I can live with these “routine” 3-0 home wins!

Posted on August 27, 2025 by The other Bob Wilson

It’s been a long time since Cardiff City did routine 3-0 wins, but, rather like the one against Rotherham in our last home league game, tonight’s victory over Cheltenham in the Second Round of the League Cup had the feel of one together with a slight disappointment that it was not a bigger winning margin.

BBM made eight changes from the team that started against Luton with just Dylan Lawlor, Joel Bagan and Callum Robinson retaining their places. Among the more interesting replacements were Perry Ng making his first appearance of the season, Dak Mafico in his favoured number six role and Tanatswa Nyakuhwa making a first start in a competitive game on the right wing.

Cheltenham enjoyed a notable 2-0 win over League One Exeter City in the First Round, but, that apart, they’ve been having a wretched time of it with five defeats from five in the league leaving them at the bottom of League Two with just one goal to their name.

Actually, Cheltenham might well have played their most encouraging ninety minutes of the season tonight because although they didn’t score, they really should have done so as they had a penalty saved, hit the woodwork twice and forced Matt Turner into a number of saves.

At the other end of the pitch though, the visitors defended like a team that has already conceded five in a game this season (at MK Dons) and it so easily could have been a repeat of that 5-0 scoreline or worse.

Ex City keeper Joe Day had already had to make a diving save by the time Nyakuhwa crossed low to Salech whose shot hit the crossbar and then bounced over in the third minute and pressure was ramped up until the opening goal came on eleven minutes.

Cheltenham had conceded a pretty amazing seventy odd per cent of their goals from set pieces coming into this match and  it got only ever so slightly better as two of the three they let in were set piece goals.

Actually, I feel Cheltenham would dispute my contention about two set piece goals, but I would argue it makes no difference to such stats if one of the goals conceded came from your own set piece!

Cheltenham won themselves a set piece and chose to work a short corner routine which involved Ethon Archer seemingly rolling a pass into the path of a team mate who would run on to the ball and shoot from around twenty five yards. In the event, Archer’s pass was hit so slowly that it was never going to reach his team mate and Mafico intercepted and played Isaak Davies into space. Davies had sixty yards to go to reach the Cheltenham goal, but there was also plenty of open space for him to utilize his pace in. At one time, a poor touch looked to have lost Davies his chance, but he just got to the ball first to burst between the last two defenders and then he rolled the ball across Day and into the net from about fifteen yards. It was a fine solo goal capped by the type of finish which I would contend marks him out in a squad of not outstanding finishers as maybe the best of the lot of them.

In the end, City had twenty three goal attempts with ten on target with Day making good saves to deny Nyakuhwa and Salak twice. However, he had no chance when Calum Chambers met a Davies corner on the near post and glanced it across goal and inside the far post to double City’s lead.

Chambers’ starting appearances for the first team tend to be entertaining affairs with something unusual to mark them out and here, he slipped while trying to get out of his penalty area following the breaking up of a Cheltenham attack and, in the process brought down visiting striker Lee Angol to concede a penalty.

Angol took the penalty himself, but was denied by Matt Turner. Anglo’s penalty was not a bad one, but Turner sprang to his left to turn the penalty against the post and when the rebound fell to Angol there was nothing he could do except fire tamely wide.

Within a minute, Angol was tearing through a huge gap left by Lawlor to try a shot that caused no great problems for Turner who again dived to his left to save.

Somewhat surprisingly for me, BBM elected to introduce Rubin Colwill and Chris Willock for Robinson and Davies at half time and Rubin wasted little time in creating his younger brother’s first senior City goal with an arcing run that ended with him finding Joel who steered his shot in from fifteen yards against the team he scored six league goals for last season while on loan at Cheltenham.

Despite his mishap with the opening goal, Archer looked like Cheltenham’s best player to me and he was out of luck when his shot whacked against the crossbar and over. That was as close as either side came to scoring at 3-0 and so City head into a third round draw that will not include the three Premier League sides who were knocked out of the competition tonight.

The under 21s had made a good start to the season, but we’re lucky to only be beaten 2-1 by Wigan at Leckwith this lunchtime, Wigan were always the better at pressing high and, in doing so, denied City the ability to create much – indeed , apart from a shot into the side netting by Isaac Jefferies that He really should have got on target and Jac Thomas’ fine free kick which reduced the deficit deep into added time, City never looked like scoring and were flattered by the closeness of the scoreline.

Thomas Prickett is a new name to me, but he got the goal which allowed the under 18s to begin their PDL Cup challenge up and running with a 1-1 draw at Wrexham this lunchtime.

It looks like we’re going to get an outfield signing with five days of the summer window remaining, but, if it comes off, it feels like it will be worth the wait. Wales Online reported yesterday afternoon that the Auxere defender Gabriel Osho has had a medical ahead of a permanent move to City on what has been said to be a four year deal. Apparently, there are still a few more things to be sorted out before the deal can be concluded, but it seems it all should be confirmed in the next 24 hours.

Osho is a centre back who can play as a full back who turned 27 earlier this month. He was born in Reading, but is qualified to play for Nigeria and has a single cap for them. He started off with Reading and signed for Luton in 2020 when he turned down an offer of a new contract by Reading. Osho was loaned to Rochdale, then under the management of Brian Barry-Murphy ,in early 2021 before becoming a first team regullar at Luton and his CV for the last three seasons reads;-

22/23 Part of the Luton team that won promotion to the Premier League, he scored against Sunderland in the promotion Play Off Semi Finals.

23/24 Injured at the start of the season, he went on to make 21 Premier League appearances for Luton.

24/25 Left Luton to join Auxerre, made 21 Ligue 1 appearances for them last season.

On the face of what he’s done since 22/23, Osho looks like a great acquisition for City provided there are no last minute slip ups like we saw with Jody Morris all of those years ago.

Overall then, this is a good time for Cardiff City after a period where they have become something of a laughing stock, but, currently I would have thought that there are plenty of other clubs who are envious of a side that seems to have made something of an inspired choice as to who their next Head Coach/manager would be, the team is playing bright, attacking and skilful winning football with a squad full of local Academy players, many of whom look set for a good career in the game. On top of that, their one foray into the new signings market is looking a very shrewd acquision and it’s reassuring to hear some Luton fans on social media saying that Osho is better than any of their, expensively assembled, group of centrebacks.

Sadly however, even when everything seems to be going so well at Cardiff, it is in the nature of football that there are going to be one or two exceptions to the wave of optimism affecting the club In this case, it was the news, which emerged last night after the game, that young midfielder Eli King had suffered an ACL injury on Sunday in training that is going to keep him out for the season with the preliminary target being set for him as a return for pre season training for 26/27 – best wishes to Eli for a full recovery from his awful injury and I hope he comes back as strong as ever.

Posted in Out on the pitch, The kids., The stiffs | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Best yet from Willock, but table topping Cardiff are much more than a one man show.

Posted on August 24, 2025 by The other Bob Wilson

It’s just over a fortnight since Chris Willock had an awful game at Port Vale and I don’t think it’s going too far to say that things came to a head regarding his underwhelming first season at the club as he copped some terrible stick on social media with some proclaiming that he should never play for the club again.

This lunchtime we saw proof of two things – first, the team that struggled so much at Port Vale before emerging with a goalless draw is actually quite good given an injection of confidence gained from being well coached, being encouraged to express themselves on the pitch and winning a few games.

Second, if Port Vale away represented the nadir of Chris Willock’s Cardiff City career up to now, then Luton away some sixteen days later was the game in which he finally really announced himself as a Cardiff player.

The signs had been there at AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday after he came on to replace the stricken Ollie Tanner (a scan confirmed ligament damage and a fractured fibula which is likely to keep Tanner out for about four months) that Willock would react positively to his likely elevation in the winger pecking order at the club. The ex QPR and Arsenal man became increasingly influential until he came up with the cross which led to Isaak Davies’ late winner, but this was a different level again as he scored the only goal in something of a statement win at Kenilworth Road, Luton.

It’s truly encouraging that, despite Willock’s fine performance he had plenty of rivals for the man of the match nomination and, if anything, I’m edging towards Nathan Trott who came up with a string of good saves to preserve our, almost, perfect defensive record five games into our season.

A bad late miss apart, Rubin Colwill contributed another non stop showing which made a mockery of the misgivings I used to have about his stamina a few years ago and I thought Cian Ashford did very well. 

The fact is though that there wasn’t a weak performer today in a blue shirt – Ronan Kpakio’s errors came from, if anything, trying to play too much football and being too confident, the centrebacks got into trouble once or twice by letting long balls bounce, but it’s remarkable that they are so assured and effective when they have a combined age of just forty one. Joel Bagan was just solid, as was the reborn Ryan Wintle. David Turnbull was part of a dominant midfield until he to go off in the first half and Callum Robinson contributed fully to an excellent first quarter from City in which they really should have scored at least once.

This brings me on to the one criticism I’d have of City today – in fact I’d say it applies to most of our matches this season. Our finishing and final ball so far does not match the quality of our play in all other areas of the pitch. The statisticians tell us that we had one attempt on goal at Port Vale (still not sure what it was) and our goal at Wimbledon was our only effort on target of the evening. By most people’s reckoning, we murdered Rotherham last weekend, but, even then, there were only six on target efforts. 

Today, while Willock’s finish was exemplary, there were too many examples of poor finishing. For example, Turnbull, a very good striker of a ball, scuffing a shot from eighteen yards wide which had been teed up perfectly for him. Robinson not getting a clean stoke away when unmarked about eight yards out, Joel Colwill bobbling a low cross straight at the keeper from six yards and, finally his elder brother shooting wide from a one on one when he’d done so well to win the ball and then run thirty yards with it before shooting a yard wide – again, it’s indicative of the physical transformation of Rubin that once he got clear in this incident, you knew no defender was going to catch him..

City were a joy to watch in the first twenty odd minutes as Luton just couldn’t get near them and although the home side improved as the half went on, a high quality League One match was scoreless at the break with us having been the better team. However, the only on target effort we’d managed was an outrageous shot from the half way line from Robinson that home keeper Josh Keeley just about managed to turn behind for a corner.

You have to contrast that with Luton’s mostly more accurate shooting, although City will be grateful that veteran Nakhi Wells did not have his shooting boots on as Keeley’s long punts downfield caused a problem for the first, but not last, time and he rolled his shot wide when he really should have scored.

Trott made a great save to preserve City’s lead on Tuesday after a quiet introduction to the club, but here he was called into action three times in quick succession to make some fine saves with the best of them being from a crisply struck twenty five yarder by George Seville and such had been Luton’s comeback from a rocky start that it would have been City who were grateful to hear the half time whistle.

Without Turnbull, City had lost some of the calm control they’d been showing, but his replacement Joel Colwill’s differing skill set became valuable as Luton came out to give City more of a physical challenge after the break. 

Luton would eventually effectively decide that they couldn’t take on City in a footballing contest and would make their big side even bigger when introducing more physical substitutes,.However, they didn’t really come closer to scoring than they did very early in the second half when former City man Mark McGuinness met a cross eight yards out and I was expecting the net to bulge like it did quite often when he was with us, but Trott got down to his right brilliantly to turn the ball around for a corner.

In both of our away games we’ve had to endure spells of differing intensity where it looked like we could concede at any minute and it was the same here, especially when the ball bounced about crazily in front of our goal with Luton having three or four chances before the last one flew just wide from close range.

What was impressive here though was that City lifted their performance when the pressure was at its height and came out to first create a chance for Joel Colwill and then win the game through Willock. It was all the winger’s own work as well as he won back possession twenty five yards out, moved clear off an opponent then turned McGuinness inside out before calmly placing his shot past Keeley from fifteen yards.

City regained a lot of their poise after the goal and although Lawlor, who would eventually be replaced by Calum Chambers, had to put in a great block to deal with a dangerous low cross, the pressure of Luton being behind at home as title favourite was being shown in shooting which had lost much of its earlier accuracy. Indeed, City really should have left the last few minutes less stressful for supporters by killing the game off when captain Colwill did so well until his finish.

As a pleasant surprise, the referee stuck rigidly to the five minutes extra time shown by the fourth official as Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies, on for Willock, made an effective job of running the clock down by Luton’s corner flag.

One moan while I remember, Luton kicked off the first half which I reckon means Rubin won the toss and, elected to play towards our fans in the first half. The same thing happened at AFC Wimbledon , but I’m not sure who kicked off there, so we might not have won the toss that night, but I’d much prefer us playing towards our fans in the second half of away games.

With Stevenage dropping their first points after losing 1-0 at Huddersfield, City go a point clear at the top and will, hopefully look to bring in some new recruits before their next league game – BBM is doing his best, can those who have got it wrong so often in the past do theirs?

Another win for the under 18s who beat Barnsley 4-2 at Leckwith at lunchtime with goals from Riley Hilaire-Clarke, Jack Sykes, Harry Watts and Leo Papirnyk.

A win as well for Ton Pentre in the Championship of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance, they got the better of Tonyrefail Boys and Girls Club by 3-1 to pick up an away win in a Rhondda derby.

Posted in Football in the Rhondda valleys., Out on the pitch, The kids. | Tagged , , | 6 Comments