If we thought we had a ropey record in the League Cup in the last dozen years or so, it’s nothing on Swindon Town’s, they had not progressed beyond the First Round stage since 2014/15 and they still haven’t after tonight’s game at Cardiff City Stadium which resulted in a 2-1 home win.
For forty five minutes, it all looked like plain sailing for City as, after a slow start, they went on to dominate and with a two goal lead at the interval, I quite fancied us going on to add a few more to complete a really convincing win.
I’d omitted to place enough relevance on an incident that occurred shortly after we’d gone one up though when Princewill Ehibhatiomham, Swindon’s teenage striker on loan from Southampton, burst through the centre of our defence, but then shot wide with only Nathan Trott to beat.
It turned that this was a preview of things to come as our centrebacks Will Fish and Calum Chambers were given a torrid time of it through much of the second half as City struggled to cope whenever our opponents from League Two upped the pace.
The match turned into a kind of summary of our season so far as a first half that was Peterborough like was followed by a second period that, for a spell of around fifteen minutes around the middle of the half anyway, was a repeat of our Port Vale showing as we become very ragged and brittle.
We regained some of our former control in the closing stages when the match must have made for entertaining fare for a neutral as both sides slugged away at each other as Swindon chased an equaliser and we opted to chase the goal which would have settled the tie, rather than opt to shut up shop like just about every City side of the previous ten seasons or so would have done.
It seems that’s not the way it’s going to be under BBM or maybe he’d seen the way we were defending and figured that attack was the best form of defence. We’ve only conceded two goals in our first three matches and one of those was a penalty, but those figures don’t tell the real story, we’ve been creaking like a rusty old gate at the back at times in the last two matches especially.
I’ve seen it said that the real reason why we’ve only signed a fourth goalkeeper for the first team squad so far in this window is that some members of the City hierarchy are so impressed by our youngsters that they see no need to sign any more players as our squad is good enough for the top two already.
Now, if that really is what those at the top are thinking, it would explain our baffling failure to add to a squad that is too small to last through a season that could run to sixty or so games with decent runs in the three Cup competitions we are in.
However, anyone who has a rudimentary knowledge as to the inner workings of Cardiff City since 2010 will know that if the people at the top are in favour of something football related, you can assume that it won’t work. This squad is not good enough for the top two, or even the top six, without the addition of on field leaders who are equipped to steer us through the sort of storms we’ve had to endure in our last two games with a sense of calm and resolve that we’ve not seen so far this season or, indeed, last season.
Get some such players in and this combined with the good things we’re doing, in home games at least, on the attacking front and, maybe, we can challenge for promotion, but, for now, we’re too flaky to do that.
If someone told me that the first goal we scored from a corner this season would see Isaak Davies provide the assist, I would say they were on the wind up, but as it turned out Isaak’s corners were a promising feature from tonight, as were the ones taken by Joel Bagan, another surprise selection in the corner taking stakes.
There wasn’t a great deal of worthwhile action in the first twenty minutes or so apart from a shot from twenty yards from Rubin Colwill that flew about a yard over, but then Davies’ corner was headed goalwards by Bagan. Goalkeeper Connor Ridley denied the full back his first goal for three and a half years, but his block fell into the path of Cian Ashford who tapped in from around four yards out.
Another Davies corner was headed inches wide by Chambers and Ashford, one of our best players on the night I thought, should have doubled his tally after being set up by Callum Robinson’s best bit of play in his first start of the campaign, but the winger could only shoot against the post.
City weren’t to be denied though and after a bit of a soft foul award, Colwill sized up a free kick that was about five yards further out, but more centrally placed, than the one he scored against Peterborough. I’d rate it as an easier place to score from and that extra few yards also probably helped and so, given that Colwill had also scored from a free kick in one of our pre season matches, it wasn’t really a surprise to see the ball fly into the top corner with Ridley nowhere near it.
Swindon made three substitutions at half time and were having their best spell of the game when the centre of our defence imploded again to leave Ehibhationham running in on our goal and this time he didn’t miss.
The next ten minutes or so must have made for a sobering watch for BBM as we were hanging on at times against an effective Swindon press that led to some hair raising escapades as we kept on passing out from the back.
It was a mystery how there were no more goals as both sides missed decent chances to score again, but, as it turned out, we survived the seven minutes added time with relatively few problems to make our way into tomorrow’s draw for the Second Round.
A few hours earlier, City’s under 21s began their league campaign with a game against Sheffield United at Leckwith. The Blades always seem to be strong at this level and with the temperature around 30 degrees and the team missing some players who were included in the first teams quad, it wads a testing opener for City.
In the event, a 1-1 draw was not a bad outcome at all for a City side that deserved their half time lead, but then came under a lot of pressure after the break. There were still chances for a one or two more goals for City in the second half, but Sheffield were deserving of at least a point and the outcome was a fair one.
City led through a well taken Troy Perrett goal after an effective press had won them the ball about thirty yards from the visitor’s goal and eventually the midfielder was able to carefully place his shot high into the net beyond the keeper. The goal was the catalyst for our best spell of the game and Jac Thomas was inches from scoring a similar goal a few minutes later as his shot flew inches wide with the keeper beaten. There had also been a disallowed goal for what was probably a correct offside decision as City took control following a strong first quarter of an hour or so by the visitors.
Right from the start though, the second half was a much tougher examination for City. They passed it to the extent that they withstood a barrage of long throws and corners from the visitors to begin the half and it was a shame that when the equaliser came it was during a period where we were looking pretty comfortable, but we were made to pay when we lost the ball on the edge of the visitor’s penalty area only to lose possession carelessly and one ball played in behind our back four saw Jevan Beattie got the better of Ilyas Debono to stab a shot past Dan Higgs, who impressed on the first viewing I’ve had of him.
The visitors came closest to scoring a winner a shot came back off the post straight into Higgs’ hands, but City had their moments as Luke Pearce saw his hot cleared off the line and Robert Tankiewicz’s attempt to chip the keeper from thirty five yards out sailed just over.
