Cardiff City’s season spluttered along tonight with their fourth draw in eight games as they finished level 1-1 against a Derby County side that had not taken a point or even scored a goal at Pride Park before they faced us.
For the third successive match, City conceded the first goal (their first one in an away match this season) to go in one down at the interval only to come back in the second half to level things up. On the face of it, being able to come back from a losing position, particularly away from home, is a decent and acceptable outcome – especially when tonight’s draw means we have not lost in five games, but, based on the four matches I’ve been able to watch, we’re not playing well.
A record of won two, drawn four, lost two, goals for seven, goals against seven is suggestive of dull football and when you think that the matches I’ve seen (Forest, Preston, Bournemouth and Middlesbrough) probably represent most of our better efforts, you have to think that “dull” is a fair way to describe us.
Certainly, the commentary I listened to on Radio Wales tonight made it sound as if I wasn’t missing much. I’ve nothing against Rob Phillips, in fact I’ve said on here this season that I like his commentaries, but I did groan to myself when I switched on and heard his voice because the three previous games I’ve listened to with him describing the action were the dreadful League Cup loss at Northampton and the limp home defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Reading.
I shouldn’t jump to too many conclusions when I’ve not seen anything of the game yet, but, based on those matches I have watched, the commentary provided by Mr Phillips, backed up by summariser Kevin Ratcliffe, did not come as too much of a shock.
Despite Ratcliffe being quite impressed by our first five minutes or so, there was nothing sounding like we were causing the home defence any alarms and things got worse from there – in fact, until we woke up somewhat in the final moments of the half, I heard nothing to indicate we were in the game as an attacking force.
Hardly surprisingly given their poor home results and not much better away return, Derby were pretty cautious themselves early on, but they were growing into the game and it was they who had done all of the worthwhile attacking before they took the lead on twenty four minutes when Martin Waghorn curled in a free kick for a second successive game after Welsh international Tom Lawrence was fouled by Joe Ralls after City had, not for the first time, conceded possession in a dangerous area with their trademark poor passing.
With the arrival of Harry Wilson to join Lee Tomlin I had assumed we’d seen the last of Ralls as our most attacking central midfielder, but with Tomlin still not quite ready for a return following his suspension and Wilson absent from the eighteen with what had to surely be an injury of his own, I was wrong – Ralls was our number ten with Marlon Pack and Will Vaulks behind him.
There was mixed news when it came to our full backs with Leandro Bacuna at right back because of the injury which forced Jordi Osei-Tutu off on Saturday (it looks as if the loan signing from Arsenal will be out for between four and six weeks), while Joe Bennett was able to return on the left in place of Joel Bagan who had done all that was asked of him in the previous two matches. While Bennett’s return was understandable in many ways, it also struck me as typically Cardiff City in that the young player steps down as a matter of course despite having played better than quite a few of his seniors while he was in the team.
For the twenty minutes or so after Derby scored, the impression I got from the commentary was that they were very comfortable as City, with their midfield three being bettered by the home team’s two according to Kevin Ratcliffe, struggled away with our isolated front man Keiffer Moore getting no service worthy of the name.
However, the last minute or two offered some hope as Moore nodded a Vaulks cross onto the outside of a post and we forced a couple of corners, one of which led to a fleeting chance for Junior Hoilett, back in the side in place of Josh Murphy, which he lofted over from fifteen yards out.
Derby did have one last opportunity to again get the first touch on a corner of their own as City again showed the fallibility in defending set pieces that has cost them so much in home games and there could be little doubt that they were fully worth their lead at half time.
The second period started promisingly when Hoilett also hit the woodwork with a header from a Sheyi Ojo cross and we were definitely giving a better account of ourselves, but, even with a Wilson or a Tomlin on the pitch, we do not create a great deal of chances and Robert Glatzel was introduced just after the hour mark for Vaulks.
City had played their best football in Saturday’s grim draw with Middlesbrough when Glatzel came on to accompany Moore and while that was also probably true here, there was not a great deal coming down the radio commentary to suggest that we were going to get on terms as the match moved into its final quarter of an hour.
However, Ojo, who seems to be the City winger most likely to make something happen at the moment, got himself an assist to go with his couple of recent goals when he sent Moore through and the striker, who has hardly been having chances galore created for him since his brace of goals in our second match at Forest, calmly tucked his shot past Kelle Roos, who was deputising in the Derby goal for the injured David Marshall.
Both sides looked for a winning goal after that without really suggesting they had it in them to find one and so City finished up with a draw which has seen the first rumblings of discontent against our manager on the messageboard I use tonight – I think that’s uncalled for at the moment, but a return of ten points from eight games and a position just below halfway in the table seems about right based on what we’ve done so far.
A quick word about a couple of games played yesterday. First, our Under 23 side avoided defeat for the first time this season when they deservedly beat Hull 2-0 at Leckwith. Chanka Zimba’s early goal was a gift from the visitors as they got in a mess while trying to play out from the back and Isaak Davies’ header from a Keiron Evans cross midway through the second half made sure of the points. Filip Benkovic, the Croatian defender on loan from Leicester, played seventy five increasingly impressive minutes and there was a great save from George Ratcliffe in added time to preserve his clean sheet, but best City player for me was left back Dan Martin.
An hour or so after that match finished, the Welsh women’s team faced one of the real world powers of the women’s game in Norway in a qualifying game for the Euros at Cardiff City Stadium and, for the second time, gave them a tough test before being beaten 1-0.
To be honest, Wales were very, very defensive in their outlook until Norway scored with an hour played, but then they rattled the visitors somewhat in the last quarter of an hour or so to raise questions about their approach for the first two thirds of the game.
As it is, Wales look like being pipped by a Northern Irish side which cashed in on a sloppy early Welsh performance to draw 2-2 at Rodney Parade and It’s those two away goals that are probably going to cost the Welsh ladies dear in the qualification process when Norway’s two 6-0 wins over the Northern Irish suggest strongly that we’re the side who should be finishing second in the group if we had played to our potential throughout.
Can I also remind you about my recently published book Real Madrid and all that which is available in e book and paperback formats and can only be purchased from Amazon.
I’d like to thank all of those who have posted a review of the book so far – it goes without saying that I’m very pleased with what the feedback has been like up to now!
Once again, can I finish by making a request for support from readers by them becoming my Patrons through Patreon. Full details of this scheme and the reasons why I decided to introduce it can be found here, but I should say that the feedback I have got in the past couple of years has indicated a reluctance from some to use Patreon as they prefer to opt for a direct payment to me. If you are interested in becoming a patron and would prefer to make a direct contribution, please contact me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com or in the Feedback section of the blog and I will send you my bank/PayPal details.
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Paul
Good balanced report again but it has to be said, the first half especially was total tedium to watch on the Sky red button coverage. Our current passing ability for the greater part was once again, woeful. I don’t know if it’s a lack of vision, poor decision making, carelessness or what but the inability to find our own players is concerning. Should we allow players a bit of time to settle into the season and just be patient?
For the second game in the row that I’ve watched, another concern was the frequency in which we resorted to the long ball tactics, punting the ball aimlessly up the pitch, with little creativity being shown. Poor old Keifer Moore was like a lost soul for most of the game with the lack of service to him.
To me the only bright spot of the game was Ojo’s strength on the wall in forging forward before deftly slipping the ball to Moore, who was very calm in slotting the ball under the keeper for the undeserved equaliser. Ojo resisted the temptation to throw himself to the ground when challenged and held off the Derby defender before his pass to Keifer. He should fo this more often and perhaps Hoilett could learn a lesson or two from him.
Harris has to work harder with this squad and make sure we learn to pass a lot better and quicker.
Can’t see us doing much this season on the showings so far. Nothing to inspire us that it’s going to be an exciting season.
Good morning Paul and others – As Iain, I too watched the match last night via the Sky red button, and whilst I was always going to see out the 90 minutes, I really wondered at half-time if I would bother to spend £10 on a streaming pass to see us perform against QPR on Saturday.
Our first half showing was wretched, dire, pathetic and any other similar word that describes ineptitude. Further more, I was angry. My lovely lady who went upstairs to watch Coronation Street came down at about ten past eight being somewhat concerned about my blood pressure! It was certainly on the up. A sad example of our “play”, I use the word somewhat cynically, was our captain who in the first fifteen minutes lumped the ball five times under no pressure forwards to no-one wearing a blue shirt. His malaise caught on, and for the rest of the half we “performed” as complete strangers. And don’t we give silly free kicks away. Waghorn’s strike was excellent, and watching it again this morning, it seemed to go over Moore’s head which he could have prevented if he had moved off the ground a little. Smithies let down again.
Derby’s and the referee’s arrival on the pitch for the second half was some minutes before our lot turned up. I was beginning to wonder if we had gone home. Just somehow, we managed a goal, thanks to Ojo (I’m beginning to have a re-think about him) for it showed just how effective a thoughtful through ball can be when used for a genuine striking partner. Let’s have more for Moore.
So it was that we secured another point with one goal from only two attempts on target. Watch out QPR, you have been warned!!
A truly shocking performance against a very ordinary Derby side. We look clueless and Wilson must be wondering why he joined us.
We have zero creativity without Tomlin and why this wasn’t addressed in the summer is proving costly. I worry for Harris as Tan’s patience will run thin if we are not in top 6 by year end. We play QPR, another struggling side in Saturday and need 3 points to restore some faith. Hopefully, we will have Wilson back at least.
I can also recommend Paul’s book although I am slightly prejudiced as 70/71 remains my favourite City season.
Morning all, the comments rather confirm the impression I was getting about our first half performance in particular from Messrs Phillips and Ratcliffe. I’ve just watched the extended highlights on the club website and a couple of things came over to me, first the commentators were quite a bit more critical of City than they usually and second, how many crosses into our box we didn’t get to first – some of our marking was dreadful and this was after the cheap goal we conceded against Boro.
Iain, Ojo looked our best attacking option on the highlights package and you comment on how slow we were in possession reminded me that this was a constant criticism from Kevin Ratcliffe in the first half of the game. I mentioned somewhere this week that I think our squad looks slightly stronger than last season’s because, on paper anyway, we have more options in forward areas with Wilson and Ojo both looking like good additions in terms of creativity and goal threat, but seven goals from nine matches in all competitions speaks for itself doesn’t it – that’s way down on last season’s scoring rate which wasn’t exactly brilliant either.
BJA, you come over there as the most annoyed by a City performance that I’ve seen you. Morrison’s attempts at crossfield passes in the opening stages of the game was something else which attracted critical radio comment and, having just seen the careless, and untypical, pass from Joe Ralls which led to the free kick from which Derby scored, he was far from the only one guilty of shoddy passing, but, then again, I’m reaching the stage of wondering whether I’ll ever see a City senior team pass the ball accurately and purposefully – you’d think that, given ow slowly we pass the ball, we could at least get the accuracy bit right!
Robert, I think you hit on an important point, Neil Harris seemed to believe that the main object of the exercise in his summer recruitment was to add goal power to the squad, but this presupposes that we have central midfielders who are capable of giving our attacking players a service from which they prosper and I’d say the extent that we had to rely on Tomlin last season tells you this is/was not the case. I think Ralls, Vaulks, Pack and Bacuna are all decent to good players at this level individually, but as a unit they have deficiencies which, as you say, were not addressed during the transfer window.