene and Sheyi Ojo on the flanks.
The two nominal wingers were forced back constantly as Boro dominated in the middle of the park and when they did score on seventeen minutes, it felt overdue as the Finn Markus Forss cracked in a fierce shot from ten yards to finish off a fluent move down City’s left.
Of course, a goal for the opposition too often means that it’s game over as far as City are concerned, but, lo and behold, they were level today inside ten minutes with only their second goal in the last eight league matches!
That said, the goal owed a lot to Middlesbrough over confidence as goalkeeper Zack Steffen, a Boro weak link on today’s evidence, played the ball too strongly to Paddy McNair and Robinson nipped in to drive forward, draw the keeper out and square the ball to Kaba who tapped in on his full debut for the club.
Ralls forced Steffen into a diving save, but a tame Ojo free kick apart, City offered next to nothing going forward in the first half. However, Middlesbrough soon restored their lead after O’Dowda carelessly conceded possession to allow the outstanding Hayden Hackney to slide a pass through to Cameron Archer who rounded Ryan Allsop and knocked the the ball in, but was he offside when Hackney played his pass? I think he may well have been.
If Boro could have been fortunate there, their luck was out when Forss headed Ryan Giles’ best cross of the afternoon powerfully onto the post from a position similar to where he scored from.
So, 2-1 down at the break, City we’re looking at a hiding if the pattern of the first forty five minutes was repeated, but, after a quiet fifteen minutes or so, the introduction of Andy Rinomhota and Ryan Wintle for Ralls and Ojo gave the midfield the numbers they’d lacked up to then. This prompted what I thought was Sawyers’ best half of football for City so far and Boro found themselves pushed back for long periods.
With this City team though, having a territorial advantage doesn’t lead to thrills and spills in the opposition goalmouth and there was the familiar lack of quality crosses and dead ball deliveries for our strikers to feed on.
That said, Wintle did manage to produce a good corner which drew another error out of Steffen and an unmarked Cedric Kipre was waiting on the far post. Now, Kipre is an improvement defensively on the Sean Morrison and Aden Flint of recent seasons, but I’d back either of them to score nine times out of ten from the chance Kipre had. Unfortunately, Kipre’s career scoring record isn’t a patch on Morison and Flint’s and it showed here as he headed down from about eight yards out and the ball bounced well over the bar.
Even though Boro we’re now defending a lot more, they were still able to break forward effectively to present their leading scorer Chuba Akpom with a sitter of a chance he made a mess of as his close range effort came back off a post.
As City became more desperate in the final minutes, Boro clinched the points in added time when Riley McGee took a pass from sub Matt Crooks and slid in a third.
Todays defeat for the first team and a 4-0 lunchtime thrashing by Millwall (it was 0-0 going into the last quarter, but then a Millwall player scored a five minute hat trick and added another one late on for good measure) at Leckwith for the under 18s takes the number of consecutive defeats suffered by us at senior, under 21 and Academy levels to eleven – these really are very dark days for City.
Meanwhile, in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division Ton Pentre were 3-0 winners at Porthcawl Town Athletic, while AFC Porth crashed out of the W John Owen Cup with a 6-0 loss at Second Division Cardiff Cosmos and Treherbert Boys and Girls Club also exited the competition with a 2-1 defeat at Sully Sports.
Finally, my new book “Tony Evans walks on water” reviews the team’s promotion to what is now called the Championship in the 1975/76 season and Wales’ qualification for the knock out stages of the 1976 European Championships, along with recollections of news events of the time and some reflections on what life was like in south Wales nearly fifty years ago for a teenager as they entered their twenties.
Ordinarily, Kindle and paperbook versions of the book are only available from Amazon, but a limited number of paperbacks, which I have signed, will be on sale from the Trust office, close to Gate 5, on matchdays. The book costs £11, but can be bought at the reduced price for Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust members of £9.
*I’m grateful to Eric, the stats man on the City messageboard I use most, for revealing that City also equalled the record for the longest run of home matches without a win during the course of a season yesterday as they made to nine without a victory.
