Seven decades of Cardiff City v Burnley games.

Posted on August 16, 2024 by The other Bob Wilson

The theory that the 22/23 Championship was the weakest one in recent years was given credence by the performance of the three promoted teams that year in the Premier League last season.

The trio were relegated with the team which came up through the Play Offs, Luton, coming the closest to surviving. Yet, despite them becoming “everyone’s favourite second side” for a while as they suggested around January/February time they could stay up, Luton finished four points short of the total City accumulated in the worst of their two relegation seasons in the top flight in the twenty first century – Luton’s eighteenth placed finish with just twenty six points suggested that the three relegated sides were just not up to the task of competing in the Premier League.

For me, Sheffield United, with their mere sixteen points and a hundred and four goals conceded were, possibly, the weakest Premier League side ever, save for the notorious Derby team of 07/08 that finished with just eleven points.

Burnley, second tier Champions in 22/23, finished two points behind Luton and, despite many predicting that they could survive before a ball was kicked, never really threatened to do so – they did have a decent run towards the end of the campaign which raised hopes a little of a spectacular escape from the drop, but they had left themselves too much to do.

Given all of this, the 24/25 Championship does not feel as daunting a challenge for ‘the rest” as it did a year ago when Leicester, Southampton and Leeds were getting their bearings following their relegations, but Burnley sent out a signal that they could be a formidable team this season by going to Luton on Monday night and winning 4-1.

I did not watch the game live, but have since watched some highlights and what struck me was how much attacking pace Burnley looked to have – Luton just could not cope with it and, from. what I saw, a three goal winning margin didn’t flatter the visitors.

Tomorrow, a Cardiff City team frequently criticised for their lack of pace go to Turf Moor for what might well turn out to be their toughest away fixture of their league season. Not only that, City head north with a worryingly large injury list for so early in the season with David Turnbull and, possibly, Callum Robinson joining long term absentees Isaak Davies, Kion Etete and Jamilu Collins on the injured list.

Going back to City’s Premier League days, tomorrow’s game has the feel of a visit to, say, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester United – it’s something of a free hit and let’s not forget that we did win at Old Trafford in 18/19, but, realistically, it’s hard to see anything other than a defeat for City with the hope being that it doesn’t get too messy for us.

Here’s the usual quiz with seven questions about onr opponents dating back to the sixties, I’ll post the answers on here on Sunday.

60s. This Liverpudlian midfielder began his career in non league football representing a place far more famous for its Rugby League team, but he was picked up by a stripey First Division outfit and then signed by Burnley when he was released without playing a game for them. He soon established himself at Turf Moor and had broken into the team just as the decade was coming to an end. A deep lying operator in the main, he was still able to score at a decent rate and his next move took him further north. He was an ever present in one of his four seasons in the First Division with his new club during which he chalked up more than a hundred league appearances. He stayed in the First Division for his final move as he followed his manager to a team trying, unsuccessfully, to recapture former glories – his career just about made it into the eighties, but it was soon ended by an encounter with one of the game’s hard men of the time in a derby fixture as he suffered the injury he never filly recovered from. Who am I describing?

70s. Starting out with the Candystripes, this winger, capped twenty eight times for his country, then wore blue for the Blues, but it was with the Bannsiders where he broke through and international recognition followed before he made the move to Burnley. His new club were struggling somewhat during his time with them, but his form was still good enough to earn him a move to First Division reds. It was here where he played his best football probably, but, after a loan spell in Hong Kong, he left to perform in front of the Rainham End. He went globe trotting again with a short spell in a place famous for its Cowboys, before a return home for what seemed like a gradual rewind down to retirement, but some big cats thought he could still do a job for them and then he became a monkey hanger before finishing his days playing for a succession of non league sides in North East England. Can you name him?

80s. This England international played for four clubs, the last of which was Burnley, before being forced to retire at twenty six. Unusually, perhaps uniquely, the same manager was in charge for at least part of the time he spent at every club he played for. Who is he and can you name the manager?

90s. Hah! Arfificial Intelligence ranted at forward who had two spells with Burnley. (6,5)

00s. The first time this century it took forty minutes, the second time it took four hundred and thirty nine minutes in total, what occurrence relating to City v Burnley matches at Ninian Park am I describing?

10s. Arrest at the Vatican? Surely not, but it sounds like one!

20s. It first happened for Cardiff, against Burnley actually, over sixteen years ago, but hasn’t happened for Burnley yet. It has also happened for Cheltenham, Norwich and Middlesbrough though and there could be twice as many chances as normal of it happening tomorrow – what occurence am I talking about?

Answers

60s. Geoff Nulty was spotted by Stoke City while he was playing for St Helens Town, but he had to wait until he had moved to Burnley to make his league debut. After playing in all forty two games for Burnley in 73/74, Nulty was sold to Newcastle early in the following seaso before his former manager at St James’ Park, Gordon Lee, signed him for Everton in 1978. Nulty’s career was ended in February 1980 because of an injury caused by a challenge from Liverpool’s Jimmy Case.

70s.  Northern Ireland international Terry Cochrane started his career with Derry City before moving to Linfield, but it was at Coleraine that he really came to prominence and his form attracted Burnley who signed him in 1978. Moving on to Middlesbrough next, Cochrane signed for Gillingham in 1983. Three years later he signed for the Dallas Sidekicks and then returned to Coleraine, but Millwall and then Hartlepool ensured that his Football League career was not quite over yet.

80s. Kevin Reeves was managed by John Bond at Bournemouth, Norwich, Manchester  City and Burnley.

90s. Adrian Heath.

00s.The time between Burnley goals. Steve Davis put Burnley a goal up in the twenty first minute of a game at Ninian Park on April Fool’s day 2000. Andy Payton then doubled their lead on sixty one minutes as Burnley won by 2-1, but their next goal at the ground was not scored until Ade Akinbivi equalised for them in the fiftieth minute of a game they eventually lost 2-1 on 6 October 2007. In between times, Burnley had made four further visits to Ninian Park and had lost them all without scoring a goal.

10s. Nick Pope.

20s. Someone called Aaron Ramsey scored in the Football League (EFL). Our Aaron Ramsey scored his first goal for us in a 3-3 draw at Turf Moor in April 2008, Burnley’s Aaron Ramsey has not scored for them yet, but he did score goals for Cheltenham, Norwich and Middlesbrough while on loan to those clubs from Aston Villa.

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Game going nowhere brought to life by substitutions as Cardiff progress in League Cup.

Posted on August 14, 2024 by The other Bob Wilson

Even though this was a very drab affair for three quarters of the game, it still ended up as a night where the positives outweighed the negatives for Cardiff City. For a team with an unfortunate habit of making embarrassing exits from the League Cup in it’s early rounds, a 2-0 win over a middling League One side in a First Round tie definitely represented a case of job done.

This becomes even more the case when it’s considered that their opponents, Bristol Rovers fielded six of the team that beat Northampton on Saturday to get their league season off to a winning start. You might think I’m going a bit over the top there, but Rovers’ half a side of first teamers may well have started as favourites when you consider that City made eleven changes to the team that started against Sunderland on Saturday, but, by the end, there could be no doubting City’s supremacy- indeed, they could have won by more.

City lined up with Jak Alnwick as captain in goal, Mark McGuinness was fit to return to partnerJoel Bagan at centreback and Ronan Kpakio and Luey Giles made their first starts for the senior side at seventeen and eighteen years old respectively. In midfield, there was a very late change as David Turnbull injured himself in the pregame warm up and Eli King was called up to replace him. Andy Rinomhota and new signing Alex Robertson were the other central midfielders with the latter taking the number ten role, Raheem Conte was on the right wing and Rubin Colwill started on the left, with Wilfried Kanga starting at centre forward.

The plan this season is for City to become a much more possession based team and, just as on Saturday, they managed that part of the plan with over sixty per cent of the ball. 

However, just as on Saturday, City did next to nothing with all of that possession and the first half meaningful action can be described in a couple of sentences. 

Rovers had the best chance of the half when City sloppily lost possession, but Kpakio was able to get in a challenge that put Promise Omochere off to the extent that he fired over from what was a clear sight of goal from the edge of the penalty area. As far as City were concerned, Robertson had two decent looking efforts blocked with the second one falling to Colwill whose well struck effort flew straight at goalkeeper Josh Griffiths who held on to the ball at the second attempt.

For too much of the time though, there was the familiar complaint that City passed the ball too slowly and, in contrast to their pre season where there seemed to be a new desire to get plenty of men into the box when attacking, it was noticeable that when there was a promising looking break down the right in the opening seconds after the interval, Conte only had Kanga to aim for in the area when he was crossing.

With Rovers looking determined but carrying little attacking punch, the match seemed to be meandering to a goalless draw and a penalty shoot out, but it turned on the hour mark as both sides made three substitutions. Not surprisingly given their lack of game time so far, Robertson and Kanga went off – the first named had shown up pretty well, but, surely, he hasn’t been brought here to play as a number ten and the way he got back to defend pretty effectively only made the point that he should play further back more obvious. Kanga didn’t do much to suggest he’s the answer to our striking problems, but did need treatment on a painful looking injury early on and shouldn’t be written off already in the manner he has been by some. Conte was the third player to go off after what was a pretty frustrating night for him – so far, he looks a better full back than winger in his first team outings.

On in their place came Ollie Tanner, Kieron Evans and Michael Reindorf the striker signed from Norwich in the summer. Reindorf has scored six times for the under 21s I believe to earn his senior team chance and he made a big impression from the start as he went by a couple of opponents out on the right to cause the Rovers defence some anxiety. Drawing confidence from this, Reindorf put himself about while also showing some neat target man talents – on this evidence, he has to come into first team consideration over the coming months.

City finally had their first goal of the season on sixty eight minutes, but they were kept waiting a few seconds longer as McGuinness’ header from Tanner’s corner to the far post was hooked clear by a defender only for the ref to be told by the goal line technology that the ball had crossed the line.

Once ahead, City played well and, just as in the recent friendly match between the teams, it needed some good saves from Griffiths to keep the score down. The keeper foiled Rinomhota, Colwill and Tanner with diving saves as City began to exploit the extra room they had as Rovers chased an equaliser. 

Whether it was that extra room or his move infield to a number ten role which caused it, Colwill became the game’s outstanding player in the closing twenty minutes. He’s always had a good understanding with Tanner and with Evans, who he’s played a lot of youth football with, providing a reminder that he is a talented footballer, there was a feeling that the attacking players were on the same wavelength when it had looked anything but that for an hour.

With Kpakio getting stronger as the game went on, Giles doing well despite being caught out once just before half time and Bagan confirming the good impression he made at centreback in pre season (Malachi Fagan-Walcott was another quietly impressive debutante as he replaced McGuinness for the last quarter of an hour), Alnwick was well protected until added time when he was forced to make a good save to deny Kofi Shaw, but City had made the game safe by then when King set Evans free down the left and his low cross was easily put away by Colwill from eight yards out.

King was a little awry with his passing in the first half, but that might have had something to do with his being thrown in at the deep end so to speak with his late introduction, while Rinomhota may not have a future at Cardiff, but I’m struck by how he always gives 100 per cent when called upon.

The encouraging thing for me was that all of the younger players involved made a decent case for first team consideration and, in some cases, it was a fair bit more than decent. The trouble is, Erol Bulut only started considering the likes of Conte, Giles, Cian Ashford and Joel Colwill for selection in league matches when there was nothing left to play for – at least some of these youngsters are good enough to do more than that, in fact, I’d say the seniors need an injection of the sort of vibrancy we saw in the closing stages tonight.

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