Seven decades of Cardiff City v Blackpool matches.

Posted on November 6, 2025 by The other Bob Wilson

First thing to say is it’s good to be back after my hospital stay. I had a prostate scare back in 2014 and learned things then which made me believe that what has happened in the last few weeks was waiting somewhere down the line. My situation it seems is that I do not have prostate cancer, but the gland is so large that it is affecting my urinary function and the plan now is to “shave”.some of the prostate away in the coming months.

A thank you to those of you who have offered your best wishes. It seems I’ve missed out on one excellent performance at Wrexham and another of those worrying ones where we never look like scoring at Peterborough. I know you should expect inconsistency from a team as young as ours, but it’s strange how a side can be so dominant at the ground of a Championship club and be so lacking in a goal threat in League One games against teams at both ends of the table.

A decade or two back, Bloomfield Road, Blackpool was one of those grounds, like Peterborough, where we always tended to lose, but, in recent years, our record there has been pretty good, so, with us being in a sequence of win, lose, win, lose, keeping the run going with a victory is not out of question.

To do that, we’ll have to overcome a team managed by Ian Evatt who was a candidate for our job in the summer. Veteran Steve Bruce put together a squad during the summer that was well fancied for a top six place back in August, but it’s just not happened for Blackpool this season with Bruce sacked weeks ago and supporters having to get used to life in the bottom four.

With Evatt making a decent start, the feeling remains that Blackpool are too good to go down, but, even so, a look at the table says that this is the sort of game City should not be losing – maybe ending the win lose sequence with a draw is the most likely outcome?

Here’s the usual quiz anyway regarding our next opponents with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.

60s. A Yorkshireman who spent his whole career turning out for Lancashire clubs, he began at Blackpool after a spell as a defender with Barnsley in youth football. Apparently, he decided on a change of position and this led to his breakthrough into senior football. Such was the impact he made that he was soon transferred to a team that were genuine candidates for the title best team in the land. International caps and titles followed during the next eleven years and there was a short stay on the “other side of the river” in the lower leagues before retirement and later work as a security guard plus some after dinner speaking engagements. Who am I describing?

70s. Picked up from non league blues from Liverpool, this midfielder spent the latter half of this decade with Blackpool without ever really becoming a regular week in, week out selection. Still, he made it to one hundred league appearances for them before he moved to another sea side resort to the south. His final team were miles from the sea, but, apparently, they do have a pier. Can you name the player concerned?

80s Anger at open invitation initially. (3,4).

90s. Absent chef?

00s. Combine a carpet with a flutter and a klaxon and you could end up with this Blackpool forward!

10s. A target for City about fifteen years ago, this winger is still turning out in League O9e. A loan spell at Blackpool figures in his CV which has also seen him have spells with the likes of Wolves, Portsmouth and Derby, but can you name him?

20s. Which member of the current Blackpool squad has more than fifty caps for one of the four home nations?

Answers

60s. Gordon West decided on a career as a goalkeeper after playing as a central defender in youth football. His spell at Blackpool was brief and he became best known for his time at Everton where he won  the league title and FA Cup plus three England caps. There was also a spell at Tranmere before retirement.

70s. Jimmy Weston was I suppose the epitome of a lower league journeyman midfielder with spells at Blackpool, Torquay and Wigan after starting off with Skelmersdale..

80s. Ian Gore.

90s Mitch Cook.

99s. Matt Blinkhorn.

10s. 34 year old Michael Jacobs was a target for City as a youngster and a career which has seen him perform regularly at Championship level includes a spell on loan at Blackpool in 2015.

20s. Bailey Peacock-Farrell has fifty two caps for Northern Ireland.

Posted in Memories, 1963 - 2023, Out on the pitch | Tagged | Comments Off on Seven decades of Cardiff City v Blackpool matches.

Another away game where we barely had a chance worth the name.

Posted on October 26, 2025 by The other Bob Wilson

When two teams near the the top of a table play each other, a variety of things can happen. Clearly, the Sky commentator was expecting a football classic between two teams that popped the ball about as they found it easy to create chances.

In my experience, matches between evenly matched sides in the same division tend to end with the sides canceling each other other out in a draw or a single goal win.

Cardiff went to Bolton today this lunchtime and did not impress their fan base.

It seems,that we’ve been good enough to be top of the league for most of what has been just about a quarter of a season.

For ninety minutes, we never looked like conceding today, apart from a moment in added time when Nathan Trott finally had something to do with a cross into a dangerous area.

That should have been that. City had their warning, but didn’t heed it. Instead, Tanetswa Nayakuhwa, who, ironically, was giving one of his better substitute City performances, opted for the sort of brainless cross field pass I used to specialize in when I was 14 , but I would have have had the football wherewithal even then not to have played such a dangerous pass towards the opposition ‘s most potent attacker.. However, Nyakhuwa attempted a forty yard low, cross field ball which, of course, fell into the path of Bolton’s most in form player Amario Cozier-Duberry and a few seconds later , the ball was in the net courtesy of a finish completely at odds with the sort of play we’d seen before then. It was a fine finish from about twenty yards

There was one positive and surprising selection for Cardiff as Alex Robertson was fit enough for his first league performance of the season. Robertson’s attitude in the pre season matches he played left a bit to be desired. However, I thought he was one of our better performers, today and, on an afternoon where so many were guilty of cheaply conceding possession, Robertson was one of noyot many who valued possession.

Unfortunately, for a squad that has a good level of individual ability, City haa a shocking ball retention record and the indictment presented by the match stats say it all

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/c77zrgp8pl8t#MatchStats

So. Again, another short report because there’s so little to say about the game. I nmight not have thought it at the time, l but David Turnbull’s header we wide about about 25 minututes was about as ascloce as we came to scoring today and, belieeve me, it was was ‘t very close at all. As is too often the case, defenders were our best passers of the ball with Turnbull, again , not really doing the businesss in the middle of the park and Rubin Colwill g9iveing what I’d say was his sloppiest passing performance of the season so far.

This was like Port Vale and Stockport in that City did not really look like they were tryinmg to win the game. A 0-0 draw would have been a saitsactory outcome I suppose, bu7t we seem happy to settle for such a score very early into proceedings.

Away from the first team, the under 18s were beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth and the under 21s drew 2-2 at QPR with Dak Mafico and Troy Perrett scoring.

It seems there was just the one game played in local football this weekend with Treorchy won 5-3 at Llanrumney United in Division One (East) of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance.

Posted in Football in the Rhondda valleys., Out on the pitch, The kids., The stiffs | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments