Cardiff City moved to within three points of Swansea in sixth place with a deserved 3-1 victory at Wigan Athletic which killed off my pet, and mad as it turned out, theory about there being something wrong with our preparation for weekend away games! However, the congested nature of this very competitive division can be gauged by the fact that West Brom, surprisingly down in the bottom three in twenty second place with just one wins thirteen matches, will be telling themselves that they are just ten points off a Play Off place tonight.
Further evidence of the sort of league the 22/23 Championship is can be gathered from the fact that Sheffield United and Norwich, who looked like they were beginning to put some distance between themselves and the chasing pack before the international break, have taken a single point between them in their last two games – both of them were beaten today (the Blades by 3-1 at a Stoke side which was woeful in losing 4-0 at home to Watford last weekend and Norwich by 3-2 at home by Preston of all sides who, therefore, conceded their first away goals of the season while also almost doubling their number of goals scored!). Also, having mentioned Watford in passing, I should add that Slaven Bilic must be close to the sack tonight after having suffered a second straight loss with the club with the most trigger happy owners in the game – I really hope Watford don’t go up this season!
Anyway, back to City and, despite the potential for it to have been a really frustrating game with its five minute delayed kicked off for reasons that I don’t think have been explained yet and my first continually buffering stream of the season, it turned out to be a really satisfying one. I say this because after so many years of land of the giants football which was increasingly well dealt with by more nimble and skilful sides than us, it was particularly nice to see the role reversal today with us being the more technical and agile team which came out on top in a stern examination against opponents that relied on lots of high balls into the box.
I’ll admit to not knowing a great deal about the current Wigan team, so it may be that today wasn’t typical of them, but they were very direct with two big lumps up front in Charlie Wyke and our ex goalkeeper and striker Josh Magennis.
Now, it might be that Wigan boss Leam Richardson decided to depart from how his team normally play because he looked at our squad and the goals we’ve conceded this season and, amazingly for the team we were for so long associated with size and power, saw a side that was vulnerable in the air and relatively weak at defending set pieces. If that was the case, then I don’t think he’ll be the last manager of an opposing side to go a bit more direct against us and hope to rough us up..
Therefore, it probably helped us to have Jack Simpson alongside Cedric Kipre at centre back as Perry Ng moved over to right back because of Mahlon Romeo’s injury picked up in Tuesday’s win over Blackburn.
By and large, despite the fact that Wigan’s goal came from a header from a cross, we coped pretty well with the aerial barrage with Kipre, who was up against one of his former teams, once again showing what an important player he is for us and Simpson a largely unflustered presence alongside him.
However, we won this game because we were the better footballing team and it was great to hear opposing commentators talking about how neat we were in possession and what a threat we were on the break.
So many times in the past, that would have been part of a grudging acknowledgment made by City fans that the opposition were too good for our, more limited, approach, but this time, it was us standing up to the bullies, rather than being the bullies ourselves.
Another reason for satisfaction was that, having made such a big difference to our attacking game since signing for us, Callum Robinson only lasted forty minutes and yet despite playing for almost an hour with a team that was little different from the ones which struggled so desperately to find the net through August, we scored twice in his absence and could easily have doubled that number.
Mind you, Robinson showed enough during those forty minutes to prove how vital he has become for City as he scored his second goal for the club and created a great chance which probably should have seen him end up with a third one just before he went off.
City, with Joe Ralls and Mark Harris starting in place of Romaine Sawyers and Sheyi Ojo in the other two changes from Tuesday, made a fast start with Neils Nkounkou to the fore. The left back has had more than a fair degree of criticism for his defensive work (and he wasn’t faultless in that respect today), but this was a day to appreciate what he can bring to a team going forward.
On seven minutes, N’Kounkou came in from the left, beating an opponent in the process, and then just managing to poke a pass through to Robinson who played it back to the Everton loanee and then set off to get goalside of his marker. Robinson was clear and N’Kounkou came up with the perfect assist with a beautifully weighted pass which Robinson converted without having to break his stride by comprehensively beating the advancing former City loan keeper Ben Amos from about eighteen yards .
Wigan reacted strongly to going behind and City spent a lot of time defending in the next half an hour, but, although they didn’t threaten too much, there was a fluency and speed to our attacking which suggested that, for just the second time this season, we’d score more than once.
Robinson played in Harris and again moved cleverly for the return pass on forty minutes, but City’s match winner in midweek, chose to shoot himself and scuffed his effort well wide with our newest signing ideally placed to apply a finishing touch.
Within a minute or two, Robinson was off and Ojo on as City reached half time with a lead which Wigan would probably have felt was a bit harsh on them given the amount of attacking they’d done.
The second half was more even in terms of territory with Wigan struggling to turn possession into bona fide chances. On the other hand, both Harris and Callum O’Dowda had presentable opportunities that were missed, but the latter would have an assist to his name just past the hour mark as City scored a classic counter attacking goal.
O’Dowda may have had the assist, but so much of the credit had to go to N’Kounkou who cut in past three players before showing great vision to put O’Dowda clear and the winger made thirty yards down the right before crossing to where Ojo bundled the ball in from eight yards out, but should the goal have been disallowed for offside against the scorer? Replays I’ve seen of it suggest it might well have been, it looked very close.
The offside flag did come to Wigan’s rescue mind when Ryan Wintle tapped in from a couple of yards out soon afterwards, but he wasn’t to be denied his first goal for the club for much longer.
Wigan made changes after going two down, but, with no home wins so far this season, they were looking like a beaten team. Sawyers came on to replace Ralls (I thought he excellent today) and there was a return to fitness for Kion Etete as he came on for Harris who, his miss apart, gave further fuel to those who say he is an improved player this season.
The game was going through something of a sleepy phase as it entered its final ten minutes, but all that changed on eighty three minutes when N’Kounkou gave sub Tom Naylor a bit too much time to get his cross after receiving a throw in and Wyke headed in from eight yards.
With the crowd now right behind them, Wigan sensed they could get something out of the game and there was an almighty scramble in front of the City goal before Welshman Nathan Broadhead, on as a sub for Magennis, dragged his shot wide.
However, as the game moved into seven minutes of added time, the tireless Andy Rinomhota did really well to win a free kick about five yards from the goal line out on the right hand side from where Wintle caught Amos out with a superb shot (the best compliment I can pay it is to say it was like a right footed Whittingham) which flew in at the near post.
There was one more dodgy moment for City, but there was also a decent chance missed by Etete and, having been well set up by Sawyers, Ojo ran from halfway knowing that no one was going to catch him only to roll his shot against the outside of the post and wide when he really should have scored.
Neither miss was of great consequence though as City came through to record a win which, based on what happened with Steve Morison, will be enough for Mark Hudson to be given the manager’s job for longer – possibly until the end of the season. I’ll admit that I wasn’t too enthusiastic at the idea of this happening, but the results, and the performances, over the past week speak for themselves and, certainly in the last two matches, there has been evidence of a more attacking approach with, crucially, more of our players getting into the opposition penalty box in open play..
Moving on, I nominated a goal by Brian Flynn against Scotland in 1975 and Hal Robson-Kanu’s remarkable effort against Belgium in the 2016 Euros Quarter Final to rival Jess Fishlock’s stunning volley to decide Wales women’s team hard fought game with Bosnia in the Interminable World Cup qualifying process as the best one I’d seen a Welsh international team score.
Someone correctly reminded me of Mark Hughes’ brilliant flying volley against Spain which is, clearly, a good shout, but my point remains – Fishlock’s goal is right up there among our best ever and the fact that so much was riding on the outcome of the game the goal came in only adds to its status.
Fishlock’s goal decided a game that was remarkable in that it had four goals, correctly, disallowed for offside and also countless chances created and missed by the Welsh team. There could be no denying Wales deserved their win, but they are going to have to be sharper and play more as a team if they are to stand a chance against Switzerland (who came very close to beating Italy to the one automatic qualification place in their group) on Tuesday. It’s very likely that even a victory in this match will not be good enough to automatically secure Wales a place in the World Cup Finals however. Currently, a two goal win might see us qualify, but the odds are against that happening and it’s more likely that we’d have to go through another qualification phase, to be held in New Zealand in the New Year, to make it through.
Nothing as spectacular at Leckwith this lunchtime as City’s under 18s drew with Forest Green Rovers in what I’ll call the age group version of the League Cup when they really needed a win after losing heavily at Coventry in their first match in the competition, but a very young team could not hold on to the lead given them by Morgan Wigley.
In the Highadmit South Wales Alliance, AFC Porth are still without a point in the Premier Division after giving an FC Cwmaman side with a 100 per cent winning record a tremendous game before going down 4-3. In the First Division, fourth placed Treherbert Boys and Girls Club finally got to play their first home game of the season, drawing 1-1 with top of the table Vale United FC.
A few words as well about my book Tony Evans Walks on Water which I’ve decided to delay publication of until next month. The main cause of this is that, for some reason, this book is proving more problematical with the Amazon publishing software I’m using, but there are also other matters which are taking longer to complete than first anticipated. However, we are still definitely on course to have the book out well before Christmas and I’ll keep you up to date with developments in the coming weeks.
Finally, as has been the habit at the start of a new season in recent years, can I ask readers if they’re willing to make a donation towards the running costs of the blog. I say running costs towards the blog, but, that’s not really true this time because this year any donations will go towards costs incurred in the production and publication of the book I aim to have out for sale by October.
As mentioned this time last year, I decided to do another review of a season to follow on from Real Madrid and all that which was about 1970/71. This one is about the 1975/76 season and will be called Tony Evans walks on water. I finished writing the book over the weekend and now it’s a question of tidying it up, proof reading, inserting a few photos and designing a cover before sending it off for printing.
As always, the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation towards its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site because there will never be any.
Donations can be made through Patreon, PayPal, by bank transfer, cheque, Standing Order/Direct Debit and cash, e-mail me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com for further payment details.
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