Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

I did wonder about calling this one “stay alert” quiz number one, but thought better of it – I’ll post the answers on Friday.

1, Which member of the current City squad was born in the UK on an island with a population of 207,000?

2. Described by his England coach at age group level as one of the best players in the World Cup he had just taken part in, he was a regular in a team which won a Premier Academy League title and reached a Youth Cup Semi Final at his first club for whom he never made a first team appearance. He was loaned out to a current League One that plays at a Bank however – things did not go well though, he lost 6-0 in his first game as his temporary team took just one point from the nine matches he played for them.

Cardiff was his next stop, but, again, he never got to play for the first team, having to settle for a couple of games with a bunch of seat makers while on loan. He finally got to play first team football with the club he was contracted with when he moved forty miles from here and then came some of the way back again while on loan. He next went north to play by the seaside, then across country to a Roman town, before linking up with a side that will always be associated with Ian Rush by people of a certain age.

Since then, he’s earned his living in another country, firstly at a club which enjoyed their best days while managed by Shankly and now he is with a club whose name derives from an old name of the town they are based in – a name which gives them a unique distinction. As he nears his thirtieth birthday later this month, he has now played just over one hundred games in his career, but can you name him?

3. Currently an Assistant Coach of the country he won seventy six caps for, he had the “distinction” of being sent off in his two appearances in a particular cup competition in his final season with us. He scored twice for us, but was more prolific at one of his previous clubs with one of his goals, in a Champions League match, earning him a place in that club’s folklore – who is he?

4. Who is this? This winger/wide midfield man and very occasional full back played most games for a couple of three name clubs that play in differing versions of blue and white, City were his fifth, and final, club and he played nearly fifty times for us, doing a decent job at a challenging time. His two other teams were carrion birds from the north and southern fruits with pips you don’t want to bite on by mistake!

5. Signed by us from a team of borderers, he was one of the poorest players in a poor City side (I remember him as the man with Toblerone shaped feet!) and, to no great surprise, signed for a non league club from the same county as his first team when we released him after one season. However, he went on to become an absolute legend at his second non league club for whom he scored at Wembley in a Cup Final and helped into the Football League in the last of the six years he spent there – he became a financial advisor in the Far East when he left the game, but do you know who he is?

6. He was something of a rarity among Cardiff City footballers in that he was a Welsh speaker and you can count the number of first team appearances he made over his two seasons with us on the fingers of two hands. All four of his games in his first season with us were lost (including one that has been featured on the old editions of The Big Match that BT Sports have been showing during the lockdown), but at least we managed a win in one of the matches he played in the following season. A few months later, he was sold for a modest fee to a club which has an unusual, non footballing, local derby all to itself. Again, he was mostly a reserve but played more times for them, and in a loan spell, at a club now managed by a former City winger – indeed, by the time he retired from his job as a youth coach a couple of years ago, he had given his second club thirty eight years service, who is he?

7. This forward made a big impression when he first played for a Scottish side nicknamed after male offspring and signed for City after managing to score almost a goal a game for them. Making his debut against Swansea, he found the big jump in standards at Cardiff hard to handle and was replaced pretty quickly by a native of Barry, but games at Southampton and Norwich at least gave him something to remember before he returned home some eighteen months after he had left. He couldn’t repeat his previous success though and moved, very briefly, to hooped Clydesiders. He didn’t make an impact with isolated west coasters or waspish athletes either and left the game some five years after arriving in Cardiff – can you name him?

8. Were rare E Types his car of choice?

9. A relevant sounding North East town

10. It was a low, left footed shot from twenty yards plus and was City’s fiftieth goal of this season in all competitions, who scored it and in what game was it scored?

11. Which London born member of the 17/18 promotion squad played his first Football League match whilst on loan from the non league club he was contracted to? He only played the one match for the side he was on loan at as he signed for another seaside club when he made the move into the Football League a permanent one – his last two permanent clubs have both had the same colour in their name, but who is he?

12. This defender had played almost five hundred league matches by the time he signed for City with just short of four hundred of them being for the same, alliterative, club. However, his Cardiff career never really got started as he suffered an injury in his second match which was to dog him throughout his two seasons at the club. Although he played the occasional cup tie in between times, it was eight months before he started in a league game again, but a few matches before the end of the season enabled him to join in with the celebrations. His second campaign was almost a total wash out as he was limited to a total of three appearances that were all in either the League or FAW Cups – can you name him?

13. A midfielder with the middle names Ronald Louis, he once created all three goals his side scored in one of the country’s biggest derby fixtures. The surroundings were far more modest during his two spells with City though as he performed on a variety of lower league grounds, but he definitely had a touch of class about him (a superb goal against Brighton at Ninian Park springs to mind). However, he dropped into non league football after leaving us having only played around ninety times in his senior career with three quarters of them having been for us, what is his name?

14. Virtually the last thing this Welsh international did in his senior football career was watch someone score a very late match winner at Ninian Park in his only Cardiff City appearance. From memory, it was not clear at the time that this club stalwart would never play again, but the news gradually emerged over a period of weeks or even months – who are the two players I’m talking about?

15. Sendings off were pretty rare in the 60s and 70s and sendings off for goalkeepers practically unheard of, but which City keeper was sent off in the 70s and where did it happen?

16. As far as I can tell, this scoring feat, which involves two City players, has only happened once, in the autumn of 1969, since I started supporting the club in 1963 – what is it and can you name the two players involved?

17.Taint barley mixture?

18. Scottish tonsorialist?

19. What is the Cardiff City link between a Reading born centre half who won a Cup Final at Wembley with the Jacks in a penalty shoot out and a Swansea born Welsh under 21 international  who has turned out for each of the four Welsh clubs to play in the Football League this century except for Swansea?

20. I’m pretty sure the longest penalty shoot out City have been involved in was during our run to the League Cup Final in 11/12 – who were we playing and who was the only player to miss from the spot that night?

                Lockdown 6 answers

1. Marlon Pack was born in Portsmouth – the large majority of that city is found on Portsea Island which had a population of 207,000 in 2010.
2. Elliott Parrish received lavish praise for his performances for England in the 2009 Under 20 World Cup and was a title winner at Aston Villa. Lincoln City had a miserable run while he was with them on loan prior to his release by Villa in 2012. He spent a season with City, but the only first team football he saw was in a brief loan spell at Wycombe. He played nineteen  times for Bristol City, and seven times on loan for Newport County, during the 13/14 season which was followed by further season long stays at Blackpool, Colchester and Accrington Stanley where he was mainly a back up keeper. He had two seasons with his next club, Dundee (who were managed by Bob Shankly when they reached the European Cup Semi Final in the early sixties), and played more games for them, thirty, than at any one of his previous clubs – he’s currently with St. Johnstone, the only team in the English and Scottish leagues with a J in their name.
3. Australia’s Tony Vidmar scored a famous goal for Rangers in a Champions League game in 1999 and moved to City four years later – he was sent off in League Cup games with Kidderminster and Bournemouth in the 04/05 season.
4. Wayne Fereday played just short of two hundred and fifty times for QPR, his first club, before signing for Newcastle and then Bournemouth. He signed for City in 1994 and had to retire the following year due to injury.
5. Andy Kerr signed for City from Shrewsbury Town and played thirty one times for us in 86/87. Upon his release by City, he signed for Telford United before Wycombe paid £3,000 for him a few months later – he was a fixture in their team until they reached the Football League for the first time in 1993.
6. Ceredigion born goalkeeper John Davies played seven league matches (he kept a clean sheet in a win over Oldham in the only one of the matches we didn’t lose) between 1978 and 1980 when he was sold to Hull who, apart from a loan spell at Notts County, he stayed with as player and coach until 2018.
7. Tommy Halliday’s eighteen goals in twenty two league games for Dumbarton persuaded City to pay £5,000 for him in 1963, but he only played a dozen times for us before he lost his place to Derek Tapscott – he managed goals in defeats at the Dell and Carrow Road, but was allowed to return to Dumbarton at the end of the 64/65 season. He later played for Morton, Stanraer and Alloa but could never reproduce his early goalscoring form.
8. Peter Sayer.
9. Jermaine Darlington.
10. Josh Murphy scored the first goal in our high scoring FA Cup replay with Reading – it was City’s fiftieth of the season.
11. Liam Feeney first played in the Football League while on loan to Southend from Salisbury City in December 2008, but opted to sign permanently for Bournemouth a couple of months later. His last two permanent teams sides have been Blackburn (who he was with when he joined City on loan) and Blackpool.
12. Andy Thompson featured in 375 league games for Wolves and joined us from Tranmere in the summer of 2000 during the Sam Hammam revolution. An injury against Blackpool in his first home match made him something of a forgotten figure though, although he did return for the 3-3 draws with Chesterfield and York in which promotion was confirmed.
13. Danny Hill played for England Under 21s and once provided the assists for all three Spurs goals in a North London derby with Arsenal. He signed for us initially on loan in 1998 and then made the move permanent a few months into the 98/99 promotion season – he played a smaller part in the 00/01 promotion before leaving the club at the end of that season.
14. Keith Pontin played his last game of football in September 1982 against Wigan Athletic in a game we won 3-2 thanks to a match winning goal from forward Billy Woof who, allegedly, walked out of the ground after the game following a bust up with manager Len Ashurst never to return – Pontin’s retirement was, apparently, not down to a physical injury, more disillusionment with the game.
15. Bill Irwin was the goalkeeper who was sent off. As to where it happened, I would have said in Oswestry in an afternoon Welsh Cup tie. But I saw his Wikipedia entry says it happened at Bangor in the First Leg of the 1973 Welsh Cup Final, so I must be wrong – the memory is also a bit hazy about what it was for, but I believe it was  dissent which involved him kicking the ball out of the ground when a decision went against City.
16. On 27 September 1969, John Toshack scored a hat trick in a 4-2 home win over Queens Park Rangers. Four days later, on 1 October, Sandy Allen scored three in the 5-1 win over Mjondalen in the Cup Winners Cup at Ninian Park – the only instance of City players scoring hat tricks in successive home game since my first match in October 1963.
17. Brian Attley.
18. Keith Barber.
19. Their name – Mark Harris spent the 97/98 season with City after playing over two hundred matches for Swansea and Mark Harris has been loaned by City to Newport and Wrexham during his with the club.
20.  Swiss international midfielder Gelson Fernandes was at Leicester on loan from Saint Etienne when his penalty miss decided the shoot out 7-6 in our favour after the game had ended 2-2 after extra time.