Seven decades of Cardiff City v Derby County matches.

Posted on September 12, 2024 by The other Bob Wilson

On Tuesday night, Wales Under 21s concluded a successful international break by gaining an important 2-1 win in Iceland which takes them five points clear of the third placed side they beat (look at Group I in this link to see the current position ). We have one more game left, at home to the Czech Republic, while table topping Denmark take on Iceland in their final game knowing that, because of them taking four points out of six against us, they’ll top the table and qualify with a win in that match.

However, even if Wales miss out on a first placed finish, they know they will qualify automatically if they can be one of the three second placed sides with the best record – at present, they have the second best record of the teams currently in second and so, you’d think a win over the Czech’s would be enough to see us qualify. A Danish win over Iceland would give Wales the consolation that they could not be caught that team and so, the Czechs would become the only side that could overhaul us.

If Wales were to drop out of the top three second placed teams, then they would face a Play Off with one of the other sides that finished outside of the top three second placed finishers for a place in the Finals to be held in Slovenia next year.

Joel Cotterill of Swansea, who is currently on loan to Swindon, was the hero of Wales’ win with both goals in a game played on a G4 surface which was dominated by a strong wind blowing straight down the pitch. Cotterill missed a great chance to give Wales a first half lead when they had the wind at their backs and I was thinking they’d struggle having to play into the elements after having not made a breakthrough in the first half. However, Cotterill got his first goal a couple of minutes into the second half and were the.more dangerous side for long periods after that. A second goal for Cotterill midway through the half put Wales in command and it was only after the home side reduced the arrears in added time right at the end of the game, that things got a bit tense, but Iceland were kept at bay for the last two or three minutes and three priceless points were ours.

Eli King and Joel Colwill started the game in the Welsh midfield and the latter was brought off for the final few minutes as Cian Ashford came on as one of the substitutions during that change – Luey Giles and Tom Davies were unused subs for the game.

It’s a return to club football this weekend with City heading to Derby to face a side which has won its last seven games at Pride Park – will the changes Erol Bulut spoke of after the Middlesbrough game almost a fortnight ago bring about a change in fortunes for his side? I can’t say I’m confident of that, there’s been so few grounds for encouragement in our first four games that all I can see is another defeat – maybe I might feel a bit more optimistic if I hear that we’ve finally got all of our new signings fully fit and available to start.

Here’s the usual seven questions on our next opponents with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.

60s. You would have thought that someone with his surname would only be a summer visitor to Derby, but besides plying his sporting trade there during the warm weather, he hung around for his winters as well, making him one of a breed you don’t see these days.

Appropriately, he played on the wing in the winter and shifted from the last name on the team sheet to the first one when he played his other sport. A Londoner by birth, he started off representing the area which was home for a 1970s television revolutionary before crossing the Thames to sign for a club that had made a similar journey in its early years. Making his first team debut against City in the top flight, he was a winner that afternoon, but, after failing to establish himself at his first club and moving to Derby, he lost every time he played against us for the Rams, despite scoring on one occasion. Can you name him?

70s. Which current League Two side played in front of Derby’s biggest home league gate of the season in one of the years from this decade in which they won the First Division title?

80s. This defender followed the same career path as the player in the 60s question and did so with more success than his predecessor. That said, although he played at the top level as a defender for his first football team and represented a traditionally strong team from the same area in his other sport, he was never a regular choice for either of those teams. He spent around seven years in both sports, with the last couple in football being with Derby after moving from the town which once had a Football League team called Ironopolis. His one meeting with City as a Derby player came during this decade and ended as a draw.

, 90s. Version of initially long, scarey eel much in the news lately. (3,7)

00s. Apologies, the question originally posted under this category was wrong, here’s an alternative one.

Cursed rock, by the sound of it, in midfield.

10s. What links Derby County, Swansea City, Adelaide United and Western Sydney in former City winger Craig Noone’s career?

20s. If he plays on Saturday, which Derby player will be following on from playing against Liverpool and Manchester City in his previous two league appearances?

Answers.

60s. Ray Swallow was far from alone in being a sportsman all around the year in the 50s and 60s, there were plenty who played cricket in the summer and football in the winter. He was a, not very successful, opening batsman for Derbyshire and a winger for Tooting and Mitcham, Arsenal and Derby.who left both games in late 1963 with his final appearance against us coming n a 2-1 defeat at the Baseball Ground in August 1962.

70s. Derby played out a 0-0 draw against an already relegated Carlisle United in front of a crowd of 38.000 on the final day of thew 74/75 season, having won the League Championship the previous week.

80s.Alan Ramage played football for Middlesbrough and Derby and was a sometimes decidedly nippy bowler for Yorkshire – Ramage played for Derby against City in a 1-1 draw at the Baseball Ground in November 1980.

90s. Lee Carsley.

00s. Adam Bolder.

10s. He was sent off while playing against all four clubs – Noone was shown a red card in the game between Derby and City at Pride Park in November 2012.

20s. Marcus Harness played for Ipswich against Liverpool and Man City before being loaned to Derby for the season.

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Wales cling on to win in waterlogged Montenegro after Moore and Wilson strike in first three minutes.

Posted on September 10, 2024 by The other Bob Wilson

After the Turkey game on Friday, Craig Bellamy, in essence, said in one of his post match interviews that this was as bad as it would get for his team. I don’t think that he meant that literally Wales would play better in every game under his management after they played as well as they had done in ages in his first, it was more that his side would improve gradually given time and I think he could well be right.

However, if he did really mean that Wales would never play as “badly” as they did in his first game as Wales manager, then I’m afraid Bellamy was proved wrong in his second fixture in his new role. Wales never hit the heights that they did three days ago as they gave the early group leaders (Turkey beat Iceland 3-1 tonight) a huge fright, but in winning 2-1 in Montenegro they did what they hadn’t done in some time – go to a middling ranked team (as opposed to a minnow) and win in a competitive match.

Results like Yugoslavia 4 Wales 4, Turkey 6 Wales 4 and Serbia 6 Wales 1 have established a tradition of a bonkers match being played about once a decade in the south east corner of Europe over the past forty years or so and, although this did not follow the same high scoring pattern, the description “bonkers’ could still be applied to it I reckon.

For a start, torrential rain throughout greatly affected the pitch and while things never got truly farcical, there was some standing water and players on both sides found it very hard to keep their feet. There was also a comedy referee who showed yellow cards to two Montenegrins and three Welshmen for offences which bore no relation to the cases of GBH he allowed the home team to commit in the first half in particular – a foul count of 17 to 10 in Montenegro’s favour was not reflected at all in terms of cautions delivered and the truth was that all of the really bad fouls on the night were committed by the home team.

There was a mad first three minutes as Wales, without  a goal in their previous four matches and showing five changes from Friday, scored twice. 

Have Wales scored a quicker goal than the one Kieffer Moore got in just thirty seven seconds tonight? They probably have done, but it happened before my time supporting them because, off the top of my head, I can’t recall a quicker one.*

There was an element of luck to it as well as Harry Wilson claimed an unlikely assist as he drove into the penalty area, tried to get a shot away, only for a defender to attempt a clearance that rebounded off the Fulham man straight into the path of Moore who finished well with a shot in off the post from around the penalty spot.

There was time for Ethan Ampadu to get the game’s first yellow card for a professional foul on the halfway line before Wilson struck straight afterwards with a shot that owed nothing to luck as he received a pass from Neco Williams and drove high into the top corner of the net from twenty five yards.

If there’s a good thing to conceding goals so early, then it’s the realisation that you’ve got plenty of time to put things right and so it was that Montenegro began on the long route to getting a positive  result from such a horror start and I have to concede that, by the end of the ninety minutes, they’d done enough to earn a draw or even a win.

In fact, Montenegro could have been drawing by the quarter of an hour mark as an unmarked  Nikola Krstovic shot a yard wide with debutante goalkeeper Karl Darlow helpless, then Montenegro’s greatest player, Stevan Jovotic hit the crossbar from the halfway line with Darlow stood some twenty five yards out from goal. The reason Darlow was where he was was that he’d come outside the area to provide the extra outfield player as Wales looked to build from the back, but a shoddy pass from Ampadu, who started poorly, but grew into a good game, meant the ball stood up beautifully for the ex Manchester City man to hit and I’d say it was a chance a player of his ability would expect to take about five times out of ten,

Darlow’s best moments of his debut came within a couple of seconds of each other as he pulled off a double save which, first, prevented an own goal by Connor Roberts and then denied Jovotic, but he still needed help from Ben Davies as the captain just about managed to keep Driton Camaj’s follow up.

While all of this was going on, Wales continued to build up smoothly and looked quite dangerous on plenty of occasions, but there was only one moment of real alarm for the home team when some lovely play by Wilson sent Williams racing in on goal, only for a defender to get across and cut out the danger before the Forest man could shoot.

After the break, Brennan Johnson, on as a sub for the injured Connor Roberts, saw his fierce drive pushed away by keeper Mijatovic and by far Wales’ best move of the second period saw Ampadu set Davies free and his low cross was met by a lunging Moore who managed to send the ball over from about four yards out. In dry conditions, it would have been a shocking miss, but, on such a wet pitch, it fell into the more difficult because of the weather category. 

Wales never really threatened after that and it became a case of hanging on for the win in the last twenty minutes as Vladimir Jovovic hit the post from twenty yards, Darlow tipped a Jovotic header around the post and was eventually beaten when an innocuous looking ball over the top of a very square looking Welsh defence enabled Kristovik to get clear down their left and his low cross was turned in from close range by Camaj.

Monetenego were never to come go close again though and Wales held on for a win which means that this first international break of 24/25 has to be viewed as a success for the new manager and his players.

Wales Under 18s played their latest game in the six team round robin tournament they are competing in and were beaten 2-1 by Turkey, Ronan Kpakio, Jac Thomas and Jake Davies all played with the last named getting the Welsh goal.

*I’m grateful to blog reader Clive Harry who proved me wrong by confirming that we have scored a quicker goal in the past sixty odd years in which I’ve been supporting Wales. In March 2003, we played Azerbijan at what is now called the Millennium Stadium in. a qualifier for the 2004 Euros and our first goal in a 4-0 win has been timed at around 15 seconds. What I can’t confirm is the identity of the scorer as I’ve seen it variously reported as a Craig Bellamy goal, a Simon Davies goal and an own goal with the last named seeming to be the most popular choice.

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