Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

Plenty of people who know more about the game than me have said that patience needs to be shown with the almost completely new Cardiff City team that has been put together this summer by Steve Morison. When you add in that there is also a very different playing style to previous years to be incorporated as well, then the line I’ve heard so often in recent weeks that we should expect inconsistent performances and results from this team for the first few matches of the season should be respected.

It is hard to remember this at times though as you watch City pose hardly any threat from attacking set pieces these days and get caught out as simply as they were today when defending one, but you try to understand that there will be compensating factors to be considered and, certainly, when City have clicked there have been.

However, there are some things that should be taken for granted no matter who is in the team or what style of play is being favoured.

This lunchtime, for the fifth straight derby match and the third one in three under Steve Morison, Cardiff City were deservedly beaten by local rivals who wanted it more than we did. When it came to desire and battling qualities, Bristol City were in charge in almost every outfield position and, for this as much as anything were worth their 2-0 victory,.

What has quite often looked a well balanced and good quality Championship midfield three were second best today – Ryan Wintle had what was easily his worst half of the season in the first forty five minutes before improving somewhat after the break. Andy Rinomhota was anonymous for much of the time and, after looking like he might be taking a grip on the game in the minutes before the wurzels scored their first goal, Romaine Sawyers flitted in and out of the match to little effect. Mahlon Romeo and Callum O’Dowda emulated Wintle in having their least impressive matches of the campaign so far and Cedric Kipre and Jack Simpson had their erratic moments defensively.

Running through it all though was that feeling you get so often when watching City take on either of the jacks or the wurzels lately – one side realises what these derby games mean and the other one does not.

Moving away from our derby day issues though, last season’s league table told you that with Bristol in seventeenth position and us eighteenth and both teams level on seven points each this time around, there is little between the sides. However, it was clear last season (especially after we sold Keiffer Moore) and is even more so now that the forward options the wurzels have are so much stronger than ours.

In saying that, when you consider that we have scored a miserable three goals in six matches if you include the League Cup tie with Portsmouth now, Bristol wouldn’t have to be that good to be superior to us. However,there is a significant difference in ability and goal threat when you compare the forward options available to Nigel Pearson and Steve Morison.

 Nahki Wells, Andreas Weimann and Chris Martin won’t see thirty again, but they’re all proven goal scorers at this level who you’d predict to be our top scorer this season if they signed for us, They also have an effervescent young striker called Tommy Conway who has made a good start to the season and he scored a neat header today to open the scoring just when we were having our best spell of the game. It also should be remembered that Antoine Semenyo, who ran us ragged at Ashton Gate last season, was missing through injury today.

The wurzels are putting us to shame on the goalscoring front this season, they have twelve now in six games and unless we start scoring soon (we face Preston next who haven’t conceded a league goal all season), the time when we are level on points or better with our West Country rivals is disappearing fast.

Looking at our striking resources you have to remember that Isaak Davies, who created a good impression in his debut season of first team football even if his goalscoring record was modest, hasn’t kicked a ball yet. The other three recognised strikers are Max Watters, who has started every league goal game so far, Mark Harris, who has come off the bench in every league game and new signing Kion Etete who has been used as a sub in our last four league games after not being signed at the time of the first one – this is suggestive of a regimented approach that is not working at the moment..

Three of those four are players who were here last season and so do not have a settling in process to go through, although there is, of course, the process of them getting on the same wavelength as all of their new colleagues to consider.

I think it’s far too simplistic to blame our strikers alone for the fact that we’re averaging half a goal a game so far this season. In three of our league matches (Norwich, Reading and West Brom) we barely created a chance for anyone, let alone our strikers. Before today, our ability to create chances came down almost entirely to what we did in one game (Birmingham) – both Watters and Etete missed gilt edged opportunities in that match, but they were the only ones they’d had all season as far as I can remember.

The fact that after today I can say the total number of real goalscoring opportunities which have fallen to our strikers now stands at four confirms that the Bristol game lies second behind Birmingham in our creativity stakes. It wasn’t as if we were ripping a somewhat porous wurzels defence apart and we would have been lucky to have done so, but the chances were there for us to have drawn or even won today.

After Bristol had been the better side for the opening half an hour and Ryan Allsop had been called on to make a good save to deny Conway as the home side got in down our right for the first of too many times, City began to warm to their task, home keeper Dan Bentley touched a Sawyers shot from close to the bye line on to the outside of the post and out to signal a temporary change in the balance of the game.

Sawyers’ effort led to the first of a series of corners which only succeeded in offering proof of how little threat we pose from such situations nowadays,

Cedric Kipre came to the fore in attacking sense though as he, first, clipped a pass into space that left Watters, who had timed his run to perfection, in on goal against Bentley. Faced with a similar type of chance against Birmingham, Watters opted to try and side foot his shot, but goalkeeper John Ruddy was able to divert the ball away for a corner, this time Watters tried to chip it and Bentley was able to get enough of a touch on the ball to send it just over the bar.

Kipre joined in to good effect from the back to combine nicely with Sawyers and jab a shot into the side netting, but this was the prelude to Conway scoring from a Wells cross after he found space down the right of City’s defence.

City got lucky soon after that when Weimann smacked a viscous shot against their crossbar, but Bristol turned the screw after the break and when Rob Atkinson saw off a weak Kipre challenge to  nod in a cheap second from a free kick taken about forty yards out by Kai Naismith,

With much to do now, City could hardly afford to miss the sort of chance Mark Harris did when fellow sub Rubin Colwill produced a sublime pass to leave him with only Bentley to beat. However, the striker wasn’t sharp enough in his attempt to take the ball around the goalkeeper who was allowed to make a save. Bentley also reacted well to deny Colwill seconds later, but I think City could have been out there playing until midnight and they wouldn’t have scored.

Steve Morison has apparently said he’s tired of defending his strikers after they miss chances. I must say I think that’s a little harsh given how few chances they have missed – I can see where he’s coming from to an extent – after all, it’s six games in and not one City striker has scored, but to imply we’re not scoring solely because the strikers have missed so many chances is plain wrong.

As I mentioned earlier, our manager has done exactly the same thing every time as far as his striking options go so far, so, surely, it’s time for a change and one of Harris or Etete starts next week with Watters maybe benefitting from the chance of facing more tired defenders.

City have undergone a radical shake up in all areas of the pitch except up front where the only newcomer has been described as a “project”. Therefore, the object of the exercise is clearly to bring in at least one more forward, but, if we can’t do that, do we have other options within the squad who may be considered worth a try?

Shey Ojo seems the best suited out of the wingers we have, but, increasingly, the name of Rubin Colwill is being mentioned by supporters as being worth a try.

Now, Colwill wasn’t perfect today when he came on, he looked slow in possession at times and presented a contrast with the vibrant Bristol midfielders around him, but, in a side that is struggling so much to create chances, he wasn’t too far off adding more on that score than the rest of his team mates put together – yet iHarris and Philogene were brought on before he was – why?

Last season Colwill scored five goals in thirty four league appearances. That’s not a great return, but only fifteen of those appearances were as a starter and his stats do start to look better when you consider that Harris, Watters and Davies netted six between them in seventy four appearances.

Colwill’s goals came while playing as an advanced midfielder in a central or wide position and it is true that when he was played up front by Wales in one of his earliest international appearances, it wasn’t a success. Surely the point is though that wherever he is used, he appears to be the most likely out of the players who were here last season to provide some creativity and/or goals – if Steve Morison continues to use Colwill as sparingly as he has done in his tenure as manager so far, the oft repeated claims that our manager doesn’t rate him will only get louder, even if there is no truth in them.

Better news anyway when it comes to the under 18s, who came back from 2-1 down to beat Peterborough 6-2 in their first competitive game of the season at Leckwith yesterday lunchtime with Japhet Mpadi, Kyle Henniford, Will Spiers and Tanatswa Nyakuwha the scorers – the last two netting two apiece.

I’d also like to wish Jamilu Collins best wishes and a speedy recovery following the confirmation that the injury he received in the opening minutes at West Brom on Wednesday was the dreaded ACL and his season is over almost before it had begun.

It was typical of City’s day that Collins’ replacement Joel Bagan only lasted six minutes today before he had to go off with what appeared to be concussion after a clash of heads with Alex Scott. This meant that Perry Ng, so important to how we are playing this season, had to switch to left back with Simpson coming in at centre back.

At the time, I thought Scott’s challenge had been over physical, but, having seen it again, I’d say it was accidental. However, I do feel that Bristol played on the new interpretation that appears to allow sides to play a more physical game better than City did- either way, I thought all three officials were very poor and it’s still hard to see how a penalty was not given when Jay De Silva clearly pushed Romeo no matter how the laws are being interpreted at the moment.

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.

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