I said on here last weekend that I thought a draw would have been a fair outcome for our season opener at home to Norwich, but I think that was a minority view among both partisans and neutrals because I’ve heard so much since then about how City were deserved winners.
So, if I now say that I was perhaps being over generous to Norwich and we were the better team, it means that we were deserving winners over a team that were tipped by many to be top of the league come May.
Today, we travelled to Reading, a team that I think was unanimously tipped to go down in the various online prediction pieces I saw and heard in the week before the season started, and we end up losing 2-1 and, frankly, we could have few complaints about the outcome.
Long time Championship watchers will not be too surprised by those outcomes because it is a league which specialises in such inconsistencies, so I’m not treating today’s result as any sort of disaster, but, with Steve Morison saying that we didn’t turn up and issuing an apology for this to the two thousand travelling fans, you can get an idea why it was frustrating to see us not really do anything that well and, to a degree, revert to exactly the type of football we are supposed to be moving on from.
We weren’t great last season, but we did gain a lot of points away from home in particular after falling a goal behind, so it was also galling that we went a goal up inside the first five minutes today and were clearly the better team for the next twenty minutes or more, but the whole game turned on a completely avoidable penalty which will have people wishing for a return to Morrison/Flint type defending very soon if the sort of errors which contributed to it are continued.
I’ll talk about that in more detail shortly, but, first, our goal. Callum O’Dowda had been an effective aerial target for Ryan Allsop on the rare occasions he kicked it long last week and here he won a header in the first fifteen seconds which caused some consternation in the Reading back line, so, when Ryan Wintle floated in a free kick from close to the corner flag three minutes later, you would have expected him to be one of the players in our no longer so tall side that the home team would have been paying particular attention to, but not a bit of it, O’Dowda easily lost his man (apparently, it was fellow Republic of Ireland international Jeff Hendrick) to guide his far post header across keeper Joe Lumley and into the net.
For a while after that, City passed it quite crisply, but, just as it was last week, there was little to suggest that they could score two in a game – there was one exception to that though when, following a rare Reading attack, City broke to good effect as Sheyi Ojo (better than last week I thought) ran a long way with the ball before picking out the right pass to set up O’Dowda for an angled shot which Lumley blocked into an inviting area in front of the Reading goal, but there was no City attacker within yards of the ball to accept what would have been a tap in.
City were, up to a point anyway, looking dangerous as they got into promising areas about thirty yards from the Reading goal, but then things would break down because of a wrong option taken or a piece of poor technique.
At this stage, Reading had offered very little and, having lost their last four Championship games without scoring a goal, looked a side bereft of confidence as the City fans started chanting Cedric Kipre’s name after he’d ventured deep into Reading’s half to force the home team to pass back to Lumley.
Whether Kipre was a bit disorientated as he rushed back to his normal position, I don’t know, but when Lumley launched what should have been a routine punt downfield, Kipre completely missed his header and suddenly Tom Ince was bearing down on goal with just Allsop to beat. The man we tried to sign nine years ago as we prepared for our first season in the Premier League took the ball around Allsop and was just about to put it into the net when he was grabbed by Curtis Nelson, deputising for the banned Perry Ng, for an obvious penalty.
Having been applauded by the home fans for awarding just about as clear a penalty as you could wish to see, referee Darren England then incensed them (and the most biased commentator I’ve ever heard on local radio), by only showing Nelson a yellow card.
Although it was quite funny to hear Radio Berkshire’s finest ranting on for the rest of the first half about the fact that Nelson was still on the pitch as he lambasted the “muppet” referee, I had to admit that he had a point – we really should have had our second red card of this season that’s barely started yet.
Shane Long, the scourge of Cardiff in the 2011 Play Off Semi Final versus Reading beat Allsop from the spot and City we’re never the same after that. Reading were nothing special, but they gradually became the more urgent and physically stronger team as we again struggled to deal with the sort of long ball from a keeper that a Morrison or Flint would have ate up every day of the week.
Although I just said Reading were nothing special, they would occasionally come up with a quick and skillful passage of passing that we were unable to match and from one such move, left wing back Nesta Guinness-Walker shot over on the stretch from no more than five yards out.
The half ended with Slough’s Barry Davies haranguing the ref for not blowing for half time as Andy Rinomhota underwent treatment for a kick to the head that necessitated his withdrawal at the interval and his replacement by Joe Ralls.
For a while, City looked like they could regain their former control as Ralls clipped in a lovely free kick that was almost turned in at the far post by Kipre, then seconds before his withdrawal for Mark Harris, the otherwise anonymous Max Watters was denied a goal when home centreback Tom McIntyre got the barest of flicks on Ojo’s cross to send the ball just over his head.
That signaled an end to City’s brief improvement as Reading edged their way back into things to the extent that it became increasingly clear that, if there was going to be a third goal, it would be them who got it.
When it came, it provoked a hysterical reaction from the commentator, but it was justified if you were a Reading fan because it was a spectacular twenty five yard effort from Ince that beat Allsop all ends up. However, the two former players who were sharing commentary duties with the man who made that Norwegian “your boys rook a hell of a beating” commentator from the eighties sound calm and reasonable both remarked on how annoyed Steve Morison would be with the yards of room Ince was given to get his shot away.
After that, things really went off the rails for City – Mahlon Romeo, who had got forward to good effect early on, became the second player to go off after being kicked in the head by an opponent and Steve Morison used this break to introduce three more subs with Tom Sang going to right wing back and Jaden Philogene and new signing Kion Etete replacing Ojo and Romaine Sawyers.
Etete a twenty year old six foot four or six inch, depending on which on line site you visit, striker was signed this week from Spurs for £500,000 on a three year contract with initial reports suggesting that the London club rated him so highly that they insisted on a buy back clause before agreeing to sell him.
Subsequent stories have suggested that there is no buy back clause in Etete’s contract, but there is the more usual sell on one whereby Spurs would get a percentage of any subsequent fee City received from his sale.
An impressive highlights video, which, unfortunately, is no longer available to view it would appear, from his loan spells with Northampton and Cheltenham last season suggests that, despite his height, Etete does his best work when the ball is played to his feet. However, I can think of at least two tall City centre forwards of the fairly recent past that the same applied to, but both Kenneth Zohore and Keiffer Moore soon got used to the ball being whacked up into the air at them and, unfortunately, Etete’s first experience of playing for Cardiff offered a repeat of this as old habits returned despite most of the players on show having only joined us in the last few months.
Etete’s impact on proceedings was limited then and so was that of the other debutant Pihilogene, apart from one brief flash of quality when he seemed to be running up a blind alley on the left before playing a clever cut back to Kipre stood unmarked just inside the penalty area who I’m afraid reacted like you might expect a big centre half to in such a position.
This, and a near post header glanced over by Harris were the only incidents worth recording as City slipped pretty feebly to a defeat they could have few complaints about and attention now shifts to Tuesday’s League Cup game with Portsmouth where you’d expect other squad members to get their chance. Anyone who shows a degree of creativity will surely be noted by our manager – he’s barely out of his teens, but we really could do with a fit and ready Rubin Colwill at the moment.
There was only one pre season friendly played at age group level in the last week as far as I’m aware – the under 21s beat Pontypridd United 2-0 at Leckwith, thanks to second half goals from Eli King and Morgan Wigley.
Finally, as has been the habit at the start of a new season in recent years, can I ask readers if they’re willing to make a donation towards the running costs of the blog. I say running costs towards the blog, but, that’s not really true this time because this year any donations will go towards costs incurred in the production and publication of the book I aim to have out for sale by October.
As mentioned this time last year, I decided to do another review of a season to follow on from Real Madrid and all that which was about 1970/71. This one is about the 1975/76 season and will be called Tony Evans walks on water. Currently, I would say I’m about 90 per cent of the way through the writing of the book – I should finish that by mid August and then it will be a question of tidying it up, proof reading, inserting a few photos and designing a cover before sending it off for printing.
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Poor first goal to concede but did Kipre get a sly nudge in the back from the Reading player behind him which contributed to him missing the header? Difficult to see from the highlight packages. Worrying that in the 2 games so far we are not creating many chances.
Lots of pundits wondering how well so many new players would gel together before season started – I wonder how much the changes to starting XI before game and at halftime were responsible for far more disappointing performance than last week?
You picked out O’Dowda’s good work in the air generally and well worked set-piece goal but I think it also should be said that he shot tamely after being released by Ojo (Ojo did not follow up to try and get into the box) probably because of a Championship first touch and good work of covering defender. Watters had done well to come back onside and was ready at back post for a tap-in but no one threatening middle of the goal.
I think it was a foul on Kipre (Reading player’s arms definitely extend to push him as he jumps) but it was subtle and Kipre’s initial position was off so ref was fooled into thinking Kipre was trying to save his blushes. Nelson (101+ caps at Championship level) is far, far too experienced to do what he did and Allsop’s dive was that of a 40 year old keeper rather than a 30 year old – he went long far more often yesterday than against Norwich so was that something in their team we wanted to exploit or what’s going to happen when Nelson replaces NG?
Ryan Wintle was visibly annoyed after conceding the second and with very good reason: Hendrick and Ince were left in acres of space by the City midfielders. Arguably Wintle starting far too high up the pitch but it’s Ralls (club captain) jogging back as a bystander. It was really pathetic defending by us as a unit before the sensational strike.
4 points from opening two games would have been as much as we could have hoped for before a ball was kicked so 3 points is good. It’s just not come the game we were expecting.
Good observations as usual from Paul and from DJ. The video of the game clearly shows Kipre was pushed as he went to head the ball. In addition there was cover of the goal behind Nelson which would account for the referee’s decision as did the fact that the Reading player was moving away from goal. DJ’s comment that Watters had positioned himself himself well to be at the back post in readiness for a tap-in. I was disappointed that he was not kept on the field when Etete came on because his movement is usually that of a natural goal-scorer. and, it seems, Etere can not only score goals and also make them. This could be grist of the mill for Watters. In fact, I feel that he is not getting fair play or the right balls to score. Hopefully, he is given a run in the first team.
Morning all and thanks for your responses. BBIF, I’ve watched the penalty incident a few times now and I think you’ve got it right with your use of the word “slight” to describe the contact there undoubtedly is on Kipre. I’m not convinced that it contributed that much to him misjudging the ball so much as it seems to me that he had already got caught underneath the ball because his original position was wrong. Anthony, I’m also not convinced that the covering defender you mention would have been able to stop Ince scoring if there had been no contact on him by Nelson who I still consider very fortunate to stay on the pitch. Nelson has copped an awful lot of criticism since Saturday, but I think it’s pretty harsh – what he did wrong in my book was to commit the foul in the first place because he was running the risk of a double jeopardy where he concedes the penalty and, in all likelihood doesn’t stop Reading equalising while also running the very real risk that he would be putting his team down to ten men for three quarters of the game as well. In saying that, I appreciate it was all spur of the moment stuff when it is well nigh impossible to make considered decisions, but there was the chance that Ince would miss the target or Anthony’s ;ast ditch defender may have kept the ball out.
On pne of the messageboards I post links to my post game reaction pieces on, it was suggested that Paul Ince did a number on City by instructing Shane Long to “mark” Ryan Wintle when City were looking to play out from the back (this was mentioned on the club website commentary of the game apparently). My response to that is that Wintle, like his team, faded after a bright start so there may be some truth in it, but it seems a fairly obvious tweak that was bound to be tried against City soon if Wintle was playing as well as he did against Norwich and you’d have hoped City had a Plan B in place in readiness if their opponents tried to stop WIntle getting on the ball.
Finally, a few words about Max Watters who I thought had a very good game against Swindon in our last warm up match and I hoped he was finally getting on to the same wavelength as his team mates. Unfortunately, the evidence of our league games so far suggests that, unless we’re chasing the game, our striker is going to be as isolated as ever despite the attempts to change the way we play. Other more experienced strikers would probably make a bit better job of playing up front for us than Watters does, but it still seems like such a hard position to play in because we’ve still not got a midfield player who is going to make supporting runs beyond him on a regular basis and, although O’Dowda is off the mark now, neither him nor Ojo don’t strike me as naturals when it comes to becoming that second forward when balls come in from the opposite wing. People have written off Watters and it may be that they’ll be proved right that he is not up to Championship level, but I’d like to see him not having to fend for himself so much before I give up on him.