This will be the shortest match reaction piece in the sixteen years plus history of this blog. We’re still being told what a good season City are having, but for this spell between the first and second international breaks of the season, we’ve mixed some very good performances (Burnley and Wigan) with some very concerning, poor ones (Stockport, Burton and, despite the result, Leyton Orient).
I’m not going to get too worked up about losing to a Newport team that were better than us tonight in the lower league. cup thingy we’re in apart from to record that on a night where we created a record for our youngest ever player only to break it about an. hour later, it was nowhere near a full strength side, instead it was a curious case of a mixture of experienced first teamers and largely untried youngsters.
So, it was not the losing at home to Newport, even a Newport at the bottom of League Two, that bothers me, it’s that, once again, the senior players failed to perform. In particular, Wintle and Turnbull didn’t work again in midfield, Chambers wasn’t terrible, but he was no more than five out of ten, while Kellyman and Salech, both so effective off the bench on Saturday both played as if they were going through the motions tonight.
What interest the game generated from a Cardiff point of view centred on the various youngsters that featured. Rob Tankiewicz became City’s youngest first teamer at the age of 16 years and 117 days, but on sixty three minutes, he was replaced by Axel Donczew who is just 15 years and 234 days old!
Although there was a bit of an Aaron Ramsey like desire to take two many touches, I thought Donczew was the second best of the youngsters on view, best for me was starting left back TJ Parfitt who I’m pretty sure I was seeing, like Donczew, for the first time.
As for the game, Newport were much the better team in the first half and finally gained the lead they deserved just before the interval when ex City man Tom Davies headed home on the far post – can’t help thinking he’d provide better cover at left back than we have currently if he was still with us.
City had to improve in the second half and they did but not enough to cause Newport too many problems. In fact, all I can remember in the way of chances for City was a flicked header by sub Callum Robinson which he should have got on target instead of sending way wide.
An interesting game, Paul.
And the weirdest thing for me was my lifelong Cardiff City love affair was curiously ditched around the 65 minute mark, when I realised that I was praying County would hold on for the win…!!
Should I be shot at dawn? Maybe. But I cannot help it, if that is indeed what I felt.
Why should I be this way? Not sure of the reasons. But a basic dislike of BBM’s personality seems to be colouring my judgement. The way that man has treated Jak has been disgusting: I cannot bear to look at the official squad photo with Jak omitted and an inferior keeper alongside Trott as his #2. And then I look at BBM seated in the middle of the front row, looking with that smug smile like the cat who had got all the cream… and reminding me for all the world like a General Montgomery seated front centre of his Eighth Army men.
https://tinyurl.com/kuu5ntb3
What happened to managerial modesty of old?
Here at Blundell Park in the McMenemy Suite, there are framed photos on the wall of Grimsby players long gone to meet their Maker.
I recall asking two Town season ticket holders if they knew who the craggy little guy in the tracksuit was, standing on the end of the back row of a squad photo, taken back in the early 1950s.
They had no idea. I gave them a clue: ‘he was one of the 5 most influential people in British football in the 1960s and early to mid 1970s’. They still could not name Town’s then manager… Bill Shankly.
But there he was, standing at the end of the back row.
Similarly, the picture of the 1966 World Cup winners* showed manager Alf Ramsey standing self-effacingly at the end (not even the start!) of the back row… https://tinyurl.com/3haphkuw
Not with this BBM guy. When he wins we have seen him take a personal lap of honour, shaking hands with fans. I did not see him doing that last night, following his team’s truly pitiful showing.
As for the game itself…
like you say Paul, Chambers was ‘not hopeless’, but if he has a place in the team then it is surely in midfield. The way that he showed no chance of outpacing the County centre forward for that run on goal which was hit straight at our keeper, was deeply worrying.
The way Fish lost his man Davies at the far post for their winner, was also pretty poor.
The amount of ponderous square passes between them, brought back the ghosts of Bulut and Riza: worse still was similar pedestrian square passes from the supposedly ‘creative’ midfielders of Turnbull, Kellyman and Wintle.
BBM went back to playing Salech up front alone… and even County’s central defenders found a ‘lone striking Salech’ (when we lack wingers to get to the byline to cross the ball for him to run onto)… no problem. Will BBM never learn?
Robbo when he came on missed a sitter of a header… but then he has never been an aerial threat, even back in his pomp at Deepdale.
Our 2nd keeper inspires no confidence in me: he can be pleased that the referee gave us a free kick for his fumble… some refs would have allowed that goal to stand.
Anyway, I was pleased for the County. They were the better team on the night, and I hope they can avoid the drop this season… and if they play most games like they did last night, they will.
*interesting to think that there is only one man in that photo still alive…
TTFN,
Dai.
I’vw found the City and Wales games thisa week very hard to get excited about Dai. In both cases, the team I support played like drains and, rather like you, I was pretty much wanting County to win by the end given the lamentable contributions of most of the experienced City players involved.
Can I apologise for the lack of a reaction piece to our rolling over to let England tickle our tummy on Thursday. I did write something on the game and then proceeded to lose it somewhere when I was in the process of copying aad pasting it into the blog yesterday morning. I did start to type it out again, but decided not to bother because all it was was a bit of a rant against Craig Bellamy who I’m sorry to say, seems to be turning Wales into a worse team this season – certainly, performances have got worse the longer the qualifying campaign has gone on. I find Bellamy’s continuing selection of Liam Cullen over Jordan James mystifying and the same applies to the workload he gave to Ethan Ampadu as he was, effectively, asked to look after Rogers, Rice and Anderson.
Paul compadre,
I endorse your every word about the Wembley debacle… and I have the added hangover that came from watching on my TV all ninety odd minutes of the pathetic 0-7 surrender of our boys* at Rodney Parade, last night.
And to think that I thought that our 2-6 hiding from the Danes at the same ground recently (having been two up) was an all time low…!!
I am hoping the Senedd can take their passports from them so they are not allowed to bring further shame on us abroad.
You are sooo right about Jordan James incidentally. Judging by his form this season, he should have been the first name on the teamsheet.
* is it an omen? They were playing… BELGIUM…!!
TTFN,
Dai.
I’m afraid a lot of my backing for our Under 21s didn’t survive the farcical mess which saw us unable to play our strongest team in a really important game during the last qualifying campaign Dai.I watched quite a bit of the game with Denmark where we went 2-0 up early on only to concede six unanswered goals after that and I gave up on Friday’s game when I started watching after ten minutes by which time we were already 2-0 down. I’ve always had a lot of time for Matt Jones who was shaping up to be a really good player when he sustained his career ending injury, but he’s not doing much of a job with the under 21s I’m afraid and wouldn’t be surprised to see him sacked soon.
It’s not all bad for Wales during this international break though, the Under 19s beat the Netherlands 2-0 in their four team mini tournament also involving Switzerland and England – having lost to the Swiss before playing the Dutch, they now face England in their final fixture.