Cardiff City may still be my closest club as the crow flies, but I learned last night that if you’re measuring the journey in terms of driving time and ease of your journey, Swansea City is now my “local” team! It’s a popular refrain in most parts of Wales (almost certainly in this part of the country as well) that Cardiff gets everything, but it definitely loses out in the quality of road links with the upper Rhondda Valleys when compared to Wales’ second city.
This explains why I got to the Liberty Stadium for last night’s Welsh Youth Cup Final about twenty five minutes before kick off despite leaving Treherbert sometime later than I would have done if the match was being played at Cardiff City Stadium.
Once the match got under way, it soon became obvious that I was far from being alone in supporting the team in blue in what was a good crowd of, perhaps, a couple of thousand. The Cardiff fans were outnumbered, but were generally the more vocal of the two sets of supporters throughout the match, but they had little to get enthused about in the game’s first quarter as City did a pretty convincing impersonation of the first team on one of their bad days.
There has been talk about the Cardiff sides under first team level adopting a more direct, long ball game to mirror what the first team are doing – in fact, there’s been more than talk. Having not seen the Academy team play for a few weeks, I would say it has not been as noticeable to me that they had changed their approach, but the mishmash of trialists, youngsters who don’t get into the Under 18 side and young pros unlucky enough not to have got a loan move which made up this season’s Under 23 side have definitely become more physical and long ball based this season and results have tended to suffer as a result. To be fair though, I suppose it’s hard to argue that what is, effectively, our second team should play in a manner which is completely at odds with how the first team plays.
Last night City started the game by handing what little possession they managed to garner straight back to their hosts with a series of boots upfield and hacks into touch,. Just like the first team when they are not performing, we had an isolated striker (Mark Harris), who is not great in the air, as the target for long kicks forward by our goalkeeper (George Ratcliffe) and, just like with the seniors, I found it impossible to deduce how all of this would enable us to get a foothold in the game.
By complete contrast, Swansea favoured a pretty laborious game plan whereby their German keeper Steven Benda rolled side footed passes out to his centrebacks or deep lying central midfielder who knocked it about among themselves while given City a chance to settle into a defensive shape which meant that they were encountering few problems in open play.
However, the bigger Swansea side were looking threatening from the series of free kicks and corners they were getting and City were grateful to Cameron Coxe for a clearance off the line, while the visitor’s woodwork was also hit with a close range header – Ratcliffe made a fine diving save from the highly rated Liam Cullen as well.
The writing was on the wall though for City and when Kees De Boer swung in one of those free kicks which might well have gone in anyway in the twenty second minute, centreback Joe Lewis got a faint headed touch on the ball to guide it past the helpless Ratcliffe.
At that stage, City looked to be in for a night where the object of the exercise would be trying to keep their margin of defeat down to something that wasn’t too embarrassing, however their response to going behind was an impressive one.
Before that though, referee Tom Williams showed a couple of harsh yellow cards to Connor Davies and James Waite which could have only added to the team’s frustration, but they were grateful to the official on the half hour when he ignored a flag raised by a linesman (Harris was in an offside position, but making no attempt to get involved with play) to let Sion Spence burst down the right and put over a dangerous cross which no one could make contact with. The ball was retrieved though and when another cross, I think by Waite but I may be wrong, came in from the opposite flank, Harris clearly got involved this time as he bulleted a header home from eight yards for the sort of goal the first team just do not score enough of.
Although City were lucky to be level given the balance of play up until then, the goal clearly settled them down and you could see, as the footballers in their ranks started to show what they could do, that all of the earlier hit and hope stuff was more down to nerves and effective Swansea pressing than some sort of game plan.
Certainly, City were still the more direct by far of the two teams, but now there was a purpose and drive to their play which, incredibly when you consider how the first twenty odd minutes went, meant that it was they who were the side who did not want the half to end in it’s dying moments.
City were enjoying some success down their flanks, especially down the left where Sam Bowen and Waite were combining well with the latter consistently having the better of his opponent and their best opportunity came when the unmarked Spence met a cross twelve yards out with a firm header which was, unfortunately, directed too close to Benda.
Having started the first half showing little confidence, City probably began the second period with too much of that commodity because some careless mistakes when they were in what should have been comfortable possession led to goal attempts from their opponents which the competent Ratcliffe was able to deal with without major alarms.
However, the visitors were able to regain the momentum they had before the break and Davies forced Benda into what may have been the save of the night when he ignored the unmarked Harris to his right and cracked in a shot from twenty five yards which the keeper turned around the post.
Spence then hit one of those shots which initially looks like it’s going miles over, but then dips and ends up missing by not too much from a similar distance and the match went into it’s last twenty minutes with City now giving as good as they were getting – however, the first signs of something which was to blight the rest of what had become a fascinating encounter were already becoming apparent.
When I first got into the ground, I noted that the pitch looked to be in very good condition for so late in the season, but maybe this was not the case, because so many of the players, who are all used to playing forty five minutes each way games at their age, began to suffer from cramp.
First of all though, it was referee Williams who had a problem which saw him hobble off to be replaced by the fourth official and this set a precedent as a series of interruptions completely disrupted the flow of the game.
Initially, it looked as if both sides were suffering equally from the effects of playing on a pitch that was lively after the rain which had been falling on it for an hour or two, but hardly heavy. However, around the eighty minute mark, it was almost as if a switch had been turned off with the City team as they, all of a sudden, looked to be out on their feet both individually and collectively.
Probably it was down to the amount of work they had to do when not in possession, but City now looked like their only chance of winning would be through a penalty shoot out after extra time.
Swansea were very tired as well, but they ended the match pressing for a winner and there was a air of desperation about some of City’s defending, but they got to the end at 1-1 and managed to make it through a somewhat nondescript thirty minutes of extra time which saw Swansea maintain a slight advantage, but City sub Isaak Davies probably come as close as anyone to finding what would have been a winning goal.
I’m not going to spend long on the penalty shoot out. Being the age I am, I can remember a time when a Cup might have been shared if it had ended up level after extra time and it would have been nice if it could have been last night. The jacks would have been able to say they had maintained their run of consecutive trophy wins (which now stands as an embarrassing for City nine), but City would have got some reward for a very brave, hard working and, at times, skillful display from a group which featured perhaps a majority who will still be available to play at Under 18 level next season.
Instead, five of those involved will have to remember that they failed from the spot in a shoot out – Coxe and Harris did their bit from a City perspective, but, sadly, Spence, the otherwise impressive Trystan Jones and Isaak Davies all failed to convert, with Benda’s save from the last named being the moment when Swansea’s win was confirmed.
Finally a word of sympathy for James Waite who was generally effective in what was a new position for him of left wing back.
Waite had one recurring problem throughout the night and I could really relate to him because it resurrected some memories that I’d hoped I wouldn’t ever have to revisit again.
I’ve mentioned before that I was a pretty good footballer who never for one moment entertained the prospect that I had enough talent to earn a living from playing the game. However, I say it myself, but I was able to pick out an accurate long pass and, generally speaking, the ball tended to go where I wanted it to – in short, I had some ability in my feet.
Unfortunately, this did not extend to my hands or arms – at least it didn’t when it came to throwing a cricket ball. I lacked any sort of coordination and, whenever I had to make a quick return from the outfield, the ball could quite literally end up anywhere! In the end, I tried turning myself into a wicket keeper, but there was someone much better than me in that position already in the team though, so I became a decent slip fielder and resorted to bowling the ball in like a fast bowler (which I certainly wasn’t!) who had “thrown” his shoulder out when I had no choice bu to go into the outfield
My lack of coordination did not extend to taking throw ins on the football field, but it was amazing last night to watch someone with so much ability in his feet struggle so hopelessly as Waite did with this part of the game. A less forgiving set of officials would have awarded foul throws against him for every one of the fifteen or so he must have taken – as it was, he was done for a foul throw once, while another one barely made it on to the field of play before fading out again.
Remembering the mental nightmares I used to go through during the times I was fielding more than twenty or thirty yards away from the bat, I would have been dreading every time a Swansea player sent the ball over the touchline on my side of the pitch if I had been Waite last night, but, perhaps, he’s made of stronger stuff than me and was able to cope with it all.
However, I couldn’t understand the logic from the City bench which seemed to say that Waite was playing on the left so there was no choice but to have him taking the throw ins on that side of the pitch – surely, a way could have been found for City to have maintained their shape, as well as having another player well capable of keeping possession in tight areas available to receive the ball, if someone else had been allocated the task instead?
