Seven decades of Cardiff City v Barnsley matches.

Posted on January 25, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

Mick McCarthy starts his stint as City manager at his birthplace Barnsley on Wednesday with the team desperate to end their run of six straight defeats, here’s the usual quiz on upcoming opponents with questions dating back to the sixties – I’ll post the answers on Thursday.

60s. With a brother who was best known for a memorable day at Wembley when giants were slain, this forward was described as “a tough, experienced Scot who knew how to handle himself” by one time team mate Kevin Keegan. Barnsley were his first club and, after making his debut as an eighteen year old, he made over a hundred and sixty appearances over the next four years with goals coming at a decent rate. When he moved on, there was something of a false start with white Lancastrians before he headed south to perform in front of the fans at the Cuckoo Lane End for a couple of years. He then settled in the county of the yellow bellies and was a regular first teamer before an injury which Keegan described as “a diabolical challenge…………. the worst thing I had ever seen on a football pitch”. Although he came back, he was eventually forced to retire at the age of thirty and moved into coaching and management. His first chance to be the man in charge came when someone destined to manage his country moved on and so our man took over at a club not too far away from where he had finished his playing days. He didn’t have to move too far for his next job either as he almost took unfashionable seasiders into the top flight. A team not far from Barnsley was his next destination before he returned to his first club on the management front where he set an unwanted record – his career in the game ended with Pilgrims. Who is described here?

70s. A local boy who made close to two hundred appearances for Barnsley, his first club, this defender was signed by a team whose fans sing about an event that was ended in 1918, revived in 1981 and still takes place on 9 June every year. The move was a success, although the two biggest games he was involved in during his five year stay were both lost. In 1976 he moved south to a team trying to restore fairly recent glories, but never settled and moved on for a season to a club whose fans sing about perseverance, then he went a long way to play for a “wooden” club that wasn’t Nottingham Forest. His final team, where he spent three years were quite close to home and have hit hard times recently. They were originally formed by an amalgamation of two teams called Unitarians and Wesleyans, a club that did have an FA Cup record all of their own for more than a century, but now it’s shared with another team. Name the player.

80s. This defender did experience a win against City while playing for Barnsley during this decade, but his team did not even score in two games when he appeared against us in the league. His record against us in the 80s for his second club was much better with the best City could manage being a single draw in three meetings. Who am I describing?

90s. Real Friend in North East becomes Barnsley icon?(4,8)

00s. Starting and finishing his career in Paul Weller territory, this midfielder’s first move enabled him to share Tales from the Riverbank I suppose while moving on loan to seaside locations of completely different character. His next loan took him to Barnsley, who he then signed for permanently. He won his only game for Barnsley against us during this decade and, after nearly a hundred games, he left them. There were plenty of other moves to follow – for example to a team where you may have expected him to remain seated, red songbirds and with Alison Moyet’s favourite team. Internationally, he only won seven caps for a country who could hardly be called a power in the game, but I’m told is a great place to spend a holiday. He did score for them in a Cup Final though and then in a winning penalty shoot out in the same match. Do you know who he is?

10s. Caledonian sage turns up on the rock? (5,7)

20s. He played for Barnsley against us in November and among the other teams he’s played for are Royston Town, Hemel Hempstead Town, Heybridge Swifts, Dulwich Hamlet, Soham Town Rangers and Margate, who is he?

Answers

60s. George Kerr, brother of Sunderland 1973 FA Cup winning captain Bobby, joined Barnsley as a seventeen year old. In 1965, he was transferred to Bury and then quickly moved on to Oxford United. Virtually all of the rest of Kerr’s career was based in Lincolnshire, he was a player for Scunthorpe, took over from Graham Taylor at Lincoln, almost took Grimsby into Division One, had two years at Rotherham and then returned to Lincoln where he had the dubious distinction of becoming the first manager to be automatically relegated from the Football League into the Conference in 1987 – his career ended with a long spell in charge of Boston United.

70s. Pat Howard moved to Newcastle (Blaydon Races) from Barnsley. Howard was in Newcastle teams beaten 3-0 by Liverpool in the 1974 FA Cup Final and 2-1 by Man City in the 1976 league Cup Final before moving on later that year to Arsenal. He didn’t stay long and signed next for Birmingham (Keep right on to the end of the road) before moving to America to play for Portland Timbers. His final club was Bury who share the record for the record for the biggest ever FA Cup Final win with Man City.

80s. Mick McCarthy first played against for Barnsley in a League Cup tie in 1980 at Oakwell which the home side won 3-2. City won 1-0 at that ground when the teams next met in the Second Division a year later, while the reverse fixture ended goalless. When McCarthy moved on to Man City, he was in their team which beat us 2-1 at Maine road in March 1984 and when we were beaten 3-0 at NinIan Park six months later – the reverse game in March 85 finished 2-2.

90s. Neil Redfearn

00s. Kevin Besty began and ended his playing career with Woking and signed for Fulham in 1998. He stayed at Craven Cottage for four years, but was never a regular and was loaned out to Bournemouth, Hull and then Barnsley. Betsy was in the Barnsley team which beat us 3-2 at Oakwell in November 2002 and then played for, among others, Wycombe, Bristol City and Southend. Internationally, he scored for the Seychelles in the Final of the 2011 Indian Ocean Island games in which they beat Mauritius in a penalty shoot out.

10s. Gibralter international Scott Wiseman.

20s. Victor Adeboyejo.

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Many questions left unanswered as Mick McCarthy is given six month contract.

Posted on January 23, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

Cardiff City reacted with a speed I wasn’t expecting when they named former Republic of Ireland boss Mick McCarthy yesterday as manager (Terry Connor, who was his assistant at Wolves and Ipswich, has also been appointed in the same role) to replace Neil Harris who had left the club the day before.

When you also consider that there are unsubstantiated reports that both Eddie Howe and Paul Cook turned down the chance to manage City before they turned to McCarthy, there is a suspicion at least that it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision to dispense with Harris and, looking at them now, our former manager’s comments about new signings Perry Ng and Max Watters being signings which reflected a new approach at the club could be taken as meaning he played little part in their arrival.

That’s pure speculation on my part though, but, given that Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor have only been given six month contracts, it’s only natural that this sort of thing is going to happen because we still have no real clue as to what the club’s long term plans are.

Therefore, I’m going to offer a few personal opinions which, generally speaking, leave me pretty uncomfortable about this appointment. Not as uncomfortable though as I was feeling about twenty four hours ago when I indulged in something of a messageboard rant, which was aimed a lot more at the club than it was at Mick McCarthy although its basis was formed in my opinion that he was yet another long ball merchant.

I did qualify my vitriol somewhat by saying that it was referring to the award of a long term contract towards McCarthy rather than the shorter deal we got, but over the last day I have been wondering if, maybe, I was wrong to judge him so harshly – is he really just another long ball merchant?

Before I go on to give a view on that, I should say that, as has been noted by many who have gone on to be critical of the appointment, I’ve always liked Mick McCarthy – he’s grounded, realistic, funny, very honest in his opinions and one of the better television analysts out there in my view. It’s great in lots of ways to have someone like that as City manager, but there is that fear that we’ll be playing Warnockball again in no time and nothing will change in terms of our playing style.

Now, I accept I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to how the game should be played and there’ll be plenty of City fans who couldn’t care less what sort of football we play as long as we win. Honestly, I’m much the same because, above all else, City are my team, but I think it’s fair to say that there are now plenty of us who feel that for too long now (close to a decade I’d say) we’ve played a brand of football whereby you had to be winning to avoid criticism from sections of your own support because there is very little to enjoy about it if you don’t end up with three points.

So, I would argue that there are not too many clubs around whose fans have had to exist on such a large diet of percentage based, physical, biff bang, set piece orientated watery broth as Cardiff City’s in recent years. People want a change from what we saw from Mackay, to a degree, Slade, Warnock and, despite his efforts to change things, Harris and watching Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich and Ireland teams of recent years, I fear we’re in for more of the same.

However, are too many of my preconceptions about the new man formed by what Mick McCarthy’s done most recently? I’m grateful to the messageboard poster for making me aware of this video (anyone of a sensitive disposition should be aware that there is a fair bit of “industrial language” in it from our new manager!) which set me thinking. McCarthy describes himself as a “pragmatist” when it comes to management, but there’s also a conversation in it which reminded me of an article I’d read close to thirty years ago when he was setting off in management with Millwall which said that those expecting to see his team play in the manner he did will be pleasantly surprised.

This set me thinking about Mick McCarthy’s Wolves side which won the Championship in 2008/09 – they could play a bit and his Wikipedia entry suggests another one of my preconceptions might be wrong because I’ve been saying he’s had no reputation to speak off for youth development and yet we’re told that when he began at a cash strapped Wolves in 06/07 he “managed to collect together a team from the club’s youth ranks, and some lower league signings, and free transfers” which reached the Play Offs that season.

Therefore, was it the pragmatist McCarthy making the best of the hand he had been dealt at Ipswich and with the Republic of Ireland second time around? You only have to look at what’s happened to both of those teams since he left to think him leaving had a bit of a be careful what you wish for element to it. Certainly, although I sympathise with Ipswich fans for what always looked pretty bland and defensive stuff when I saw them play, it’s true to say he was given very little money to spend at that club, yet they were never in serious relegation trouble and made it to the Play Offs in one of his five seasons with the club.

As mentioned earlier, the lack of any worthwhile response from the club as to what’s likely to happen at the end of the six month period invites speculation, so here’s some more. I’m thinking that, even if he only does moderately well, Mick McCarthy will be offered a longer deal by the club in the summer. If as I suspect it will, the pragmatist in him decides that with a week or so left of the transfer window and the limitations of the squad he’s inherited, which saw Neil Harris largely abandon his efforts to play a bit more football a couple of months ago, a complete change in how we play would not be practical at this stage.

If that is correct and he is in a position this summer to indulge in some longer term planning would those footballing instincts which had his earlier sides playing in a different manner to that which his last two teams (not including his very short lived stint at Apoel in Nicosia) did kick in to allow us to take the first steps in what would always be a fairly long journey or would he decide the easier job would be to use the foundations already in place to build more of the same stuff we have become all too used to? It’s the suspicion that the answer would be the latter which makes me fear that, at a club which is in need of profound change in so many people’s opinion, we’ll just end with business as usual and we’ll be in the same or similar position as we find ourselves now in a few years time.

Posted in Down in the dugout, Up in the Boardroom | Tagged , | 1 Comment