Seven decades of Cardiff City v Watford matches for the third time!

Posted on January 13, 2025 by The other Bob Wilson

Having done two of these City v Watford quizzes in the last five weeks or so, I debated with myself whether I should bother with a third one. I’m not sure what I’ve done on previous occasions when we’ve had a game postponed like the first scheduled meeting between the teams was in in early December, but I’ve decided to do another one for tomorrow night’s match..

When the two sides did eventually meet for the first time just after Christmas, Watford were overwhelming favourites to win, but, instead, they suffered a first home defeat as we won at Vicarage Road for the fourth straight league game and picked up our first away three pointer of the season in the process. Watford have lost the three games they’ve played in all competitions since then, while we’ve gone unbeaten with a win and two draws, so it’s a home banker tomorrow, right? No, I don’t think so, there’s not been such a thing at Cardiff City Stadium for about four years!

City were the last team to be pulled out of the hat in the FA Cup Fourth Round draw, so it’s another away game in early February and it’s hard to come up with a more underwhelming tie than Stoke City away. People, rightly, say that it’s a winnable game, but it’s equally true to say that Stoke will hardly be quaking in their boots at the thought of facing us.

After all, it’s the fourth time I can remember us being drawn away to Stoke in the competition and we’ve lost the ties each time. We were beaten 4-1 in 1968, 2-1 in 1987 and we did manage a 1-1 draw in 2011, but then lost in the replay down here 2-0.

We’ve got quite a few league games to play before we head off to the Potteries for the second time this season and so back to today’s quiz – the answers will be posted on here on Wednesday morning.

60.s Playing in the same position as the club Player/Manager didn’t help this defender’s cause while he was at Watford and he left them to join another team that played in amber/yellow on a free transfer. He only ever wore that colour shirt as well, because he never played for another team after that and at one time held the record for first team appearances for them (he’s now second on that list). He also came within two of equalling what may might well be a national record for consecutive appearances for any club as he did not miss a game in any competition for seven years. According to Wikipedia, he still follows the club he spent nearly all of his career with as a supporter going to home and away games every week, but who is he?

70s. It’s more common for players to drop further back as their career goes on, but this left sided performer did the opposite and it’s probably fair to say that the move forward made him a better player. A west midlander by birth, he didn’t play a first team game for his the stripey local club he began with and it was only by dropping down the division, but maybe up in the world, that he got to make his senior debut. Even here though, he was generally thought of as a squad member and it took a switch to another team in blue to a destination that sounds synonymous with bad skin that he established a regular place for himself. Watford represented an upward move for him, but not much of one as they soon dropped into the basement division after he signed. However, after a couple of mediocre seasons, he was in at the start of a revolution at the club and, benefiting from that move forward, he was one of the first names on the team sheet through two promotions. The second tier maybe represented a step too far though and, after losing his place, he moved to Yorkshire to play for another club that was on the up at the time. His final club saw him wearing one of the league’s most distinctive kits for a team of Lancastrians, can you name him?

80s. West Indian Cricketing Knight with admirable qualities?

90s. Growls rile Indian leader. (5,6)

00s. Our one time player Tommy Smith set a unique City connected Watford club record during this decade, what is it?

10s. Which Watford player from this decade once played in international wins against Argentina and then Wales two days later that were both played in “neutral” London?

20s. This attacker will be thirty five on Wednesday and played for Watford for three years in the 2010s. This autumn, it was reported that he was training with Watford as he looked for a new club and, as I type this, his Wikipedia page is saying that he has signed for the Hornets today. I think someone is on a wind up, but this player was certainly highly rated when he was a player for them before and he also went on to do well at another current Championship club, so, any ideas who this “new signing” for Watford might be?

Answers

60s. Sandy Pate played right back for Watford and Mansfield, with all but fifteen of his four hundred and twenty eight appearances coming for the latter – he once had a run of three hundred and sixty six consecutive matches for Mansfield and there’s a bar named after him at Field Mill.

70s. Bobby Downes signed for Peterborough (the Posh) after being freed by West Brom, but only established himself as regular in senior football when playing at Spotland for Rochdale. Watford signed him in the mid seventies, and his career moved up a level after new manager Graham Taylor converted him. Into a winger. Downes joined Barnsley after losing his place in Watford’s second tier team and finished his career at Blackpool.

80s.(Sir Frank) Worrell Sterling.

90s. Roger Willis.

00s. Tommy Smith gave Watford an early lead from the penalty spot in their game at Cardiff in March 2009 – in doing so, he became the last Watford player to score a goal for them at Ninian Park.

10s. Heurelho Gomes kept clean sheets for Brazil in their 3-0 win over Argentina at the Emirates Stadium on 3/9/06 and then in. a 2-0 victory against Wales at White Hart Lane forty eight hours later.

20s. Wikipedia is currently saying that former Watford and Sheffield Wednesday forward Fernando Forestieri has signed for Watford today(13/1/25).

Posted in Memories, 1963 - 2023 | Tagged | Comments Off on Seven decades of Cardiff City v Watford matches for the third time!

Ashford goal the difference as City record rare FA Cup win to maintain recent improvement.

Posted on January 10, 2025 by The other Bob Wilson

Another thing the Vincent Tan era has seen is the arrival of the “meaningless” FA Cup tie. The last fourteen years have seen a variety of Third Round FA Cup ties that did not live long in the memory as a variety of City shadow sides, more often than not, made an early exit from the competition.

Tonight’s tie at Sheffield United was probably the first match City had played on a Thursday with a 7 o clock kick off in their history and won’t live long in the memory either, but at least the 150 or so hardy souls who travelled up to Yorkshire in freezing conditions got to see their team win 1-0. This time it was the Blades fans that had the deflating feeling of wondering what they were doing watching their team play so listlessly as the unforced errors mounted up.

It’s unusual for City to win an FA Cup game these days, but with three unbeaten and encouraging performances behind them going into the match, it continues a sense of momentum being built.  Three of these matches have been played away from home against teams that were in the top six of the Championship when we played them and that can only add to confidence levels within the squad for the league battles to come.

Of course, it was nothing near the Sheffield team that beat City pretty comfortably on their own pitch in the last match before Christmas. Manager Chris Wilder made seven changes from the side that won at Watford on the weekend and with many regular selections suffering with injuries, there was a smattering of youngsters involved.

In saying that, it was seven changes from the team which drew at Middlesbrough as well for City as only Jesper Daland, Cian Ashford, Rubin Colwill and Ollie Tanner remained. Omer Riza gave Ethan Horvarth a rare start in goal, Ronan Kpakio was at right wing back, with Tanner on the left, Joel Bagan and Will Fish were in a back three, with Perry Ng accompanying Joe Ralls, who was making his 400th appearance for the club, in midfield and Kion Etete was in senior team action for the first time this season up front.

Etete only played the first forty five minutes, which I assume was always the plan, rather than down to more injury problems, and featured prominently in the opening stages as City took the initiative. 

The former Spurs man did pretty well in general, but will probably be disappointed not to have found the net from at least one of two presentable chances in the opening six minutes. For the first, he got his head to a fine, early cross by Colwill, but goalkeeper Adam Davies got down to turn the ball aside. Within a couple of minutes, Ashford did brilliantly to flick past Jamal Baptiste and race clear in the inside right channel. Just like he did at Watford for the winning goal, Ashford had the presence of mind to play what should have been the perfect pass for another assist only for Colwill to take it away from the better placed Etete with a heavy first touch. From making a mess of things, Colwill then did well to tee up Etete with a clever back heel, but when the shot finally came in, it flew a couple of yards high and wide.

That second chance especially should have been scored by one of the two players involved and as the home side began to push forward more, you wondered if City’s best oportunities had come and gone already.

However, that was to reckon without Ashford who came up with a decisive goal that was all his own work as he robbed Blades captain Rhys Norrington-Davies, then had the pace to keep far enough ahead of the Welsh international and take the ball into the penalty area before calmly side footing past the advancing Davies.

I may be wrong here, but I think this was the first goal of this type that we’ve scored all season (Callum Robinson’s goal at Hull was similar, but he didn’t need to be that quick as he was played into plenty of space). By that I mean one of our players was able to get clear of the last man and once in behind the defence he took the ball on to score – we’ve not had the sort of players to do that until now.

To be honest, Sheffield were so out of sorts going forward that, despite getting more careless in the second half with their passing, City held on to their lead with few alarms until the game was almost over.

Horvarth showed the usual limitations with his kicking, but was safe and assured in his handling when tested by Louie Marsh, Rhian Brewster and Ryan One and with all three starting centrebacks doing a steady job (plus Tom Davies, who slotted in there as part of a reshuffle caused by an injury to Kpakio which forced him off at half time as Ng switched to wing back and Bagan moved into midfield).

Etete’s replacement was Irish forward Luke Pearce who returned from his loan spell at Sligo Rovers last month. It was a first look at the ex Southampton player for most City fans, myself included, and he showed up well despite not getting a lot of quality service in a scrappy second half in which both teams’ passing got more slipshod.

City were now playing more on the break, but the chances were still there for them as Bagan and Colwill worked a good one two only for the former to put his left foot shot well over. Tanner then chest controlled an Ng cross really well before sending his shot a couple of yards over, Ashford who, as Nathan Blake said in commentary, seems to always make the right decisions, forced Davies into another diving save and then Ralls’ precise effort after being well set up by Pearce hit the side netting.

Before City’s win was confirmed though, the home team came up with what was by some distance their best effort of the night as Harrison Burrows beat a couple of players and then shot against an upright from twenty yards with Horvarth well beaten.

So, one hundred years after a single goal, this time for Sheffield, separated these two teams in the FA Cup Final, City gained a win to match the 3-1 triumph on the same ground in the Third Round back in 1972. We were struggling in the second tier then as well, but Sheffield were in the top flight due to that notorious 5-1 win over us some nine months earlier – that giant killing is another game which doesn’t tend to get remembered much among older fans as attention focuses on that earlier hammering we took. However, with a first clean sheet since our draw at West Brom almost three months ago to celebrate, we can now focus on who we’ll get next for a few days and our win means that the home league game with Hull scheduled for February 8 will have to be rearranged.

One last thing, with many of the regular under 21 team on duty tonight, it was a much more inexperienced side than normal which travelled to Ipswich yesterday and from the highlights I saw, it was something of a case of men against boys as a much bigger home side won by 5-1 to suggest that the likely loaning out of some of our young professionals will see us having a less successful second half to the season than we did first. The only good news was that there was another good finish by Mannie Barton to get us back to 2-1 going into the second half, but this was an afternoon when we were well beaten by a better team.

.

Posted in Out on the pitch, The stiffs | Tagged , , | 7 Comments