Before this morning’s game with Leeds United at Leckwith, Cardiff City, the Under-18s Professional Development League 2 (South) Champions in 2018/19, were lying at the bottom of that division this time around with three draws and a defeat to show from their first four games.
Not that this would be a matter for too much concern at this early stage of the season in a competition where player development is the main order of the day, Although it was quite exciting in the closing weeks of last season to see if City could hold on to their lead at the top of the league, the truth is that a finish of say eighth would be more acceptable if two players from that team emerged to become established first team players.
However, no one wants to be at the bottom of any sporting league and so it was so good to see what is a group that has lost quite a few of last season’s title winners show emphatically that they are far from a bottom of the table outfit with a 3-1 win which, in the end, was a scoreline that accurately reflected the degree of their superiority.
I should say though that, for a while Leeds, were City’s equals and, sometimes, their betters, especially in a very entertaining first half. However, the game’s third goal turned out to be a pivotal moment and once City had gone 2-1 up, they were fairly comfortable from then on.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a quite a new side with a few players in it that I have seen very little of, so apologies in advance for not being able to identify everyone – hopefully, I’ll get better at it as the season goes on!
Although both sides looked to build from the back in the manner that nearly every side at this level does, one difference between them was that City pressed their opponents high up the pitch, whereas Leeds tended to let our defenders play out from the back.
The success of City’s approach meant that they largely dominated the opening phases as Leeds frequently lost possession inside their own half with City, thereby, given a bit of time and space to play some neat pass and move football that would have brought goals with a bit more precision and luck.
Rubin Colwill was soon testing Leeds keeper Turner was a well struck effort from about twenty yards out and the visitors were grateful for some fortunate touches and deflections at times when City looked to have opened them up.
Strangely however, it took the first of a series of good saves by City keeper Jamie Cogman to provide the impetus fort them to translate their clear supremacy into something more tangible with a goal on seventeen minutes. Great credit for managing this should go to Keiron Evans who won the ball around the halfway line, drove forward and then played a lovely pass into the the path of Siyabonga Ligendza, who was being used in a wide right role rather than in his normal central striker position. who advanced into the penalty area and beat the advancing Turner by “nutmegging” him from about fifteen yards out.
What happened next was surprising as Leeds, perhaps seizing on a drop in intensity from City, began to play around and through the press and made effective use of long crossfield passes which began to cause the home defence no end of problems. When the visitors lively left winger Haugland beat a defender and then shot confidently past Cogman after receiving one of those long diagonal passes on twenty four minutes, it was fair to say that the equaliser had been coming for a few minutes.
The next ten minutes or so saw some great football as both sides “went for it” with both keepers being forced into some superb saves. At this stage, I thought Leeds were just about edging the game, but it was City who struck next when Evans’ well struck effort from the corner of the penalty area eluded everyone in a crowded goalmouth and found the corner of the net with, perhaps, a very slight deflection to help it along the way.
Centre forward Isaak Davies almost added to the lead shortly afterwards as City ended a breathless first period with some of their earlier authority restored and that trend continued into a second half that was a little quieter in the goalmouth action stakes, but, probably more satisfying for the home team’s players and coaches because of the control they were able to exert for much of it.
Turner was soon in action having to turn a shot from distance away for a corner and Colwill was not far away at all with a curling effort from the edge of the area.
Leeds were nowhere near as dangerous now as they had been for that twenty minutes or so in the first half and while it would be wrong to say there was only one side in it, City were dictating things as they closed in on that first win.
Isaak Davies had been a very impressive and hard working front man for City and he showed bravery as well when he chased a through ball to the corner flag and was floored in unceremonious fashion by Turner. I think that in a first team game, a goalkeeper could well have been shown a red card for such a challenge, but as it seemed to me that the contact with Davies had been accidental, the yellow card issued was probably a fair punishment.
A few minutes later, Davies and Turner again came face to face in a very similar area of the field and, again, the City player went down, but this time the ref ruled that he had dived. With angry Leeds players close by demanding that Davies be punished, the referee, again, opted for a lenient approach and kept his cards in his pocket.
It was Davies who was to have the last word in his duel with Turner on seventy five minutes though when he burst on to a through ball, outpaced a defender and fired low into the corner of the net.
Leeds had little to offer in reply to this fine effort and the game was seen out easily for a win from which I would have thought the City contingent would take a great deal of confidence.
I’m in no way exaggerating when I say that this game was, by an absolute country mile, the most entertaining I’ve seen a Cardiff City team involved in at any level so far this season.
Indeed, as I watched City play out the final minutes with a sense of panache, I was reminded of a conversation I had overheard at our Under 18 team’s match with Colchester at the start of last season.
We won 5-0 with all of the goals coming before half time and a man who was supporting our opponents was talking to a woman who had, presumably, come to watch her son playing for Colchester. Completely unprompted, the man said that he always enjoyed his trips to Cardiff because they played the best and most attractive football out of any of the teams he watched regularly at this level.
Based on all that this man said, it seemed clear to me that he was someone who had played to a good standard and played for Colchester, so I don’t think this was someone who would just blurt these things out for effect, he was serious in what he was saying.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry on hearing what was said, because while it was great to hear something like that, it does also raise the question why bother coaching the kids to play in a certain way when there is plenty of evidence to suggest that there is no point in playing in such a manner – playing like the Under 18s did today is no preparation for “Warnockball”.
