I think I’ve created a personal lifetime record today as I’ve just finished watching my third game of the day and they’ve all finished 0-0!
The first one was more a case of a match being on the background really, it was Sky’s lunchtime fare as Exeter took on Lincoln in League One and, from what I saw, it was pretty turgid stuff with little at either end to grab the attention of the neutral watcher.
I was far from a neutral in the next game, Newport County have always been my “second” team and, if City aren’t playing on a Saturday afternoon, I always try to find a way of watching County’s game. Today’s match at Rodney Parade was against a Grimsby team that had won their last five away matches. Lord knows how they managed to do that on this evidence – County are out of form with just one win in their last eight and were lacking confidence, but they should really have won what was a pretty awful match.
Newport were given a very dubious penalty midway through the second half which was saved by the diving keeper and then contrived to miss from five yards out with no defenders near the ball and the goalkeeper helpless – it was their third consecutive home league game without a goal (City have seemed to go on such runs two or three times a season recently, so it’s pretty sobering to learn that it’s the first time County have been on such a barren run since 1980!).
Obviously, goalless draws tend to be dull watches, but a certain percentage of them (maybe 20 per cent?) are exceptions to that norm. Thankfully, the third of the trio I watched was such a game as Turkey were held at home by Wales in an absorbing and entertaining encounter which matched the excitement of September’s goalless encounter at Cardiff City Stadium in September in Craig Bellamy’s first match as Wales manager.
Turkey were impressive Quarter Finalists in this summer’s Euros and so to play out two high quality 0-0s with them is the clearest sign yet that Wales are progressing under Bellamy’s management – it’s also five games unbeaten for the new boss as the record he created for making the best start of any Welsh manager in terms of avoiding defeat is stretched by another match.
Two months ago, in the “first leg” against the Turks, the only thing Wales might have disappointed about was the absence of a goal to round off a game in which they were clearly the better team, but, this time, the boot was on the other foot as a very energetic Turkey backed by a big and raucous crowd kept Wales on the defensive for long periods.
However, with centre backs Joe Rodon and captain Ben Davies immense, Wales were able to keep the Turks at arm’s length most of the time. Sometimes, there was some luck involved in the defending, such as when Turkey became the second side I’d seen waste a penalty on the day and, when they were opened up thought the middle for just about the only time in the ninety minutes, Karl Darrow came to the rescue when he rushed off his line quickly to deny Yunus Akgun who looked suspiciously close to being offside anyway.
Wales, again missing important players through injury, played intelligently and, in the first half especially, suggested they could come up with a goal of their own.
In fact, in the ten minutes before half time, they could have stunned the locals into silence on a couple of occasions as they came closer to breaking the deadlock than Turkey, for all of their pressure, could manage.
Ex City man Mark Harris was heavily involved both times, first when his clever bended run took him clear it seemed, only for him to fall victim of what looked a very marginal offside decision – Jordan James finished really well from Harris’ pull back and he clearly thought he had scored his first Wales goal, but Turkey escaped because of a hesitantly raised lineswoman’s flag.
Shortly afterwards, Harris burst past a couple of defenders and fed Harry Wilson only for the in form Fulham man’s shot from the edge of the penalty area to bounce wide off the post.
I’d say the one concerning trend with Bellamy’s management so far is that for, all of its positivity and tactical intelligence, it has a second half issue in that, in each of his five matches, the standard of play after half time has fallen away- we’re still to score a second half goal under Bellamy.
Today, the difference between first and second half was less marked than it had been previously, but, although positive substitutions were made, all Wales did after the break in their attempt to grab the win that would have taken them to the top of the group was have a few nearly moments.
In truth, Turkey also fell away somewhat after the break – there was a miss from very close in by Ukgun, but most of the home side’s shooting was too wonky and from too far out to worry Wales too much until Ukgun went down under a challenge from Neco Williams in the eighty seventh minute and the Spanish referee pointed to the spot, Wales were on course for a point.
Replays of the penalty incident confirmed what I’d suspected on first viewing – the ball rolled in exactly the direction you’d expect it to if a clean tackle had been made – it was a close call, but Williams played the ball first and you wonder why VAR didn’t intervene as it was exactly the sort of situation it was designed to avoid.
In the event, it felt like justice had been served when Kerem Akturkoglu rolled his penalty wide via the outside of the same upright Wilson had hit earlier.
It was a very good result for Wales, but, in reality, it’s, almost certainly, not enough. Turkey are two points clear with a visit to the group’s whipping boys Montenegro in their last match on Tuesday while Wales will be entertaining Iceland who are two points behind us. Despite us being undefeated up to now, defeat against Iceland will see us taking part in a relegation Play Off with one of the runners up in one of the Section C groups. On the other hand, avoiding defeat and second place will see us into a Play Off for a return to Section A.
Elsewhere, Wales Under 19s have been beaten 2-1 tonight in their qualifying group for the Euros. They’ve been drawn with the French, Scotland and Lietchtenstein – the Scots beat Liechtenstein 4-0 today, but Wales have a 1-0 win over their Scottish hosts already and so a win in their final game against Liechtenstein on Tuesday will see them almost certainly qualify for the next phase in second place – Ronan Kpakio, Luey Giles, Dakari Mafico, Cody Twose and Dylan Lawlor all started tonight with Trey George coming on as a substitute to take the City representation to six.
Treherbert Boys and Girls Club drew 2-2 at Clydach today to remain in mid table in the Ardal Leagues South West Division, while Tonyrefail edged a 1-0 win over Ton Pentre in a game between the bottom two in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division.
