Seven decades of Cardiff City v Watford matches.

Posted on March 11, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

After the rare luxury of no midweek games, City return to action at the beginning of what might be a defining week in their season with a home game against Watford. Here’s seven questions on Saturday’s opponents with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.

60s. This defender was born in a small town which sounds like it was named in honour of a 1967 European Cup winner, but wasn’t. He only played for two sides and both of them had amber/yellow as the main colour on their kit (although he was at his second club long enough to have seen change their shirts to blue and to white for a time). Watford were his first club and he found his way into the first team blocked by the fact that the player manager played in the same position as him. So, after less than twenty appearances for them, he was off to the club he is most associated with. Relatively early in his stint at this club, he was in a team which embarrassed a side featuring multiple World Cup winners in a cup match before bowing out at the next stage with a narrow 1-0 loss to what could be considered to be local rivals from the top flight. Late in his time with this club, they experienced promotion twice as they reached unsurpassed heights – he went nearly seven years without missing a game for them and has a bar named after him at their ground, but who is he?

70s. A Scotsman who spent all of his career in England, this midfielder started off with contented tools during a time when life was something of a struggle for them. He was more out of the team than in, but found the net against Stoke and Burnley during his three years with them. He then signed for Watford for a fairly modest fee and only had a draw to show from his two meetings with City while he was with them – transfer listed at the end of his first season with the Hornets, he stayed for another two years without achieving very much and was eventually given a free transfer which led to him linking up with Essex boys for another unsuccessful season. His next move – west to a market town saw an upturn in his career with a promotion though and he was in their side when they were beaten on a memorable night at Ninian Park. His poor record at our ground continued the following season when his side returned there this time for a bottom of the table scrap and following their relegation, he was on the march so to speak as he moved north to a happy field where he experienced the second league title of his career as the seventies were coming to an end. He stayed around for another year or two before retiring with a modest goalscoring return of 26 from his 314 league appearances – do you know who he is?

80s. Comfort grass seed?

90s. Nato stencil used by Watford? (5,6)

00s. Born in the town where the Poppies play, this defender was a serial promotion winner/challenger during his career following his release by a managerial great for whom he didn’t play a game at his first club. It was cup success which first got him noticed though and this helped get him a move to red city dwellers with whom he played a small part in a promotion. Following a loan spell with rivals of Watford, he next showed up at a lair where there was another promotion and a Play Off Final defeat. Watford were his next club and there were mixed results (a win, a draw and a loss) in his games against City and no promotions during his three seasons with them. His final team were situated not far from his birthplace and there was one more promotion to celebrate before retirement. Who is he?

10s. Who is being described here? This full back had two spells at Barcelona in his home country before arriving at Watford via Spain and had a short loan spell with red and white Thyrios while in Hertfordshire. A loser and then a winner in his encounters with City while at Watford, he’s back home now in the country that he played every minute for in their appearance in the 2014 World Cup Finals.

20s. Shrewd blue train perhaps.

Answers

60s. Sandy Pate was born in Lennoxtown in East Dumbartonshire, but spent all of his long playing career in England. A right back, he was kept out of the Watford team by player boss Ken Furphy for most of his two years at Vicarage Road and moved on to Mansfield in 1967. Two years later Pate was in the team which beat West Ham 3-0 at Field Mill in an FA Cup tie and they gave Leicester (who were beaten finalists that year) a real battle before going down by a single goal in the Quarter Final. Mansfield were promoted into the Third Division in 1975 and then the Second a couple of years and Pate’s retired at what turned out to be their only season so far in the second tier with a club record 413 league appearances behind him.

70s. Jimmy Lindsay played nearly forty league games for West Ham between 1968 and 1971 before moving on to Watford for £20,000, but he couldn’t prevent their relegation and then struggles at the lower level before he left for Colchester on a free transfer, His next move was to Hereford and he was an eve present in their Third Division title winning side of 75/76 who were beaten 2-0 by runners up Cardiff in front of 35,000 at Ninian Park. Hereford struggled in the Second Division in the following season and were in the bottom of the league they occupied for most of the campaign when they were beaten 3-1 in Cardiff on Boxing Day 1976. Lindsay signed for Shrewsbury a few months later and they were Third Division Champions in 78/79 before he retired from the game in 1981.

80s. Pat Rice.

90s. Clint Easton.

00s. Kettering born Sean Dyche was a youth player at Nottingham Forest, but never played a game for them. He played over 250 times for his next team, Chesterfield, though and was a mainstay of their team which reached the 1997 FA Cup Semi Final. Loaned to Luton during a short stay at Bristol City, Dyche established himself as a second tier level player with Millwall and almost made it into the Premier League as the Lions were beaten by Birmingham in a Play Off Final. Dyche captained Watford in the last of his three years with them and ended his playing career at Northampton.

10s.  Juan Carlos Paredes played every minute of Ecuador’s 2014 World Cup Finals campaign and had two spells with Barcelona Sporting Club, who are based in Guayaquil, the largest city in that country. Paredes signed for Grenada in 2014, but did not play a game for them before linking up with Watford and, apart from a loan spell at Olympiakos, he stayed with them for three years before returning to Ecuador.

20s. Thomas (Tom) Cleverley.

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Four more for goal happy Development team.

Posted on March 9, 2021 by The other Bob Wilson

After the loss last week that brought their run of five consecutive victories to an end, Cardiff City’s Under 23 Development team returned to winning ways at Leckwith this lunchtime with a triumph over Watford.

I say Under 23 side mind but, in truth, City pushed that description to the limit in their selection. When the Under 23 format was brought in to replace the Under 21 one for the 2012/13 season I believe it was, the rule was that you could field an over age goalkeeper and a maximum of three over age outfield players. I’m fairly sure that has remained the rule to this day.

So, by having Alex Smithies, Junior Hoilett, Lee Tomlin and Jonny Williams in the starting eleven, City went as far as they could within the rules and then when you also factor permitted players like Mark Harris and Max Watters who are both pretty regular members of the first team squad these days, in you can see that they fielded what would be considered a very strong line up by the standards of the competition.

Saying that mind, I’ve seen plenty of “reserve” team games down the years where sides with plenty of first team players have just not done the business in terms of playing well and getting a result for the side they were representing in that match. The reasons for this are usually fully understandable in that, say, the players concerned are making their way back from injury and so are reluctant to, and probably under orders not to, stretch themselves too much. Also, although this hasn’t applied for most of the last year, there must be motivational problems for those who are used to playing in plush stadiums in front of big crowds when they are turning out in front of the proverbial three men and a dog on what are often little more than training pitches.

Therefore, anyone expecting, say, a six or seven goal win against a Watford team which although containing a Bergkamp and a Pochetino (both offspring of the Dutch and Argentinian internationals I understand), was a collection of players who fell well within the Under 23 classification I believe, were always likely to be disappointed.

In saying that, City, who scored sixteen times in those five wins I mentioned and even managed to continue with their free scoring ways while losing 5-4 to Charlton a week ago, took their goal tally to twenty four in seven with a 4-0 win which was probably a little bit better than what I was expecting when I saw the two teams.

For most of the game, Watford offered dogged defensive resistance against what at times was continuous pressure, but their cause could not have been helped by conceding a goal quickly when their plan appeared to be to frustrate City for as long as they could.

With so many attack minded players in their team, City had a bit of an unbalanced look to them with Tomlin playing very deep in midfield almost alongside Sam Bowen as the usual three at the back formation was abandoned for what was a 4-4-2. Therefore Owen Pritchard and Dan Martin were more orthodox full backs than the wing backs we’ve become used to seeing lately and it was the former, who I assume served his suspension for his sending off last week by missing the Academy team’s 2-1 loss at Charlton on Saturday, who showed up more early on.

From one sortie forward on six minutes, Pritchard fed Watters who had a really good chance, but his shot was blocked and luck favoured City as the ball bounced towards Harris stood on the far post who touched the ball in from no more than a yard or two out as Watford appealed for an offside flag that never came.

To be honest, I found the next forty minutes or so fairly boring as City dominated without ever looking very threatening. Things livened up though in the minute or two before half time as Tomlin clipped the crossbar with a lovely free kick from right on the edge of the penalty area and then Watters, receiving the ball inside his own half shortly afterwards, broke forward and took advantage of a good run by Harris which took a defender away to break into the penalty area. However, a couple of visiting players had been able to keep up with the striker and it looked as though he’d run up a blind alley until he cut back on himself, turned and then hit a left footed shot across keeper Baptiste and into the corner of the net.

The word clubs use to describe someone like Watters in the last decade or so is “project” – the striker signed from Crawley certainly has rough edges and I’m sure he’s spending a lot of time with the club’s coaches, but it seems to me that the goalscoring instinct is very much there already with him.

City continued to show the cutting edge displayed in the closing stages of the first period when the game restarted and, within a minute, Baptiste had produced a fine save to deny Harris’ side footed effort from twenty yards after City’s best move so far.

Tomlin was becoming more influential and it was from his free kick, which might just have gone in anyway, that Watters touched in his fourth goal in two games for us at this level as Watford again appealed for offside, but the replays of the goal showed that was a valid one.

A few minutes later, there was significant action up the other end of the pitch for the first time when a Watford attacker went down under a challenge from Hoilett – replays of the incident showed that the first contact by the City player may have been outside the area, but it was a close thing and the referee was probably right to point to the spot.

The commentator mentioned Smithies’ fine penalty saving record in the build up to the kick and the keeper lived up to his billing by diving to his right to hold on to Cukur’s attempt as Watford received further confirmation that it just wasn’t their day.

That feeling only grew a minute or two later as Williams kept his head in a goalmouth scramble to make it four and complete the scoring.

Harris headed just wide and was foiled again by Baptiste in the time that remained, while Smithies again denied Cukur in a one on one with the Watford striker as the game wound down to a quiet conclusion.

Tomlin made way for Ryan Kavanagh around the hour mark, but all of the other senior squad players stayed on for the full ninety minutes. In truth however, I’d be surprised to see any of them starting on Saturday when Watford’s senior team are the visitors – Watters’ eye for goal might be enough to have secured a place on the bench for him though.

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