For a team that had a pretty awful record in derbies not so long ago, Cardiff City have turned things around in the last two seasons. Last year, they won the unofficial Paul Evans Three Way Derbies title by picking yp three wins and a defeat in their league games with the jacks and the wurzels and, anything but defeat on Saturday when they entertain Bristol City will see them retain their title. Swansea only managed five points from their four games and the wurzels only have two draws to show from their three games so far. Therefore, eevn if we do lose, it would have to be by a lot to stop us winning the title on goal difference!
Based on how this season has gone with it’s long unbeaten runs, a longer one without a win and a record breaking poor start to the campaign, a defeat for City looks a distinct possibility mind. Our last two league games have seen us hammered at Leeds snd besten at Portsmouth in midweek and my view is that, with Leeds beginning to look likr they can pull clear of the rest to claim the Championship, title; our Portsmouth no show was more worrying than losing heavily to a team which won 4-0 at Vicarage Road on Tuesday.
Whether what happened at Portsmouth was a consequence of our hiding at Elland Road can be argued about, but I tend to think, if it played a role, it was a small one. Fratton Park was reminiscent of what happened at Oxford on Boxing Day as we completely failed to perform to an acceptable standard in terms of attitude until it wss too late. As at Oxford,, we looked to have more technical ability than our opponents, but for too much of the game, we played as if we didn’t realise you have to earn the right to let your skills come through – in fact, I’d say that should be one of the lessons to be taken from the whole of 24/25 up to now.
Surprisingly, the truly dismal showing at Oxford led to an improvement which saw us still struggling to stop the goals going in against us, but, somehow, we managed to put together eight unbeaten games. Can Portsmouth be the catalyst for something similar? I’m not that confident that it can, because the story of the season so far says that we go on a longer run without a league win than just two games.
I watched quite a bit of the wurzels v the jacks on Sunday and, after dominating much of the first half an hour, Bristol just ran out of ideas. I was not impressed by them, but they got back on track last night with a comfortable looking win over Stoke and, even playing like they did on Sunday, they would have been too good for us on Tuesday night’s form.
City have been better at home lately and have performed far better in derbies than they once did, so I believe there will be an improvement from Tuesday, but maybe not enough of one to get a win over a team that don’t lose too many.
On to the quiz, the answers to which will be posted on Sunday.
60s. A Devonian with a surname which somehow sounds both indicative oi where he was from and very appropriate for a full back of that time. This long serving defender came up against City twice during this decade and was on the losing side on both occasions – the second one being our only victory in a run of fifteen games. A fixture in the wurzels team for almost a decade, he never played for any other.league club and he got the only goal of his career at Roots Hall, Southend, he ended his playing days with a season playing at a ground that has been used by Bristol Rovers, can you name the player?
70s. Wikipedia describes this Midlander as a “utility player” and, thinking about it, he was someone who could have played in the modern game quite easily. A skilful performer, he started off with a trial at a local club that he would eventually play senior football for, but it was Bristol City who he signed as a pro for and it didn’t take him long to break into the senior team. He was with Bristol through the good times of this decade,, but was soon sold when things went spectacularly wrong in the next one as he returned home to remain in the top flight. For sic seasons he was pretty much a regular at a distinctively named ground and it would have been interesting to see the reaction from. fans during a short loan move to fierce rivals with a distinctive ground name of their won. Now reaching the veteran stage, the rest of his league career saw him playing near the sea, first at a club which had, and still has I believe, a pub in the corner of it’s ground and then at a side which came out of this week’s FA Cup fixtures with a great deal of credit. He also had an unsuccessful spell as player manager for non league mitt makers, but who is he?
80s. Skirmish in Moray by the sound of it!
90s. Ruler initially teams up with nut in the evening to provide goalscorer (5,6)
00s. Bottom waddle!
10s. Which member of Bristol City’s current first team squad had loan spells at Merthyr Town and Newport County during this decade?
20s. Saint appears somewhat indelicate!
Answers
60s. Mike Thresher spent eleven years with Bristol City lasting from the mid fifties to the mid sixties and for much of that time he was their first choice left back. He was in the Bristol City team well beaten 3-0 at Ashton Gate in January 1960 by a City team on its way to the First Division and again two years later when an out of form City side won 2-0 at the same ground in the Welsh Cup as they dropped back into the second tier. Thresher left Bristol City to play a season in the Southern League with Bath City.
70s. Clive Whitehead returned to his native Midlands when Bristol City sold him to West Brom in 1981 after he had made more than two hundred appearances for the wurzels. The winger who became someone who could be used all along the left side played two games while on loan at Wolves (the team he had a trial with as a teenager) before moves to Portsmouth and then Exeter – Whitehead also spent some time as player manager of Yeovil Town (the Glovers).
80s. Keith (a small town in Moray) Waugh.
90s. Kevin Nugent.
00s. Lee Trundle.
10s. Cameron Pring.
20s. George Earthy.
