The subject of this blog came up when I was chatting with my brother about six weeks ago. He said that these days I criticise referees on here more than I used to. My first reaction on hearing this was to think he was wrong – when I started off back in 2009, I resolved that I didn’t want Mauve and Yellow Army to be a weekly whinge at officialdom as I blamed every City defeat on the officiating and, apart from a few pieces that were as much about the likes of Bobby Madley and David Coote, I think I’ve stuck to my original plan.
However, further thought on what my brother had said persuaded me he was probably right. I do find myself moaning about the officials more than I did ten, twenty and thirty years ago. Why should this be? Is it because I’m old (think I’m passed the getting old stage now!) and I’ve become a curmudgeon?
Yes, that may have something to do with it, but, you know, sometimes you can try to find all sorts of convoluted reasons as to why things that never used to get you annoyed do so these days and there is a simple and obvious answer you ignore – the subject of your annoyance isn’t as good, efficient, tasty etc. etc as it used to be!
What I should have said to my brother is simply ‘I moan about referees more than I used to because they’re not as good as they used to be”.
Today’s 2-2 draw for Cardiff City offered a case in point. I thought referee James Bell was poor throughout as his interpretation of what constituted a foul seemed to depend on what colour shirt you were wearing. He wasn’t terrible, just a constant irritant until the eighty ninth minute when, with City holding on to their 2-1 lead fairly comfortably, he first seemed to ignore a case of ball to hand at close quarters by Callum Chambers and then after appearing to check with his linesman, pointed to the spot.
Now, I should say a couple of things at this point. First, it’s been correctly pointed out on the main messageboard I use most that the same Callum Chambers gave away with what many City fans (myself included) conceded was a clear penalty in the recent match at Luton. Furthermore, I decided to do some research on James Bell confidently expecting to learn that he was some wet behind the ears novice at Championship level who is gradually being introduced to the division and will probably be demoted back whence he came from now because it’ll be decided that he’s not ready for this level yet.
However, this is far from the truth, Bell is a pretty experienced ref at this level now and has taken charge of quite a few City games in recent years including wins at Middlesbrough and Wigan in 2022 and a home defeat by Hull a few weeks later. He does seem to issue an awful lot of yellow cards (five for City and one for Coventry today which only adds more evidence to my feeling that he was a homer), but I suppose it’s hard not to given the way the laws of the game are currently enforced.
From memory, Mr Bell has done nothing to make me go off on one about him like I am now before , so I can only deduce that he had a bad day just like the guy who missed the Chambers offence at Luton did, but the point I think is that even refs generally regarded as pretty competent seem to be having more off days than their counterparts did, say, fifteen years ago.
Based on the way James Bell performed today, City would never have got the same decision go in their favour today, it would have had to have happened in front of the Canton Stand at Cardiff City Stadium with a great roar of handball and then a point to the spot seconds later as if the noise the crowd made was the trigger for the decision, not a linesman’s flag being waved.
The really frustrating thing was that City did not deserve that today. There have been times this season where we could not complain about one dubious decision going against us because all it did was make the margin of defeat a bit bigger, but we, just about, deserved the three points today.
Our performance didn’t hit the heights it did against Plymouth and Portsmouth and there wasn’t the too short pockets of vibrant attacking play that so discomforted the jacks and the wurzels in our two away derbies, but it was our most complete away display so far and we made Coventry’s expensively assembled side look distinctly ordinary at times.
Predictably, there were changes to the team that had lost so disappointingly to QPR in midweek. Joel Bagan could feel hard done by to lose his place to Jamilu Collins, Manolis Siopis came in for Joe Ralls and the two players who were the architects of the brief flaring of eciting attacking football during October, Rubin Colwill and Ollie Tanner, made way for David Turnbull and Yakou Meite (neither Colwill or Tanner could have many complaints about being left out after their recent performances).
In saying that, although he hasn’t been as bad as Wilfried Kanga, Meite has been widely criticised by fans, including myself, and was generally regarded as not having much of a future at this level, but today he showed he might still have something to offer.
That said, having almost conceded inside thirty seconds in midweek, City almost did so again here as Coventry got in down our right and the ball bobbled about dangerously in front of our goal before being scrambled away. Perry Ng was to have an uneasy first half as he was often out of position and facing players running at him, but one reason for his struggles was that he was getting little help from Meite who had been allocated Tanner’s wide right position.
The thing was though, Meite was probably having his most effective attacking game ever for City. Just five minutes had gone when Alex Robertson’s corner flew over Dimi Goutas’ head and the unmarked Meite stooped to head in from around the penalty spot for only his third goal for City, all of which have come away from home.
This was not in the script with the home team’s new manager Frank Lampard looking on, but having conceded an equaliser within two minutes of going ahead at Hillsborough last week, City promptly went and did it again here.
In saying that, I watched the first ten minutes on a stream which had no sound and so for a good fifteen seconds after the ball hit the net I was convinced the goal had been disallowed for offside. The reason I thought that was because the scorer, Ephron Mason-Clark had a face like thunder in the close up pictures after his shot ewent in. It was only when a team mate appeared to congratulate him that I realised it was 1-1 – Mason-Clark had got a yard or two on Ng to steer his shot beyond Jak Alnwick as he ran on to Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s cute pass.
After that, City spent long periods without the ball, but, unlike at Sheffield seven days earlier, it never really felt like we were hanging on. Indeed, we looked quite dangerous when we broke.
If Coventry came close through Norman Bassette, who showed that he might be quite the wind up merchant after his antics against Sheffield United, but he didn’t look the best finisher here as he nodded against Alnwick from four yards out and then missed the ball completely from inside the six yard box after the home side had got in down our right again, then we could point to a couple of close misses ourselves. Turnbull’s twenty five yarder was saved with some difficulty by Brad Collins and Meite fired just wide after good work by Callum Robinson.
Turnbull had to be replaced by Colwill just before the break after suffering what looked like a hamstring injury and Rubin did much better than he has been recently here. He was to the fore as City started the second half strongly as he crossed to Meite whose shot again brought Collins into action.
A few minutes later, Colwill played a simple looking pass to Robertson, but it’s perfect speed and placement more or less made up the Australian’s mind that he had to shoot and his low twenty five yarder swerved beyond Collins to find the corner of the net to give him a goal to rival the one he scored against Plymouth for quality.
This time, City didn’t give up an immediate equaliser. Instead, they took charge as Coventry grew increasingly frustrated by their failure to come up with any sort of effective response. That’s how things stayed for a good half an hour and, if there was a frustration watching how it was going, it was that City never really capitalised enough on what looked a shaky home rearguard throughout.
The closest Coventry came to scoring until the closing stages was a Goutas header that landed on the top of the his own net and, with Michael Reindorf on to make an overdue debut for the tiring Robinson, the elusive first away win of the season was looking a real possibility.
There had to be a Coventry response eventually though – it wasn’t a particularly strong one, but we were having to do more defending when sub Ellis Sims tried to cross from the bye line and it was ball to hand with the covering Chambers no more than a yard or two away – despite the City defenders arm not being in a position where he was seeking to block the cross, Mr Bell eventually pointed to the spot and another sub, Victor Torp, sent Alnwick the wrong way to complete the scoring.
Plymouth getting another away thrashing (this time by 4-0 at Bristol City) means we go up one place to twentieth and, despite the late disappointment, City can take some heart from a performance that was a step up from the two previous games where the only good display I could see from a City player was Callum O’Dowda’s against QPR. Here, there were five or six such displays, but City really do need to stop the drift back to the sort of miserable home stuff we’ve become all too used to – it’s successive home games against Watford and Preston next and we have to see an improvement on what was on offer against Blackburn and QPR.
Penalties also proved decisive as the under 21s lost their Nathaniel MG Cup Semi Final at Aberystwyth. Trailing to a first half penalty for much of the game, Troy Perrett’s equaliser in added time forced a penalty shoot out in which two of our spot kicks were missed, but, despite the heartbreaking manner of the defeat, it’s been a very good run in a testing competition for the youngsters.
The under 18s were also beaten by 5-2 at Bournemouth in what I believe was a League Cup tie with Dan Ola getting both of our goals.
Finally, in Rhondda valley football, Ton Pentre look doomed to relegation, or worse, after their 4-1 loss at Penydarren Seniors in the Premier Division of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance , but Treorchy Boys and Girls Club continue to fare well in Division One East with a 2-1 home victory over Cwrt Rawlings FC.
