I only ever got to watch highlights of our 2-0 opening day defeat at West Ham five years ago in what was our first ever Premier League match, so I cannot comment with any certainty about the claims from some of those who watched the game live that they felt the writing was on the wall right from day one for Malky Mackay’s squad.
I can certainly remember it being remarked that it was all fairly simple for the Hammers as they eased to a win over opponents that offered little once the first goal had gone in and that those who were predicting relegation for one of the outfits involved were not referring to the London team!
So, when the 2018 version of Cardiff City began the club’s second Premier League campaign with a loss by the same score at Bournemouth yesterday, it’s only natural I suppose that the parallels between the two matches would be remarked upon. Furthermore, given that anyone who is asked for an opinion on City in 18/19 seems contractually bound to have to say we are going to finish twentieth out of twenty, it’s no surprise at all that people are queuing up to tell us that our second stay in the Premier League is going to be as short as our first one.
Nathan Blake is one of a number of ex City players who works in the media and usually isn’t far out with his predictions as to where we’ll finish – I can remember him saying we’d finish around eighth position early in the 2015/16 season and that’s precisely where we ended up, while right from week one last year, he was saying that automatic promotion was very much on.
Therefore. it sounds a bit ominous for us when Blakey was of the opinion that Bournemouth “won at a canter” yesterday. From memory, I thought we would finish around tenth in 15/16 and had us down as Play Off possibles last year (think I said we’d finish eighth), so Nathan’s record is better than mine, but, having actually seen all of our opening day 2-0 defeat this time, I can’t say I agree with his view that it was all so easy for our hosts.
I won’t deny that Bournemouth were well worth their 1-0 lead at the interval and that if it hadn’t have been for Neil Etheridge’s fine save to deny Callum Wilson’s penalty awarded shortly after Ryan Fraser’s twenty fourth minute opener, we might have ended up getting a bit of a pasting, but I thought we did well in the second half as we forced home keeper Asmir Begovic into urgent action on occasions.
For me, there wasn’t a great deal between the teams and we can take heart from the fact that Etheridge was a reassuring presence, Sean Morrison looked at home at this level, Joe Ralls, once again having Callum Paterson and Sol Bamba for support in a depleted midfield, showed enough to justify the confidence of those of us who reckon he’ll cope with the step up in standards and Bobby Decordova-Reid impressed in a thankless lone striker role.
Josh Murphy, surprisingly left out of the starting eleven after his fine display against Betis last week created a favourable impression when he came on for the last half an hour as well.
It’s also worth recording that there was a reminder from five years ago in the performance of referee Kevin Friend – we never seemed to get much from the officials in 13/14 and it was the same yesterday. I’m not saying that the ref had a decisive influence on proceedings, but the penalty award against Bruno Manga when he tangled with Fraser was harsh, Charlie Daniels might have seen red, not yellow, for his foul on Junior Hoilett just before half time on another day and the winger was given nothing when he was obviously brought down on the edge of the penalty area at a time when City were suggesting that they had an equaliser in them.
Add in that Harry Arter was missing because of the convention which says loaned players do not appear against their parent clubs, Victor Camarasa needs more time to integrate before he becomes a contender to start and that both Kenneth Zohore (suffering with a groin injury that manager Neil Warnock hopes won’t keep him out of the Newcastle match next weekend) and Aron Gunnarsson (out for another fortnight yet as he recovers from the latest in what seems a never ending run of injuries) were out and there are plenty of reasons not to be too downcast.
That said, there’s also a need for realism. If we were missing important players, then it’s also true to say that two players who Bournemouth paid nearly £40 million for this summer did not feature – full back Deigo Roco was suspended and club record signing Jefferson Lerma was not felt to be ready to be involved.
It must be admitted as well that too many of the occasions when we could have scored came from set pieces and that, overall, those who think our squad doesn’t have enough goals in it would have seen very little to make them consider that they might have been mistaken in that view.
On an individual basis, Joe Bennett, who I thought was excellent last week, mixed good points with being beaten too easily in one on one situations on occasions. While I hesitate to be too critical of Sol Bamba, who was playing in a position he would prefer not to and deserves to be judged on what he does in his “proper” role, the first goal stemmed from the sort of area you would have expected him to be covering – instead, a home player was allowed to run unchallenged into a threatening area as I kept on saying “I don’t like this, I don’t like this” for about fifteen seconds before the ball hit the back of the net!
Referee Friend only showed the one yellow card to a City player. It came after just three minutes and I was convinced that Lee Peltier would not see the game out after that. Credit to him for staying on the pitch for the duration after such an early setback, but the way Fraser burst away from Peltier to draw the cynical foul which followed and the fact that the offence took place on the half way line with plenty of City players covering behind him must raise questions about both the full back’s ability to cope when attacked and his defensive judgement at this level.
There has been plenty of talk over the summer about us needing a new right back. I’ve never bothered commenting on that position because I’ve always been convinced that our manager would be happy to go with Peltier as his first choice, but, having used the word ominous once already in this piece, I have to do so again in relation to that early incident which saw Peltier booked.
On reflection, I think it might be fair to say that Bournemouth were just a little too cute for us. Using that so important first goal as an example, City had been holding the home side at arm’s length with relatively few alarms when, suddenly, they left that bit of a gap in the area in front of the centrebacks and it was quickly and ruthlessly exploited – even with their missing players available, you doubt whether we would have been able to take a similar such opportunity if it were offered to us.
As I say, I’m not too downcast as I write this, but, with one of our trio of relatively undemanding fixtures to open our season out of the way, it has become very important that we get something out of at least one of the next two. i say that because what follows on from them carries the very real threat that we could be looking at a Crystal Palace from a year ago type start to our campaign and, try as I might, I don’t see us recovering from something like that in the same way as Roy Hodgson’s side did.
Anyway, on to a happier outcome for a Cardiff City team yesterday because at lunchtime I watched our Under 18s steamroller Colchester 5-0 at Leckwith in their first league game of the season.
It’s been an encouraging pre season for the Academy team with wins over Leicester and West Ham in their warm up matches (the Under 13s beat Liverpool as well) and their performance in the first half in particular was good enough to make me forget about the rain which began virtually as the match was starting and got heavier as it went on – the game was played on the pitch out in the open adjacent to the one at the Athletics stadium with it’s covered stand!.
As usual at this time of the season, there were plenty of new faces to get used to in the team, but credit to the club’s website for getting the Under 18s fixture list online so quickly and for this introduction of the eight new scholars for this season.
Bagan, Davies (who I’ve seen play many times already) and Colwill were all in the starting eleven against Colchester, while Ryan Kavanagh at right back and Dan Griffiths at centre forward were new names to me – Kavanagh was in a City squad made up of Under 13 and 14 players which won a tournament called the Rotterdam International Cup in April of last year, so he can only be 16 at most, while the only Dan Griffiths I could find who seemed a likely fit was a seventeen year old from Wrexham who had been selected in Wales Under 17 squads while on Liverpool’s books.
Right from the start, City pressed forward and were ahead inside ten minutes when the unmarked Griffiths headed a cross from the right home from six yards. I remarked last season about the impressive midfield axis of Sion Spence, Sam Bowen and Keenan Patten which the Under 18s could field, well they were all included yesterday and it was Bowen who doubled the lead on seventeen minutes with a shot from twenty five yards which seemed to get a couple of very slight touches on it’s way into the net.
Spence was next to score when he hit a shot which was either a very cute chip or a flukey miskick from ten yards which found it’s way past keeper Hallett and into the corner of the net with the game still in it’s first quarter.
Isaak Davies, one of a few in City’s Under 18 team who were very impressive in the 5-0 win over Colchester yesterday.
Isaak Davies, playing wide on the left to accommodate Griffiths’ inclusion through the middle was having a very influential game and was involved again when Griffiths got his second with a firm close in header on the half hour mark.
The game was only thirty five minutes old when the scoring was completed as Davies skillfully controlled a long ball and fired past Hallett in the same movement for what I rated as the best of the five goals, but there was much to admire in the creation and execution of all of them.
Centreback Ryan Reynolds had a header cleared off the line and there could easily have been another goal for Davies before Colchester reached the interval probably feeling relieved that they were only five down.
It would be easy to say oh it was only Colchester, their senior side are in the Fourth Division and City should be beating teams like that 5-0. but they did reach the Quarter Finals of the FA Youth Cup last season and, in a much more even second half, there were more impressive runs by their right winger Todd Miller while they came closest to getting what would have been the second half’s only goal when a shot from the edge of the penalty area was deflected just wide with keeper George Ratcliffe helpless and they hit an upright from the resultant corner.
Spence had an effort turned around the post by Hallett, but City were unable to convert some fine approach play into further goals – truth be told, there was some self indulgence on the part of some as they ignored better placed colleagues to go for glory themselves, but that’s what you do when your seventeen and your 5-0 up, in fact, thinking about it, I was self indulgent when it was 0-0 when I was their age!
I’ll finish by mentioning something I heard from someone, presumably watching his boy play for Colchester, who was stood quite close to me when City were 1-0 up. From what he had said up until then, it was obvious this man knew what he was on about and that he was a regular watcher of football at this level.Indeed, by the time I moved to somewhere else at half time, I was fairly sure he must have played the game professionally at one time as well. Anyway, as City put together another smooth attack, he said “I do like watching Cardiff, they play the best football of any side in the league” – I came so close to blurting out “yeah, but you should see our first team”, but managed to bite my tongue!
When you think about it though, if somebody who is watching another team can say that, it only increases the feeling of frustration that we have stopped producing our own first team players. There was some outstanding football played by our kids today and at a time when I’m sure the first team will be receiving criticism in the coming weeks for playing “hoofball”, they provided a couple of examples of glorious long passes, not whacks downfield, that produced goals -I’ve had high hopes for this group since I first saw them a couple of years ago when they were playing for the Under 16s and, although it’s too early to get too upbeat about their prospects for this season, they were very impressive yesterday.
One last thing, can you please also read the message entitled “Patreon – a way of helping Mauve and Yellow Army survive.” which will be appearing on here very shortly – any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
I feel for you Paul with the costs you regulatly incur with keeping MAYA prominent in the blogosphere. I would suggest to all MAYAns to consider donating…you are are a very worthy cause.
But if they donate – or if I personally choose to donate – I woukd ask them not to tell us here. It must stay a provate thing.
Me telling people I have donated would be a kind of “virtue signalling” (to use the trendy phrase) that puts a sort of pressure on other MAYAns (readers as well as contributors) who may not have the spare cash.
I wish you success in your request.
I was 20 years trying to work out how to get something back for my Daigressing labours…going out to 2400 people in 28 countries. I put at least 30 man hours into each edition…approx 17 a year.
Alas I never could get any dosh out of it.
I hope you are more successful in your plea…because you truly deserve it. MAYA has been a massive labour of love for you.
I salute you.
Well said, Mr. Woosnam.
Did any Mayans see the game at Bournemouth yesterday?
I am wondering if there are any grounds for optimism.
Only on SKY for me, Colin.
I was pleased with a few things.
Like Paul, I was pleased to see Peltier stay on the field after the nightmare early booking.
Also another plus, was our goale. I recall discussing with Paul the purchase of Alex Smithies. Obviously a very good keeper.
But unlike the situation at Wolves, I “bet” Paul that Neil Etheridge would be given first chance at making the jersey his own. After all, he was superb all last season.
For once I was right. And boy, what a great penalty save.
I was pleased also to see the degree of fighting spirit in the team.
And the minuses?
Well, Bristol City had three star players last season. We have bought by far the dearest of the three…and the weakest (though still a pretty decent player). The best went to the Boro, and the second best to Fulham. The two together wouldn’t have cost much more than we oaid for Bobby.
And boy coukd we have done with both yesterday. Bamba has to play centre back in the absence of Flint, and Bryan would have made more of a fist of things defensively than Joe Bennett. It will be a long season for JB, I fear.
And our esteemed colleague Lindsay Davies’s comments on Josh Murphy some 8 weeks ago, came back with a bang.
He said that Josh was veru talented but rather lightweight …and so it proved when he a
allowed Francis of all people to pick his pocket by his own goal line…and hence the second killer goal.
Hope that your blog can stay online, best wishes with that!
Some ads can help, I think that Steve Walker (Non League Matters) had a few small and non-invasive ads on his website and in the end it financially paid off for him. Maybe the club could help sponsor you, even as a tax write-off/charitable act?
I am interested in watching the Under 16s and Under 18s, and have seen the list of players for the Under 18s this season on the club’s Wikipedia page. Is there a similar list for the Under 16s?
Keep up the great work!
Thanks Paul.
Only managed to catch highlights on Match of the Day and what I could read online today.
Early days obviously and sure lessons learned yesterday in terms of retaining possession and eliminating mistakes. Bournemouth took full advantage and we really need to tighten things up.
We seemed to improve as game progressed but desperately need our new midfield resources to hit the ground running.
Looked like Wolves and Fulham settled into their stride quickly, but the latter outdone by Palace. We can surely settle down next week in front of a rocking City Stadium and find our rhythm against Newcastle when we should have a full squad to choose from.
Thanks Paul I was out of the country but watching a live text steam ,which doesn’t give much away .
To start I think the comments you gathered from that chap about how well we play football at the under 18 game is pleasing, I’m hoping that our prescence in the Premiership attracts better Welsh lads who might previously get sucked into the Liverpool type academies , wish we could close off that leakage in North Wales and invest I some form of off shoot academy up there .
With regards to the first team, I thought we’d get a draw at least , however that
was based on hope ,not knowledge .
I do worry for the likes of Patterson ,Bamba , Peltier ,MWL , and Gunnerson all main starters and reliable deliverers last year , are they going to be found wanting , how will they manage potentially being dropped ,and importantly the pace of this league.
I cant expand on the game other than we seem to have a ground swell of comment ,suggesting we started poorly , missed some techinically better players ,and improved in the second half .
Newcastle game us big now .
I have heard that Cardiff City are trialing two out of contract Senegalese players this week, with the view to possibly signing both.
The two players are Lacina Traore (striker) and Jules Iloki (right-winger).
Might mean pressure on Danny Ward and Kadeem Harris?
Thanks everyone for your replies. Dai, I would be notified as to the identity of anyone who becomes a patron, but, apart from that, no one would know that they were. Just to say as well, I’ve had some responses saying that they weren’t keen on paying in dollars through Patreon, but they do want to become a patron – in cases like that, I can give you my bank details or the e-mail address that is linked to my PayPal account – if you would prefer to use one of those methods, drop me a message at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com
As for Saturday’s match, Colin = I thought we got on top for a while after half time and had Bournemouth worried at times. This was with a midfield which was a long way from the best one we can field and with a lone striker who lacked the physique for such a role in the way that we play.
Dai, it’s easy to under rate Etheridge and I may be doing it again here, but I think there is every chance that Smithies will end up playing more Premier League games than him, but, to be fair to him, it’s a while since Etheridge did anything to suggest that he would lose his place in the starting line up for reasons of form as opposed to injury or suspension – Smithies may have to wait for the Asia Cup to get his chance.
Welcome Simon (and Leo), I’ll see what the response is like before looking into the possibility of more adverts on here, but I’m not keen on going down that route unless I really have to. Regarding the Under 16s, I’m not aware of anywhere that lists our squad at that level. Home games are usually played at Treforest at this time of year before reverting to Leckwith in October, but, looking at the Under 18s fixture list, it would appear that all of their matches are being played at Leckwith. As I mentioned, the under 18s played on the pitch which runs adjacent to Leckwith Road rather than the one in the Athletics stadium – that’s the one the Under 16s use when they play at Leckwith at the same time as the Under 18s are playing in the atheltics stadium, so, presumably, they played at Treforest on Saturday. You’re probably aware of this, but the Under 18s are home again, to Birmingham, on Saturday, so I’ll leave for the Newcastle match early and catch the first half before going to the first team match.
Good to hear from you again Huw, I think you got it right with what you said about our midfield – two likely first team players were missing from that area on Saturday and we need to see how Ater, Gunnarsson and Camarasa fare when given the chance before we get too downbeat.
Russell. you probably saw this on the messageboard, but this piece
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news/2018/august/u18–bellamy-its-great-for-our-development/
confirms that Dan Griffiths is the former Liverpool player I thought he might be – it’s also encouraging to hear Craig Bellamy talking about the Under 18s wanting to play winning football.I share your concerns for the players you mention – your penultimate sentence says most of what needs to be said about the Bournemouth match.
Leo, as I understand it, the new rules regarding the summer transfer window means that we won’t be able to sign out of contract players for first team consideration until January, so I suspect the two players you mention will have to play for the Development team until then if we want to take our interest any further – they play their first game this afternoon, at Burnley, so it’ll be interesting to see if the team sheet has trialists named at right wing and centre forward.
Thanks, Paul for your thoughtful comments re advertising and payment.
I got a small company make an offer to sponsor my Daigressings (which breathed their last in Jan 2016)…but I found that I was in a little known dilemma. It seemed that legally I was breaching copyright laws by reprinting articles and flagging up YouTube links, if I was getting financial reward for it…and it appeared that receiving advertising, was deemed to be such material reward. However , if I wrote and gave my very life blood to my internet baby, and provided it F.O.C., then that was alright…it appeared that there was something called “fair use”, and that meant it was okay to distribute to one’s friends for gratis. (A bit like one can record a TV play and send it to one’s pals, and the copyright holder turns a blind eye, so long as one does not charge.)
Anyway, being a fully paid-up member of the Cowards” Club, I decided to shelve my sponsorship idea. Not least because that very week, I had gone to my then barber to have what I laughably call the remains of my “hair” …cut. And my barber had told me that a man had popped his head through the door, heard the dulcet tones of BBC Radio 2 coming from the barber’s little transistor radio…and promptly announced he was a PRS inspector. My barber had two weeks to buy a PRS licence…!!
But hey, that is my life. Not your life…thank God.
And so Simon’s comments above, could well prove perspicacious in your case…since you neither reprint articles nor flag-up YouTube links.
Mind you, the suggested $45 a month seems a bit pie in the sky. High class hookers here in Grimsby struggle to make that from each of their patrons (so I hasten to add, I am TOLD anecdotally…!!)
My favourite woman in the world, apart from my dear wife Larissa, is a young Bulgarian in NYC called Maria Popova. For ten years I have been a devoted reader of her blog…and boy, has she made that pay…!! I so admire her beautiful b-b-b …no not bosom, but …brain.
However her business acumen is admirable too. She has become a financial success. She starts off at three dollars…though in theory you could start off with her at 50 cents. You click on a link, and you are then immediately through to her Paypal page. Or one can of course get a permanent free ride…assuming one’s conscience is not troubled.
https://www.brainpickings.org/about/
Anything else I wanted to add? Oh yes.
First, a fervent hope that I hit the right keys on my iPad this time…unlike my first contribution above. Shameful stuff from me. It looked for all the world like I was on drugs, or fighting a losing battle against acute dyslexia…so many typos and even my other contribution above wasn’t immune to banana skins. Mind you, my incompetent typing helps provide the chiaroscuro that shows your impeccable high standards off at their always sparkling best.
Second, a word for Russell and his always relevant and helpful comments. It is about the North Wales connection…or rather, lack of one, with regard to the Bluebirds.
The truth is that the only teams in royal blue in North Wales are in the far north west, Bangor City, and, along the rest of North Wales…it is the boys in royal blue at Goodison Park. Every match day the A55 trunk road is full of cars with blue and white scarves blowing out the windows…all making the pilgrimage to that Mecca less than three quarters of a mile (as the crow flies) across Stanley Park from Anfield Stadium.
We need to remember that whilst Deeside and Clwyd generally have produced many of our finest Welsh soccer players…the whole region looks to Liverpool. Always has.
Not for nothing is The Liverpool Daily Post the top selling regional morning newspaper. The last few years they have dropped the word Liverpool from the title when it comes to the edition sold all along the North Wales coast, right over to Anglesey…but it is essentially the same product read every morning by Scousers…with a small amount of North Wales content added. (They still have not forgiven my old boyhood pal, the late Alun Evans, for moving the FAW from Wrexham to Cardiff thirty odd years ago.)
The Western Mail may claim to be the national newspaper of Wales, but its circulation is very poor along that North Wales coast.
All eyes look to Liverpool.
Similarly with the evening newspaper. The Wrexham based Evening Leader may well be the leading seller around Wrexham, but go to the coast, and you will find that the Liverpool Echo holds sway all along the coast.
But I tell ya…there is one footballer with a North Wales connection (a mam from Llangollen), that I would have loved at Cardiff. David Brooks.
Yet we missed him…despite Neil having drooled over his abilities in the past. It was an even bigger miss than letting Leeds snap up the outstanding Barry Douglas for £3m. Brooks cost less money than we paid for Josh Murphy…and no more than we paid for Bobby Reid.
And I firmly believe him to be the best Welsh footballing prospect since Ryan Giggs. It is extraordinary how we failed to get into a bidding war with Bournemouth. His agent must have known of Neil’s admiration, and though I can well believe that David thought that he would be more suited to the style of football at the Vitality, his time at Bramall Lane would have told him that Neil Warnock has nurtured the talents of some wonderful footballers: for instance, only our Great Alchemist ever got a consistent true song out of the mercurial Adel Taarabt, and that was when Neil was at Loftus Road.
I will sign off now, still feeling it shocking how we missed out on this fabulous boy. He has it all.
And talking of “all”…I would pack up all our summer purchases and send them in a minibus to The Vitality. If they will only send us one man back in exchange.
And that man is not Ryan Fraser…bargain though he was for just £400K.
Will post off now to you Paul. Hope there are not too many typos…too tired to proof-read.
Great start to the season from one, and all, MAYAns.
Not so sure about our lovely boys though. Paul’s headline seemed to have it right – sobering.
My worry is that, at Premier level, we’re always going to leak goals, so, the imperative to score becomes ever more intense.
Does anyone else fear the odd double-figure score?
Maybe, like the chaps, I just need to settle my nerves!
Paul – I’ll be contacting you by e-mail.
Viva MAYA!
Dear Paul,
I love you dearly but I will NOT be contacting you by email, lest any such message might be misconstrued as virtue signalling…!!
Oh, I forgot.
I love Lindsay too.
But fair’s fair…this is a very sensitive time.
I am with Colin. Let us keep some things REALLY private …not just semi private.
Bit harsh, Dai.
Not that anybody else is interested, but, I’m innocent of all ‘charges’.
Being a techno-shambles (MAYA is my only public ‘platform’…I’m actually intensely private), I always hesitate to involve myself in such as Patreon…PayPal is like quicksand to me.
I was merely letting Paul know that his message had hit home…MAYA must survive.
Lindsay, dear fellow…
Thanks for the clarification. Not “harsh” at all mind…if you go back over what I said, I specifically stated it “might be misconstrued as virtue signalling”.
The key word there is “misconstrued”.
Never doubted your innocence, boyo.
It is just that I knew full well that you had not thought about the possibility, when you clicked “POST COMMENT”.
Just one thing though…I am fascinated that the suggestion is that we need to tell our Blogmeister that an email from us is in his inbox…!! Surely if he checks his blog, by definition, he is online.
And every time you or I – or for that matter, Uncle Tom Cobley and all – go online…surely we all then check our inboxes…?
Anyway, whatever…that is history now….
It is good to know that everything is kosher in the MAYA world…and we all are as ONE in wishing our Blogmeister all the best of health and wealth in the weeks, months – and indeed hopefully YEARS – …ahead.