The most open Championship in years?

Posted on November 11, 2012 by The other Bob Wilson

A fortnight ago City turned in what has been described as the most complete performance of the Malky Mackay era in beating Burnley 4-0 at Cardiff City Stadium. When you consider that we had two players from that game (Don Cowie and Matt Connolly) missing through injury to go with the medium to long term absences to Craig Bellamy, Tommy Smith, Jordon Mutch and Nicky Maynard and that we ended up having to make changes, which involved one of our team playing in an unfamiliar position, following a further injury to Kevin McNaughton (his replacement Filip Kiss also only lasted twenty five minutes or so before a tight hamstring forced him to be taken off at half time), then I’d say there was an argument for saying yesterday’s 2-1 home win over Hull was even more impressive. Whether that is true or not, I wouldn’t mind betting that there were a fair few Burnley and Hull fans thinking that they had just been beaten by a promotion team as they headed north on their journeys home.

How is it then that we played like drains at Charlton in midweek having also lost yet again on our travels at Bolton a week ago? I put this question not as a prelude to another analysis of our away day problems (I’ve done more than enough of them already!), but more to simply ask how can we be so inconsistent? Well, I’m not going to try to answer that question (mainly because I can’t!), but what I have done is undertake some research into previous seasons which I believe shows a couple of things – firstly fans of sides that went up in an automatic promotion place must have been asking the same question at this stage of the campaign in almost half of the nine completed seasons since we returned to this level and second,  the 2012/13 Championship is shaping up as the most open one in years because so many teams have the same inconsistency problems as us.

To deal with the second point first, the fewest number of defeats suffered amongst the twenty four Championship clubs is three by Palace, Blackburn and Forest with too many draws tending to negate the benefits such a record should bring in the case of the latter two. That figure is high compared to the nine completed seasons we’ve spent in this division since 2003 seasons though – in fact,  it’s only matched in 2008/09 when you look at the table after sixteen matches. In 10/11 and 04/05 there were sides still unbeaten at this stage (QPR and Wigan respectively) and in 05/06, Reading had only lost once. Therefore, taken overall, the oft repeated line about the Championship being a league where any team at the bottom can beat the team at the top in any given week applies even more in 12/13.

Heidar Helguson beats Ben Amos to score in the third minute from a cross which he probably had no right to reach.

This is further backed up when you look at how many sides have topped the league so far this season. 12/13 is also unusual in that, whereas the opening month of a campaign tends to see different sides topping the table every week, Blackpool led the league for all of this time – except for the day or so after we beat Huddersfield the night before everyone else played their first match. However, since they lost their position at the top in mid September, Blackburn, Brighton, Cardiff (twice), Leicester and Palace have all led the league with Middlesbrough having their few hours at the top as well through playing before every else did this weekend.

Since losing their first three matches, Palace have been far and away the most consistent team in the division and, provided they can keep hold of their best players in January, I’m beginning to think they can go the distance. So far though, there has been no side really sending out the signal that this is going to be their year in the way that QPR, Newcastle, Reading and Wigan, for example,  have done in the past. Five defeats at this stage of the season is a lot for a team with automatic promotion aspirations, but that is the number that last season’s Champions Reading had suffered after sixteen games, as had 10/11 and 07/08 runner’s up Norwich and Stoke, while, remarkably, 06/07 Champions Sunderland had been beaten nine times by now.

Given the anyone can beat anyone nature of the early months of the 12/13 Championship, it seems to me that sides may be able to suffer more defeats and finish the season with less points than what is considered the norm for automatic promotion and a Play off place, so our woeful away results are not working out as harmful as they would be in other seasons.

Turning to yesterday’s game, besides Palace, the form sides in the league have been our next visitors Middlesbrough, who looked very impressive in beating Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night, and Hull City who had won five out of six before yesterday (the one defeat in that run being at Middlesbrough) and had also turned it on for the TV cameras in winning at Ashton Gate recently. However, in my opinion, they were beaten a lot more comfortably than the score suggests yesterday – they left complaining about a handball decision that saw a goal disallowed in first half stoppage time, but I was sat in line with Simpson when he put the ball in and he looked offside to me. Besides that Sone Aluko (dangerous at times, but not as influential as I feared he might be) clipped the bar with a free kick and Hull passed the ball about quite prettily at times in a manner we couldn’t, or didn’t want to, match.

However, for the first twenty minutes as the City strikers were fed a string of quality crosses and for most of the second half when the always impressive Joe Ralls improved things, I’d say we passed the ball more effectively than our opponents. That’s not to say we didn’t play our fair share of neat and intricate passes either – there was an incisiveness to a lot of our passing (which invariably was looked to be played forward rather than sideways or backwards) which Hull couldn’t match and this, together, with the aforesaid good crossing from dead ball and open play meant that we looked dangerous nearly every time we attacked.

Kim Bo Kyung and Craig Noone signal that Heidar Helguson needs treatment after colliding with the post while putting us 1-0 up. The match was held up for six minutes while Helguson received treatment, but he was able to carry on and continue causing opponents three or four inches taller than him problems in the air and on the ground.

As for individuals, I’ve got to say that, having been a bit so, so about him up to now, I was impressed by Heidar Helguson. Sat at the other end of the ground, I presumed that Craig Noone’s cross would be a routine one for Hull keeper Amos to gather and it took me a little while to realise that Helguson had, effectively, outjumped him to head the ball in. My immediate reaction when I realised it was a goal was to put it down to a goalkeeping howler and I still feel Amos could have done better with it, but Helguson made it very difficult for him and the desire he showed to get to the ball first was excellent. As Aron Gunnarsson said in his post match press conference, there are many players who wouldn’t have bothered going for that ball in the knowledge that they were going to get clattered by the keeper (not to mention hit the post as well!) and, based on the courage he showed in scoring and the way he threw himself back into the fray after six minutes of treatment, you can understand why Malky Mackay called Helguson the bravest player he’s seen after the game.

Peter Whittingham was back to his normal standards in general play and probably above them in terms of his dead ball delivery, as only a fine save and, later, the woodwork denied him from free kicks and his corners were always bang on the mark, while Kim Bo Kyung had his most effective game so far, mixing some lovely skills with effective passing and a great willingness to work for the team. Aron Gunnarsson missed an easy chance in that opening period when City would not have been flattered by a three goal lead, but he was doing a fine job in midfield and proved to be a perfectly adequate right back (I’d not want to see him used there if McNaughton and Connolly are both going to be out for a while though), while the cross he put in for the second goal was as good as anything seen from a City player from that position this season. As for the scorer of that second goal, it was much better from Mark Hudson (as it was for all of the back four) – being hyper critical, he could have done better with the header which gave Koren the opportunity to score a superb goal in the dying minutes, but, overall Hudson played to the level he’s tended to show in home matches this season.

There’s not getting away from the fact that away performances and results have been very disappointing – they need to improve a hell of a lot and it was right that Tuesday’s shambles at Charlton received the criticism it did, but it’s also only right that the team are praised when they play well and I believe they have done more than this in the last two home matches. City were very good yesterday and against Burnley – they also showed against Hull that, in midfield at least, they have the strength in depth to be a top two side despite those five defeats by early November.

The statue of Fred Keenor at the main entrance to the ground was unveiled before yesterday’s game – I’m biased and I know it has it’s share of critics, but I don’t think we’d have such a fine memorial to the man who captained us on the greatest day in our history if it were not for the efforts of the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust.

Finally, a word of praise to all involved in making it possible for the statue of 1927 Cup Final captain Fred Keenor to be unveiled at the ground yesterday (and to those who put together the commemorative brochure to go with it). I’m no expert on these matters, but, having seen it close up before the game, the statue certainly compares favourably with some I’ve seen at other grounds – once again, thanks to all involved.

 

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Rare red card for City in Under 18’s stalemate.

Posted on November 11, 2012 by The other Bob Wilson

I honestly don’t know when the first team last had a player sent off (they’ve not had one this season yet and they didn’t have one last year) and as red cards in Academy matches are a real rarity (I’d only seen one City player red carded before today and that must be about five years ago), I reckon it was probably getting on for two years since we’d had one in a competitive match at any level until left back Kane Owen was dismissed in today’s 1-1 draw for the Under 18’s against Brighton at Leckwith. Owen was given a straight red card with about a quarter of an hour to go for a lunging tackle on the far side of the pitch form where I was sat and as I was looking directly into the sun, it’s hard to comment as to whether the sending off was justified or not – Owen showed his frustration by ripping off his captain’s armband and throwing it to the ground, but I saw no protests from any of his team mates at the decision.

If a red card was unusual at this level, it has to be said that this was quite a spicy affair from the start with tackles flying in from both sides, I must admit that City were the main transgressors as well during an opening period that Brighton dominated. That we were second best early on wasn’t too much of a surprise because the impressive midfield attacking axis of Wharton, O’Sullivan and Bowen that I remarked about after our win over Millwall a fortnight ago were all missing from this match for all but the first twenty minutes or so – the first two named were rested (presumably with Tuesday’s Development team game against Swansea in mind) and Jaye Bowen had to go off with an injury about midway through the first half.

I’d read before that sides at every level at Brighton are instructed to play the same sort of patient, build from the back, passing game that the first team plays and this was certainly true of their Under 18’s early on as they overwhelmingly dominated possession without really threatening much (I can only remember a dangerous low cross causing City any problems), but the game changed around the quarter of an hour mark when City began to press the visitors further up the pitch. Brighton looked nowhere near as assured after this and City were able to show that they could put together some good passages of play themselves, while also looking a lot more of an attacking threat than their opponents had done during their good spell.

City had the better of the rest of the first half and should have been given the chance to get the first goal when Gethyn Hill was brought down for what looked an obvious penalty when he went for a good cross after a fine run by Curtis Watkins (at least I think it was him – it was our number four anyway!), but, amazingly, the ref waved play on. The officials got it right a few minutes later though, when our number ten went on a lovely run down the right and delivered a fine cross which Hill put into the net only to be denied by a linesman’s flag for offside. At this stage, City were benefiting both from the dominance of their wide players over the Brighton full backs and the visitors continually given the ball away well inside their own half as they got into trouble trying to stick to their passing principles. Both Hill and the substitute for Bowen (wearing number 14), wasted good chances by going for goal when they could have passed to better placed colleagues and there were a few opportunities which were wasted by a careless first touch when a goal looked on. When one did come, it was against the run of play – Brighton had been coming back into things a little, but the header to put them ahead from a well delivered free kick came as a real surprise. City’s response was impressive though and they were level within a minute when the number 14 equalised from close range after the Brighton keeper had made a good diving save to keep out a well struck low shot by Ben Watkins.

Kane Owen – red card ruined what had been a good performance by a player who has made significant progress this season.

That was the last action of the first half and I wandered over to the adjacent pitch as the half ended to watch the Under 16’s match for a while. As it turned out, I watched the rest of that game and will describe what I saw later on, but it did mean that I missed the bulk of the second half of the Under 18’s encounter. When I did get back to it, Owen was sent off within about five minutes of me arriving and this ensured that the pattern of the game in those few minutes before the red card was maintained until the final whistle as the visitors pressed forward looking for a winning goal. Much as in the early stages of the first half though, it was dominance for Brighton without much of an end product – City were looking tired by this stage and were hanging on as their numerical disadvantage began to tell, but apart from a fine save by Liam Matthews (who had an impressive game), they never really looked like conceding.

Therefore, a game which never provided the entertainment levels of recent Under 18 matches I’ve seen ended 1-1, but not before there had been another flashpoint as players from both sides squared up to each other. The spark for this incident was some retaliation after a City foul and I got the feeling that the two main protagonists might have got their marching orders rather than a yellow card if it had not been for the earlier sending off.

Taking into account the weakened team they had out and the sending off, this was another decent performance by the Under 18’s – I wish I could identify a few more of them because they are showing that they aren’t a bad team at all compared to some of the Under 18 sides I’ve seen since the Academy opened . There appears to be a bit more all round strength in this side and they coped well today without the three players who are probably their main match winners.

As for the Under 16’s, they were 2-0 down when I started watching, but, apart from one fine save by their keeper from a rare Brighton attack, they piled on the pressure and created chance after chance. Unfortunately only one of them was taken (by Tyler Roche who had been so impressive when he played in the Under 18’s earlier in the season), but they really should have got at least a draw from the game – based on what I saw at least.

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