Cardiff City were as poor tonight at Huddersfield Town as they were good against Bolton on Saturday, they deserved nothing from the game, but escaped with a point as the home team conceded an added time equaliser for the third home game in four.
Fair play to the City commentators tonight, they brought up the game at Stockport in September when we were awful for about ninety six minutes before Yousef Salech nodded the goal which made it 1-1 about two minutes before the Dane did exactly the same thing here!
The similarity with the Stockport match was uncanny. In saying that, it is a tribute to the squad that they’ve managed to play the BBM way (which I’ve said before on here is not easy for a League One team to do) so well for so much of the season. Tonight, just like at Stockport, we made playing the game in the way our manager wants us to look very hard indeed, but that’s not happened too often in our forty two matches so far.
Throw in as well that we got lucky to the extent that Huddersfield had a legitimate goal disallowed for offside, hit the crossbar twice and Nathan Trott made three great saves in his second best performance of the season (think Luton away was probably his best) , then this was  definitely a case of floodlight robbery!
Tonight’s point means that although Bolton’s 5-1 win over Stevenage greatly helps their goal difference, they’ve still got virtually no chance of overhauling us now and the same will apply to Bradford if we get one more point. Stockport can still require us to win another game if they win their last six, but it’s still a case of almost there, yet we can’t start celebrating just yet -although you may think some of the team had been already judging by their performances tonight!
I shouldn’t have got annoyed about tonight as much as I did because the players don’t deserve that over the course of the last eight months, but you would have needed the patience of a saint to have not reacted to the sluggish, careless and often clueless stuff we served up.
I said in my piece on the Bolton’s game that we hadn’t been playing too badly during our iffy run which started at Plymouth, but we were so much worse than that tonight. As mentioned earlier, Nathan Trott was exempt from any criticism and, although he was not at his best, I thought Ryan Wintle did well in challenging circumstances. Apart from that though, I can’t think of anyone who matched the form they’ve shown on a week in, week out basis in 25/26 and, in the case of two or three I would say they were as poor as they’ve been all season.
It was no surprise that BBM went with the same starting line up as on Saturday, but a hint of what was to come arrived in the first minute when Perry Ng played a nothing cross cum shot when played into a promising position by Rubin Colwill.Â
Within a minute of that, Bali Mumba had swept the ball into our net only to be denied by a linesman’s flag which replays showed had been raised in error and three minutes later City escaped again when Marcus Harness smacked a fierce twenty yard shot on to the crossbar.
City were looking very uncomfortable in the early stages and were thankful to Trott when Will Fish missed a cross and Bojan Radulovic free in a central position eight yards out – the keeper should have had no chance, but he thrust out a strong left arm to divert the ball away.
After that, City came into the game a bit more as Ollie Tanner’s best shot out of the three or four he tried flew narrowly over and Omari Kellyman’s header from a Joel Bagan cross had the beating of ex City keeper Jak Alnwick, but flew no more than a foot wide.
For most of the time though, it was laboured and erratic stuff from our attacking players in the face of an energetic and organised Huddersfield press. As such, it wasn’t too much of a surprise when the home side got the goal they deserved on twenty eight minutes through a classy side footed volley by their captain Ryan Ledson from the edge of the penalty area after the ball had been switched from side to side with our full backs getting little defensive help from their wingers.
There were a couple of close shaves for us from Huddersfield corners before half time arrived with us grateful to be just the one down.
BBM would have been entitled to have made a few substitutions during the interval, but opted not to only for the first few minutes of the second period to become a very bitty affair with frequent stoppages for injuries and free kicks.
However, when things settled down a bit, it became clear that City were still struggling to get any pace and quality into their game despite it becoming increasingly apparent that Huddersfield were paying physically for all of that aggressive first half pressing.
There was a snap shot into the side netting by the disappointing Colwill and the quiet Alex Robertson shot not far wide from distance before he was one of three players to make way just before the hour mark. The anonymous Chris Willock and Dylan Lawlor, who seemed to hurt himself in committing the foul that earned him a yellow card, were the others with Salech, David Turnbull and Gabriel Osho coming on.
Osho, the one outfield regular in our squad not to have scored yet this season, hit a twenty five yarder that had Alnwick concerned before it flashed a yard or two wide, but, increasingly, it looked like that would be our last meaningful effort of the night.
Callum Robinson came on for Colwill and his brother replaced Wintle as City managed to get some forward momentum which won us a few corners which came to nothing and it was the home side, finding a second attacking wind as we left gaps at the back, who would have put the game beyond us were it not for Trott,
Replays showed that the keeper got the slightest of touches to Marcus McGuane’s shot from twenty yards to divert it on to the crossbar and then he got down to a Murray Wallace overhead kick from close range for his third brilliant save.
The importance of those saves shone through with two minutes of the added eight left when Tanner, now playing on the left, swung in a cross that Robinson’s glanced towards goal for Salech (was he offside?) to nod in off the post from six yards.
It was the type of goal we’ve not really been able to score in Salech’s absence and, despite him being quiet for much of the close to forty minutes he had on the pitch tonight, it was the sort of goal a six yard box predator can get you – we wouldn’t have got the draw tonight without him.
It was 1-1 as well for the under 21s this afternoon at Colchester. Dan Ola put us 1-0 up, but we could not hang on, so it has to be seen as two points dropped in our faltering bid for a top two finish.
Thanks as ever, Paul.
Do so agree with you that Trott was our only star performance on the night. After the splendid SWIFT FORWARD PASSING masterclass against Bolton, we reverted to the worst of Pep, not the best… that we saw in the second half at Stamford Bridge.
It was the sleep-inducing sideways sideways ‘after you Claude’ stuff again.
But I awoke this morning wondering about an unrelated matter. Did I dream it?
Dream what exactly? Let me quote chapter and verse…
‘…
Joachim Low caught picking nose before appearing to eat it at match.
EURO 2020 fans were stunned to see Joachim Low picking his nose and appearing to eat it as he watched the game unfold at Wembley. (Daily Express, June 30, 2021)
…’
Not since Germany’s team boss Joachim Low was seen vigorously excavating the contents of his nostrils, examining the results and then swallowing same, in a Wembley international, have I seen anything like it.
Every time the Sky cameras cut to BBM at The McAlpine last night, there he was, ‘doing a Joachim’.
As I said, this morning I woke up and wondered if I had dreamt it. But no, I had not. I spotted this on the match thread on the Huddersfield fans’ forum…
‘…
That Cardiff manager’s nostrils have seen a fair bit of action tonight.
…’
Is he trying to curry favour with Vincent, I wonder… for all I know, it may not be a taboo subject in KL… (just like other acts we Brits regard as ‘infra dig’ are similarly not found disgusting in other countries… e.g. ‘expectoration’ in China).
I am about to eat a late breakfast and will be back to MAYA later this morning with some interesting goodies I have culled from Terriers’ fans reactions to last night’s game.
TTFN,
Dai.
Thanks Paul. I agree with your assessment overall and that Trott was our saviour along with Salech. I would temper the criticism a bit by recognising that we are at the fag end of a long season and the style of play demanded by BBM has probably exacerbated this. I understand why he started with the same team as on the weekend but thought that there was enough evidence to show that a goodly number could have been rested at half time.
Looking to the future in the championship next season we cannot afford to have a squad that doesn’t include a back up central striker. Said before I know and probably a bit boring but true nonetheless.
Good morning Paul and thanks for another good report of the game.
I’m sure there were many of us City fans, left scratching our heads, about the almost calamitous start that we made last night. I’ve already said on Facebook, that in my opinion, we’ve used up a bucketful of our stored good luck & good fortune, in one game. The phrase, “these things even themselves out, over a season”, is an oft used comment when we’ve had many things go against in many of our previous games. I believe that you’ve used that phrase on more than one occasion in your post match reports. Lol. However, I never imagined that in one lone game, so many incidents would even things out for us. We indeed rode our luck, as you said.
MOM Trott saved us on more than a few occasions with some superb saves. The onside 2nd minute goal that was ruled offside. Our bar hit twice from their shots. 2 or 3 goal scrambles where we seemed to make finding row Z an impossible task, but somehow we survived with our “keystone cops” defending. Then we were lucky not to have Robertson sent off for a 2nd yellow when he bloodied Sabine’s nose, with what appeared to be an elbow. Then finally Salech looked to be close to being offside for our dramatic equaliser. When you weigh all that up, we were very very lucky.
Added to all that, for much of the game, we played as if promotion, was already home & hosed. Ng looked well off his game with far too many lackadaisical passes & giving the ball away far too often. Colwill Snr was like a headless chicken again with no end product. Kellyman was largely anonymous until he was put on the right wing. Robertson looked as if he couldn’t be bothered for a lot of his time on the pitch and Willock was a shadow of his Saturday performance. Tanner & Wintle were both below par too.
I hope that BBM now ditches the idea of playing Kellyman & Colwill Snr up top, now that Salech is back, as it seems obvious that opposition teams have sussed out how to nullify us in that set-up. We were back to the tippy tappy all around their area, type of game again, which has typified many of our recent games. Colwill Jnr has to start on Saturday.
All that said, what a brilliant point to snatch away from home & I sincerely hope that we can start the promotion party on Saturday if other results go our way on Weds. It’s not over just yet though is it? Why do City do this to us? Lol.
Good morning Paul and thanks for another good report of the game.
I’m sure there were many of us City fans, left scratching our heads, about the almost calamitous start that we made last night. I’ve already said on Facebook, that in my opinion, we’ve used up a bucketful of our stored good luck & good fortune, in one game. The phrase, “these things even themselves out, over a season”, is an oft used comment when we’ve had many things go against in many of our previous games. I believe that you’ve used that phrase on more than one occasion in your post match reports. Lol. However, I never imagined that in one lone game, so many incidents would even things out for us. We indeed rode our luck, as you said.
MOM Trott saved us on more than a few occasions with some superb saves. The onside 2nd minute goal that was ruled offside. Our bar hit twice from their shots. 2 or 3 goal scrambles where we seemed to make finding row Z an impossible task, but somehow we survived with our “keystone cops” defending. Then we were lucky not to have Robertson sent off for a 2nd yellow when he bloodied Sabine’s nose, with what appeared to be an elbow. Then finally Salech looked to be close to being offside for our dramatic equaliser. When you weigh all that up, we were very very lucky.
Added to all that, for much of the game, we played as if promotion, was already home & hosed. Ng looked well off his game with far too many lackadaisical passes & giving the ball away far too often. Colwill Snr was like a headless chicken again with no end product. Kellyman was largely anonymous until he was put on the right wing. Robertson looked as if he couldn’t be bothered for a lot of his time on the pitch and Willock was a shadow of his Saturday performance. Tanner & Wintle were both below par too.
I hope that BBM now ditches the idea of playing Kellyman & Colwill Snr up top, now that Salech is back, as it seems obvious that opposition teams have sussed out how to nullify us in that set-up. We were back to the tippy tappy all around their area, type of game again, which has typified many of our recent games. Colwill Jnr has to start on Saturday.
All that said, what a brilliant point to snatch away from home & I sincerely hope that we can start the promotion party on Saturday if other results go our way on Weds. It’s not over just yet though is it? Why do City do this to us? Lol.
Sincere apologies for my repeat post. Don’t know what happened there
Iain compadre…
Never apologise for speaking good sense TWICE.
Before I comment on Iain making some ace points…
I want to day that I watched the City game in live transmission, then switched to Prime to watch the game from Anfield on repeat, then switched in the wee hours to my Freeview recording of England-Spain… not knowing any of the scores. And guess where I found moments of the greatest skill…?
In the women’s game…!!
Look for the Russo assist for Hemp’s goal… INSPIRED. And then hunt for the move that ends with Hemp hitting the post after Lucy Bronze’s back-heel…
What a goal that would have been…!!
Right… back to the point gained at Huddersfield…
Robertson should have been sent off for a second yellow… which in itself I reckon was a red anyway. He looked first and saw the young lad coming…
Iain is right also in his assessment of Colwill Snr…
(So much for my brilliant theory eh?… i.e. that he is a lot more committed when wearing the armband…)
A few points from me…
That boy Harness is some player, eh? Clear MotM, I reckon.
And we bring Salech on and it takes us nearly half an hour to give him aerial crosses which are his bread and butter… we keep trying to ‘walk it in’.
Many such games exhibiting our slow negative sideways-passing in the Championship next season will see us in the relegation mix by Christmas, but conversely, an exhilarating forward-passing game like we played Bolton off the park with, would see us in the top half of the table.
Culled these remarks from Trotters Online…
1.
‘…
Post by wildhogg:
Can tell their manager was at Man City. Pass, pass, pass, pass, yawn, yawn, bore everyone to death. I realise we’re not very good and they’re promoted (almost), but it’s like watching paint dry.
…’
Bravo! Wildhogg. Spot-on. Only one slight correction… watching paint dry used to be more exciting… that is until the invention of non-drip gloss. (They say that its invention came too late to stop Hitler jacking in his job as a house painter in 1920, fed up and in a continual fearful rage at more paint dripping on his shoes… hence him developing a fetish for shiny black leather jackboots.)
2.
‘…
genuinely cannot fathom what I’ve just watched this evening. The most complete performance all season, 7+ clear goal scoring opportunities.
Cardiff limited to absolutely fricking nothing all night and looked dreadful, get one chance, one goal and it’s offside.
We are so cursed
…’
Cannot disagree with that. And the disallowed goal was memorable for two things… it came from an early cross (corner? Can’t recall without running my recording) where we had nobody on the edge of the D… our coach does not believe in it… and that sublime pass to Mumba was the best pass all night. We did not have that degree of penetrative wit.
And then Huddersfield found themselves given free licence on the edge of our penalty box again some 12 minutes (?) later with the first of their efforts to thwack our crossbar.
And where are all our players when defending corners? As usual, they are crowding our own keeper in his own goal area… making it impossible to get past them to try to pluck a corner out of the air.
Mystifies me. And they call BBM a top coach? Cannot spare a man to control the edge of the D…
3.
‘…
Well, regardless of the result, that was a comparative joy to watch, really enjoyed it. Well done Steady and Drury, they’ve made us play much much better. The team is limited but it’s pretty much the best football we’ve played all season.
…’
4.
‘…
That lino on riverside had an absolute honking game. Mumba onside given offside, salech offside but given goal. The worst one was giving Cardiff a corner when it came off Kellyman’s leg and he had nobody within 5 yards of him
But yet the same linesman managed to think Mumba was offside when he was onside.
…’
5.
‘…
Keeper looked assured and excellent kicking usually finding our man.
…’
That was Jak’s first league start. Good to see his remarkable long kicking recognised by Huddersfield fans… the only one aspect of the custodian’s game where he is superior to Trott. Though paradoxically, by Jak’s high standards I thought his kicking not 100% yesterday.
6.
And finally a #6… one that made me laugh heartily…
This two-way statement/response is slightly coarse, but it really tickled me…
‘…
Mumba has a cock up in him every game…
~ I’m surprised he can even run then.
…’
I can’t top that…
DW
Thanks Paul – usual excellent summary.
Everyone busy with the responses on a wet Wednesday morning! Think we are all feeling the same and not a lot to add.
In summary:-
– we got very lucky
– we were indebted to Trott
– nearly everyone played below the levels set last Saturday
– less of the fast, direct interchanges and more of the sideways tippy-tappy stuff ( 550 passes!)
– very poor start and allowed ourselves to be hassled off the ball, leading to poor passsing and errors
– subs made a difference, honourable mention to Robinson who grafted away and got the assist
– without Salech we would not have equalised
– Tanner pulls out a wicked cross at the death ( with his right foot) after a previously frustrating display
– we showed character to survive that one and find a way to eke out a point
– nearly there now and team to be congratulated on keeping to managers principles of possession football in spite of some real challenges in recent weeks
Hopefully, all can be put to bed away at Reading on Saturday, failing that at CCS next week.
For now just grateful we have got back on track after a serious wobble leading up to the Bolton game which always felt massive – and was!
Thank-you Paul for your prompt offering on the Huddersfield (a) game. Let me try to answer your queries about the two efforts in question. Standing behind those goals during the game I felt there was nothing wrong with either goal as they went in. I was, though, thankful when the linesman flagged that the Huddersfield player was, ‘offside.’ Secondly I thought Salech’s equaliser was a bona fide, ‘goal.’ The relief was palpable.
Having watched the recording of the incidents several times I offer the following. Firstly, even after stopping the recording when the pass was made, I’m still unable to discern whether the Huddersfield player was offside or not. Was Lawlor playing him onside or not? Whatever the correct decision was, there could only have been inches in it one way or the other. All I would say was that the linesman was in a perfect position to make the decision. That said the margins were so small that whether it was or it wasn’t a goal I couldn’t make a decision from viewing the recording filmed from the half-way line.
Concerning the second, it did seem that Salech was offside from Robinson’s flick.
Overall, not the best of performances by a long stretch. Our start was leaden-footed and we could have been a couple down in the first 15 mins. Trott, who was inspired, kept us in the game as we fell far from the heights of last Saturday’s performance. But 1-1 it is in the record books and Cardiff City are inching their way to their desired conclusion for the 2025/26 season.
Thanks all for the replies and apologies for me not acknowledging them yesterday as planned – a power cut meant that I had little option but to spend yesterday morning reading a book which is something I used to do all the time years ago, but barely ever do these days. There’s two points arising from your feedback I want to concentrate on with the first being a comparison between what we saw from us on Saturday and Tuesday.
To begin, I agree that Tuesday was the sort of thing you get when “passing football” is played too slowly. For a start, we rarely looked like we had the ball fully under control and so simple passes that professional footballers would usually take for granted needed that little bit more effort and concentration to play and so tempo was lost. I contend that even with an extreme case of addiction to “playing out from the back” (e.g. Russell Martin), you would never get a manager sending his side out to play as we did for most of Tuesday’s game. Also, I don’t see how any manager could be pleased after seeing his team perform like we did – I don’t like the description “tippy tappy football” applied to any team that generally plays a short passing game which works, but on Tuesday it was a fair description for us because most of the time our passing was too slow and so much of it became pointless.
BBM is very rarely critical of his team, but, in his post game interview as shown on the club website, he called our performance “patchy”, while also mentioning three or four times that we were not as our best – he also compared it unfavourably more than once to how we played on Saturday. This brings me on to the point I want to make – surely, no one is thinking that, having seen his team play as well as they did against Bolton, BBM then sent his team out to slow things down and take three passes where one would do? It would be completely out of character (and daft) if he did.
My charitable explanation is that, having put in such an effort against Bolton, City were unable to go to the well again just over seventy two hours later. My less charitable explanation is that the Bolton game was the exception and the sort of display we’ve been seeing since Plymouth has become the new normal for City. However, that second interpretation doesn’t really hold water in my view because we didn’t play as poorly as we did on Tuesday in any of those recent games where we were unable to turn draws into wins (e.g. Barnsley, Blackpool and Peterborough), so I’m just hoping Tuesday was a one off because we’ll struggle to win another match if we play like we did at huddersfield for the rest of the season.
The second thing I want to talk about is Huddersfield’s early disallowed goal which I was convinced was onside when I watched it live and saw the replay of it seconds later. However, having read what Steve had to say on it, I decided to look at it more closely and I must admit it was a much closer decision than I thought it was. If you insisted on a yes or no answer from me, I would say that it was just about onside, but I think it’s one that you probably need VAR to get a definitive answer as to whether it was a fair goal or not.
Just a very quick post about the two possible offsides Steve mentioned, I’ve come across this Huddersfield vlog made by someone whose seat is virtually in line with both incidents and it seems to me that, based on this video, the linesman, who I reckoned was hopeless, got both decisions right.
https://youtu.be/0j-5hW82i4s?si=IByYaFi6_8SEJDH4