Seven decades of Cardiff City v Derby County matches.

Posted on May 5, 2022 by The other Bob Wilson

The final game of the season is a trip to the side who helped make things a bit less fraught for us than they would have been without their twenty one point deduction – Derby would be five points above us now were it not for the sanctions imposed on them by the Football League for their financial misdemeanours. Therefore, you can see what a big goal it was by Uche Ikpeazu late on in the first meeting between the clubs in March to give us a precious three points which, more or less, confirmed our place in the Championship for 22/23.

With a new owner seemingly on the point of taking over, you’d think that Derby’s stay in the third tier would not be that long, but there are some very big clubs in League One these days and the likes of Ipswich, Charlton and Portsmouth are now preparing for another campaign in the lower divisions with at least one of Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland sure to be there with them and Derby.

Here’s seven Derby related questions dating back to the sixties – I’ll post the answers on here on Sunday.

60s. This defender started his career at Derby and made exactly two hundred league appearances for them over a period of nine years before a move back to his roots for a couple of seasons in the middle of this decade to end his career in the full time game. Appointed Player Manager of one of the most famous non league sides in the game, the club he had left to join them from then paid them £1,250 to bring him back as their manager. Being boss of his home town club did not go to plan though despite him securing a place in Europe and he never got to experience what managing in the continental competitions was like because he was let go after just the one season, which was spent in a lower mid table position. This was the cue for him to start playing again as he accepted a job as player/coach at a west coast club which now plays in the Third Division of a County League according to its Wikipedia page, but at the time he was there, you might well have seen them playing at Corinthian Park. Who am I describing?

70s. This forward, who had two spells at Derby, played for, among others, clubs whose homes are/were at the following grounds, Crown Meadow, The New Eyrie, Claines Lane, the Jan Breydel Stadium, Skelly Stadium, Turf Moor and Feethams, who is he?

80s. Scores of vets had a connection with him!(5,5)

90s. Ship packer’s turn?

00s. His surname sounds like it should feature in the Periodic Table to me, but he was one of those players who were worth a punt on Football Manager as a teenage signing which might just develop into something special. In real life, his career reads like someone who has talent, but never really reached his potential. Loaned to Derby by London giants, all of the first team football he played in the UK was as a Ram, including a game against City at Pride Park which finished all square. Some of his subsequent clubs (e.g Monaco and Austria Wien) and the fact he won Under 21 caps for his, internationally strong, country indicate his talent, but recently he’s played for Al Jazira in the UAE and Buriram United in Thailand before he’d reached thirty, can you name him?

10s. This midfielder’s last two transfers have seen him go from Luton to Melbourne, to Perth, but time was he was considered quite a prospect. However, I think I’m right in saying that the only Premier League football he’s played in his career was while on loan at Palace for a short spell nearly ten years ago. Apart from that his career has seen a succession of moves to fancied Championship teams where he could never really establish himself. He played eighty league games for Derby in his four years with them following a big money move and came out level in his four encounters with City while at Pride Park with two wins and two defeats – he currently has a City player for a team mate as well, do you know who he is?

20s. Only five of this players forty three Championship appearances for two clubs (Derby was the first of them) have been as a starter, yet he has got a first team hat trick for one of them to his name – he was also sent off at the Valley last month, who is he?

answers.

60s. Swansea born Glyn Davies was at Derby County between 1953 and 1962 during which he became a regular in their side. He then spent a couple of seasons at what was then Swansea Town before he was appointed Player Manager at Yeovil Town. Swansea were so impressed by the job he did there, that they appointed him their manager for the 1965/66 season , but despite qualifying for the European Cup Winners Cup, Davies was sacked at the end of the campaign and then had a brief spell as a Player Coach with Pembroke Borough who were quite a strong Welsh League side at that time.

70s. Among the clubs Roger Davies played for were AFC Bridgenorth, Bedford Town, Worcester City, Club Brugge, Tulsa Roughnecks, Burnley and Darlington.

80s. Steve Cross.

90s. Steve Round.

00s. Nacer Barazite played thirty times for Derby in 08/09, including a 1-1 draw with City early in that season, while on loan for Arsenal. He won nine Under 21 caps for the Netherlands.

10s.Jacob Butterfield is at St Johnstone, along with City loanee Mark Sang, these days, but was a Derby player between 2015 and 2019.

20s. Swansea City’s Morgan Whittaker scored a hat trick for them in a League Cup game with Plymouth early in this season before he was loaned to Lincoln City for whom he was sent off at Charlton last month.

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Vaulks and Watters help to end losing run as Cardiff City finally get a penalty.

Posted on May 1, 2022 by The other Bob Wilson

For years and years the accepted wisdom was that fifty points would ensure safety in a forty six match season. You’d get anomalies like when Peterborough went down with fifty three points I think it was in our title winning campaign and Blackburn got to fifty one in 16/17 but couldn’t beat the drop, you’d be very unlucky if you get to the half century and found yourself in the third tier though.

Recent seasons have seen the struggling sides getting less points and since that Blackburn relegation, the last four completed seasons have probably seen that target figure to avoid the drop lessened by a couple of points by those within the game.

That trend will continue this year, but, of course, Derby’s massive points deduction has rather invalidated that line of thinking – the team we end the season against next weekend would be on fifty five points well clear off the drop were it not for the financial misdemeanours committed by those running the club.

We shouldn’t forget Reading’s six point deduction either – they are one of only four clubs we’re certain to finish above at the moment, but they would have been going into today’s matches thinking they could overhaul us and Birmingham were it not for the sanction imposed on them.

It’s been a common refrain that City would be going down were it not for what happened to Derby and Reading, but by finally ending their latest long run of consecutive defeats by signing off at Cardiff City Stadium with a 1-1 draw with Birmingham, City reached the fifty point figure that relegation threatened sides aimed for – they would still not be completely safe tonight in a Championship without points deductions, but they would go to Derby knowing that it would need a combination of a very heavy defeat for them and a big win by Birmingham and a huge one by Reading to relegate them.

What is beyond doubt is that the atmosphere and general feeling around today’s match would have been far more fraught than what we saw this afternoon if Derby and Reading had not been docked points. To be fair, the match was more competitive than your typical end of season fare between sides that had no chance of going up or down (as evidenced by six bookings, four of them to City players).

So, City we’re probably just about good enough to stay up anyway, but, for long periods this afternoon, it looked like they were on their way to yet another of those 1-0 home losses that have plagued us this season and, were it not for us being awarded our first penalty of the season on our forty fifth match, I think we would have done so.

In saying that, I think it would have been an injustice if we had lost because we put Birmingham under an awful lot of pressure in the second half, but it does occur to me that, like the drunk who says they’ll just go on one more binge before they go on the wagon for the rest of their days, we had to revert to the style of play we’re supposed to be dispensing with to get our point.

There were a barrage of corners, free kicks and Vaulks long throws for Birmingham to defend in the second half and, largely, they did with not many alarms because, without those big defenders that people like me say can’t play out from the back, we’re nowhere near the dead ball threat that we were.

To their credit, City really did try to win the game once they levelled with eight minutes left, but it’s hard to see how Steve Morison arrived at his opinion that we dominated the game from start to finish…

Our manager continued to “match up” (it would be nice to see us be positive and have a sod what they’re doing attitude just once) with our opponents by reverting to a back three, while there was a second league start for Eli King in midfield alongside Ryan Wintle and Tommy Doyle, but it was only after that trio had been replaced that City really came into the game.

Before then, Perry Ng from left wing back had been City’s likeliest scorer in yet another tepid first half showing as he twice forced Neil Etheridge into saves and the ex City man was also called into action to block Cody Drameh’s effort.

Birmingham we’re the more dangerous side though as Jermaine Bela put them ahead with a good finish after they became the latest side to catch us on the break from an attacking dead ball situation – in doing so, they also exploited how poor our delivery has been from this source in recent matches..

The introduction of Rubin Colwill (I just don’t get our manager’s attitude towards him in these games which surely should be used for giving players like him the sort of starting opportunities he didn’t get enough of earlier in the season) and Will Vaulks for Wintle and King improved things somewhat with the latter having one of his best games of the season for me, but, after Birmingham had twice gone very close to doubling their lead, it was the replacement of Doyle by Max Watters that was the catalyst for the pressure being upped.

It was Watters who won the penalty as he ran on to a Ng pass and got a touch on the ball just before Etheridge brought him down. It was a clear penalty and Vaulks emphatically put away the spot kick in impressive style with a nerveless finish.

There were lots of crosses coming in after that, but, as has been the case since Ryan Giles’ loan spell ended, there was a lack of real quality to most of them, but at least City had done enough not to add a five match losing run to the eight game one that they’d put us through in the autumn and, in this so poor season, you have to be grateful for crumbs of comfort like that.

Before that, there was a 2-1 away win for the under18s at QPR thanks to goals from Japhet Mpadi and a Morgan Wigley penalty. There’s just one other game to report on, a 1-1 draw for Champions Treherbert Boys and Girls Club at AFC Butetown in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Division Two.

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