In his pre game media interview, Doncaster Rovers manager Grant McCann spoke about his team’s match at Cardiff City Stadium in December and said with a perfectly straight face that his side could have scored five or six.

I very much doubt whether anyone will get to read this who is not aware of what happened in Donny’s first meeting of the season with City, but if there is, I daresay that they’re now having a quiet chuckle to themselves after checking to see where both sides are in the League One table.

However, the thing is, Mr McCann was telling the truth – his team, which was in a terrible run of form at the time, caused our defence all sorts of problems before succumbing to a 4-3 defeat with Joel Bagan’s match winner coming in the one hundredth minute.

I can recall a couple of fine saves by Nathan Trott at 3-3 I think it was and Brandon Hanlon being put clean through at 2-3 for his side only to shoot across Trott, but also a couple of yards wide when he should have at least been able to hit the target.

I’m sure there were other close shaves for City that I can’t recall now, because that game marked a cessation in a run of mad home games where 4-3s, 3-2s and 3-0s (i.e. the sort of scores you could be forgiven for thinking had been done away by the authorities if you only watched us playing at home since 2022!) abounded. 

For a while, we managed to tighten things up at the back without losing our ability to score goals on a regular basis- a not inconsiderable feat given how open we were for much of the first half of the game.

I thought our defensive problems were behind us as we strung together a dozen unbeaten matches and we were restricting our opponents to less than two on target efforts per match. 

However, Plymouth last weekend when we conceded five in losing put an end to all of that – we had a miserable time of it in defence with only one member of four at the back (Perry Ng) having what I’d call an okay game.

Plymouth’s front two dominated our centrebacks last weekend and with our left side being seriously out of sorts, we were, to use another boxing analogy after the runaway success of my last one a fortnight ago, looking like a slugger who had a puncher’s chance, but had to be hit from three or four good shots from their opponent before being able to land a decent blow for themselves.

I said in what passes for my pre match prediction when I post the Seven Decades quiz on here that i didn’t have a clue what was going to happen in today’s match at what I presume is still called the Keepmoat Stadium, but I can tell you I was concerned.

For a while, things had been going swimmingly and even I, as someone who never predicts things like automatic promotion or title outcomes, was beginning to think promotion was in the bag. After Plymouth though, the usual doubts returned as I feared a reappearance of that awful term “doing a Cardiff”

After all, if Donny were able to give us such a fright when they were winning one out of sixteen I believe it was, what could they do to a fragile City team when they were in a run of sixteen points from nine games?

However, in the event, my fears proved groundless as we equalled our best winning margin of the season and scored four for the sixth time as we won 4-0 to leave Doncaster a well b eaten team by the end.

With Yousef Salech back in Denmark as his gradual recovery from what is now being described as a neck ligament injury continues and Isaak Davies still not in the squad despite him, apparently, being in training all week, City were dealt a further blow as Omari Kellyman was also missing, presumably with an injury.

Rubin Colwill came in for his first start since his recovery from injury and he also took over the captaincy from Calum Chambers who was replaced by Dylan Lawlor. Cian Ashford was recalled at the expense of Chris Willock and Ryan Wintle came in for David Turnbull who had been described as doubtful beforehand by BBM.

So, more young Welsh talent in the starting eleven and also a rather odd looking substitutes bench with no goalkeeper, four defenders, one midfielder, a winger and a forward who seems to want to come deep to get involved these days.

To make matters worse, the pitch didn’t look the best and, more importantly, didn’t play well. I’m sure this was a factor in a careless opening by City as possession was given up much too easily and although Ollie Tanner forced home keeper Thimothee Lo-Tutala into an early save on his near post, it was the home team who posed the first serious goal threat.

Luck was not on our side when an errant City pass was cleared straight into the path of Hanlon who was suddenly clear of a square looking central defence, but Gabriel Osho was able to throw the home forward off his stride and Lawlor was then able to get a slight block on the shot to take it over the bar.

Lawlor celebrated his block in front of the near three thousand traveling fans. It was a good example of him doing what he’s in the team for first and foremost. With a player like Lawlor though with extra facets to his game (especially for League One level) there is always the chance that he’ll come up with something more “eye catching” and he was to do that today with bells on!

The pitch remained a problem, but it was easy to forget that, as another team who want get the ball down and play, it also presented a problem for Donny and, truth be told, it was a challenge they never really looked like solving.

It is an indication of the quality we have all over the pitch that, despite being weakened by the absence of the two players who are arguably the best two central strikers at the club, City began to come to terms with the pitch.

Gradually, a series of runs from deep by the likes of the Colwill brothers, Ashford, Tanner and even Ng got the home fans increasingly agitated because the linesman involved was judging them to be perfectly timed.

City’s probing was making them look the favourites to score the vital first goal and when it came, the word that came to mind for me was classy. In a move reminiscent of the solitary goal against Exeter on Boxing Day, Lawlor stepped forward from the back with the ball and clipped a lovely ball to Alex Robertson, who’d made one of those clever runs I mentioned earlier, and the midfielder didn’t need to break his stride as he chested the ball down and guided his shot beyond Lo-Tutala from eight yards.

City were largely in control after that as half time approached, but the home team had another chance when Joel Bagan’s headed clearance on the far post fell into Harry Clifton’s path and the former Wales under 21 international snatched at a presentable chance as he shot hurriedly wide from ten yards.

A goal to the good at the break and coping better than their opponents with the troublesome pitch, it looked like City could get the result they needed to put last week’s slip up behind them and, within two minutes of the restart, we were in a position where only sloppiness was going to cost us the three points.

Our first goal was so easy on the eye – in previous seasons, I’m pretty sure it would be on the shortlist for any goal of the season, but the truth is that we’ve scored so many really good goals this season that it’s got no chance of making that short list I mentioned.

By contrast, I’ll say here and now that our second goal will definitely make that shortlist! It was all Dylan Lawlor’s own work as well as he picked up the ball some five yards outside our penalty area and, using that unusual straight backed running style which I’m sure helps him keep his head up so that he’s more aware of what’s around him, he just kept traveling with the ball (to use the coach speak term which most us used to call dribbling). 

A little burst of pace took him clear of two home players, then when he went past a third red and white hooped shirt he was now into the sort of area he was in when he scored his previous goal against Leyton Orient. Lawlor now had space to run onto and there was a ball to the unmarked Robertson I think it was on for him, but the centreback (yes centreback!) used the scorer of our first gn as someone to distract the remaining defenders as he burst past another Donny player into the penalty area to coolly roll the ball into the corner of the net. 

If Lawlor’s first career goal was good, and the last thing you’d expect from someone playing in his position, then this was brilliant or, to use the word I came out with at the time, ridiculous!

Hardly surprisingly after such a stunning contribution, Lawlor’s play got a little sloppy after that and it made sense that someone who was making his first start in weeks following a spell out injured should be replaced by Will Fish around the hour mark.

By then though, we were three up and I can guarantee this one is not on that shortlist I talked about! That’s not to disregard the contribution of Rubin Colwill as he beat his man on the right before crossing low to where Ashford and Doncaster right back Jamie Sterry challenged for the ball on the far post an the net.

Replays of the goal showed that the ball had hit Ashford and flew in although it was pretty clear that he knew little about it.

It was an unusual game in that, just like against Wimbledon and Plymouth, the losing team had more goal attempts. In this case, it was fifteen to fourteen in Doncaster’s favour, but their only on target attempt came from Luke Molyneux who caused Trott few problems with his well struck effort from twenty yards.

City were hardly peppering Lo-Tatula with shots either with just the four on target attempts and it was Callum Robinson who had the last of them when he maintained City’s one hundred per cent record from on target attempts when he intercepted a Sterry pass and scored his first goal of 2026 with an assured finish from fifteen yards.

Robinson, on for Rubin, was one of the other four substitutions City made with Ronan Kpakio and Callum Scanlon, who provided a promising twenty odd minute cameo, coming on for the full backs and Chris Willock replacing Tanner.

I make it that I’ve mentioned all of the sixteen players City used today apart from the one who, despite Lawlor’s eye catching contribution, was my City Man of the match. I make no apologies for repeating something I said in another match reaction piece on here not long ago – when he plays like this, Joel Colwill is like a force of nature.

It was a day of big wins for the top three with Lincoln matching our scoreline in their home win over inconsistent Blackpool and Bolton scoring one more in winning 5-1 at Exeter. However, below that, it was a good day for us as the rest of the top six were beaten.

Stockport completed a bad few days with a second successive defeat, this one by 2-1 at Stevenage, Bradford’s poor away form continued with a 2-1 loss at Reading and Huddersfield were beaten 1-0 at struggling Wigan – to make matters worse for Stockport and Bradford, they had both gone 1-0 up.

While City were playing, the women’s team were in action at Cardiff City Stadium against the Wrexham side which beat them on penalties in the Ardal Cup Final last weekend and the north Waleans took a potentially decisive three points in the title race with us by winning 3-1. 

This follows on from a frankly woeful performance for our under 21s last night as they went down 1-0 in appalling conditions against Swansea at Leckwith. Others may disagree, but the highlight of this match came early on when commentator John Donovan again mentioned the blog as he apologised for calling my the old Bob Wilson last time he was working on an under 21 game – I hope and believe John knows no apology was necessary due to the fact that, indeed, I am very old I’m afraid!

It really was poor fare though even if allowances had to be made for the conditions – Swansea weren’t great, but they were definitely the better side against a City team that didn’t manage what I’d call a realistic goal attempt all night. The closest they came to an equaliser was when Jake Davies went down in the penalty area after appearing to be pushed by a visiting defender. For my part, it was a decision which could have gone either way and I wouldn’t blame the ref if he had been influenced by the quagmire of a pitch in his decision making.

Better news was that a Jack Sykes hat trick gave the under 18s an impressive 3-0 win at Brentford this lunchtime.

In local football, Treorchy Boys and Girls Club were beaten 2-0 at home by Porth Harlequins in Division One (East) of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance, while Treherbert Boys and Girls Club were beaten 2-1 at home in the Ardal League South West by Taff’s Well.

On the Cardiff City phone in that doesn’t receive any phone calls last night one of the four contributors, who I thought talked a lot of sense, said that although he was very happy with how the season was going, he had a slight concern that we’d only scored five times in our last four home matches.

Indeed, since we had a free scoring spell which began with the 3-1 win at Northampton and ended with 4-3 victory over Doncaster, we’d only scored eleven in our previous nine games. While that’s a scoring rate last season’s team would have given a lot for, it’s modest by this season’s standards.

I’ve also heard it said that, for a top of the table side, we don’t blow many teams away. This cannot be denied – in the seventeen league games played since we 2-0 at Wigan in early October we’ve only won by a bigger margin than one goal in that win at Northampton and the 3-0 victory over Mansfield – again, not something to get too concerned about when you consider how many of those seventeen games were won, but a bit surprising for a team with a record like City’s.

Therefore, it could be said that we were overdue a big win and that arrived tonight when we equaled the 4-0 score line against Plymouth to record a joint biggest win of the season so far.

Barnsley manager Conor Hourihane will no doubt point to two decisions which could have made for a completely different game if they’d gone his team’s way and, after all of the complaints and controversy regarding the referee on Saturday, it has to be said that City were lucky that referee Lee Swabey ruled in our favour on both occasions. 

The first arrived in the first half with the score 1-0 and City undergoing the first of two sloppy spells either side of half time.

Alex Robertson had already been booked for one of those cynical “professional” fouls that so annoy me as we have clearly decided that no opponent can get on the wrong side of me no matter where it is on the pitch when he held back a Barnsley player on the edge of their penalty area. Predictably, the Barnsley players were annoyed that a second yellow card wasn’t shown, but Mr Swabey appeared to be saying that as the foul was committed so far away from our goal, he wasn’t minded to issue another caution for our midfielder. This seems at odds with Paul Howard’s interpretation on Saturday when Omari Kellyman and Joel Bagan were both cautioned for grabbing hold of an opponent some fifty or sixty yards from our goal – I feel that hopeless Mr Howard who got so little right was correct in his decision making on these occasions and Robertson, who was withdrawn at half time for David Turnbull, should have been sent off.

The second instance of us being lucky was with us 2-0 ahead early in the second half when Chris Willock tangled with Corey O’Keefe I think it was in our penalty area and the Barnsley man went down. My immediate reaction was penalty, but, having seen a replay of it, it wasn’t as clear cut as I first thought- still, it definitely fell into the I’ve seen them given category.

Therefore, City rode their luck somewhat and, as I mentioned earlier, they had their careless periods, but it could not be denied that they were well worth their win by the end as Barnsley became by no means our first opponent to look out on their feet as the effect of having to spend so much time being moved around the pitch chasing the ball took its toll on them.

City brought in Will Fish for Gabriel Osho, Willock for Cian Ashford and, surprisingly, it was Kellyman leading the attack in Yousef Salech’s absence, not Callum Robinson.

Kellyman an began to justify BBM’s decision to start with him up front as early as the third minute though when he found Ollie Tanner who has been something of an assist machine since returning from injury and this time his clever reverse ball found Perry Ng in space. At first it looked like there was too much on Tanner’s pass, but Ng managed to control it and lash an angled shot from twelve yards high into the net although you had to wonder if keeper Owen Goodman should have done better as the ball beat him on his near post.

Tanner should have got his first goal of the season about a quarter of an hour later as Willock’s precise cross found him free of his marker inside the six yard box, but the winger made a mess of his shot and the ball rolled harmlessly wide.

Having gone a goal behind so early, Barnsley had little option but to push forward rather than play with Wigan type caution, but I suspect their approach would have been an adventurous one even without Ng’s goal. – their lots scored, but lots conceded record suggested that. 

For a while, Barnsley were very much in the game as they looked to attack quickly and with plenty forward. In Davis Kaillor Dunn they have one of the best forwards in the division and it was the Barnsley top scorer who drew what I would say was a serious contender for Nathan Trott’s best save of his impressive season as he dived to his left to tip over a shot that looked to be arcing its way over him.

Then from the resultant corner,a header flew just wide and Keillor Dunn was soon racing forward to force an easier save this time from Trott.

Unfortunately for Barnsley, their positive intent left them vulnerable to City counter attacks and when Joel Colwill won possession near the halfway line, Kellyman was soon running at an undermanned defence. The Chelsea loaner’s pass sent Willock clear on goal and the winger took his time before stepping inside a covering defender and rolling a shot across goal and into the corner of the net, although there was again the suspicion that Goodman could have done better.

Barnsley started the second half the better of the two teams, but City had regained their poise somewhat by the time Turnbull fed Willock who then found Kellyman in acres of space and the makeshift striker made it 3-0 on sixty three minutes. 

Six minutes later, it was four as a misplaced Barnsley pass and a dive into a tackle by Tennal Watson left Willock one on one with Goodman. The winger then clipped an impudent shot beyond the keeper and just inside the upright.

Robinson, Isaak Davies, Cian Ashford and Ronan Kpakio were all given run outs in the dying minutes and it was the first named who came closest to making it five as, first, his low shot from outside the penalty area flashed just wide and then Goodman produced his best save of the night to turn Robinson’s shot from a similar position onto the crossbar.

Still, 4-0 was more than good enough on a night when all of the main top six contenders won apart from Bradford who lost their third straight game to a promotion contender as they were heavily beaten 3-0 at Lincoln and Luton will be kicking themselves for losing 1-0 at Huddersfield who had Alfie May sent off with less than half an hour played.

Finally, the under 21s game with Brentford at Leckwith this afternoon was a bit of a non event really after the Bees had their keeper sent off after just three minutes for a foul on Luke Pearce after he’d lost the ball outside of the penalty area. There was a covering defender behind the keeper, but this did not stop him seeing red and he could have few complaints about the decision. With no substitute keeper, the visitors had to play with an outfield player between the sticks and the first half was one way traffic with City facing opponents who often had all nine outfield players behind the ball. 

It took thirty five minutes for City to come up with a goal as new signing from Wolves Caiden Voice swung over a lovely cross which left Pearce with the simple task of heading in from close range. Soon after this, City scored a lucky second when Jake Davies’ long range shot got a big deflection which sent the ball into the air and then into the net via an upright.

Brentford were able to attack more in the second half, but City picked them off to claim further goals from Mannie Barton with a header from ten yards and a ferocious finish by sub Dan Ola after being set up by Barton.

It was not City’s fault that the game had an unsatisfactory feel to it as it was barely competitive at times – they got the job done in a competent and professional manner to record the first of the day’s 4-0 victories.

What to make of this Cardiff City team? On Tuesday, they go to the side in third position in the League One table and restrict them to two goal attempts, neither of which were on target. Looking at our goals conceded away from home record, those impressive stats shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise – we’ve only conceded six away goals all season, half of them in one game, and that’s comfortably the best record in the division (Bradford with nine against are next best).

Contrast those figures with our goals against record at home though. Today, we conceded three times at Cardiff City Stadium for the third time this campaign and only Blackpool have conceded more at home in League One than our fourteen.

How can you reconcile those figures? Traditionally, teams concede less at home than they do away, not us though and, our opponents today, Doncaster Rovers, were just like Bradford and Leyton Orient when they both scored three times here in that they could easily have scored more.

Perhaps a clue comes from the fact that, although Bradford were deserved 3-1 winners, Leyton Orient and Doncaster were on the end of 4-3 beatings.

We’re now at a stage where the season has been going on for long enough for its narratives to be set and one I’ve heard more and more as the weeks have gone by is that Cardiff “give you a chance” and that Cardiff are “very open”. Now, clearly, these comments refer to us at home – six goals conceded in nine games hardly merits such descriptions.

No, it can only refer to when we play at home. If you want more evidence that this is the case, let’s look at goals scored instead of goals conceded. We’ve got ten goals in our nine away games, not a bad haul, but if you stretch that kind of scoring rate across the course of a season, we’re going to score fewer away goals than some of our more mediocre Championship sides of recent seasons did.

So, our away games have yielded a total of sixteen goals in nine matches. A pretty miserly less than two goals a game then – what a contrast there is at Cardiff City Stadium!

Ten matches on our home ground have produced forty goals, so it’s easy enough to see that our home games are producing more than twice as many goals per game as our away ones are. 

None of this is to say that we go away and shut up shop, I think we’re quite attacking in our outlook, but nowhere near as much as we are at home where we really go for it!

Once again, if we maintain our current scoring rate at home for the rest of the season, were on course to score more in our twenty three games at Cardiff City Stadium than we managed in the forty six matches of most of our recent Championship campaigns.

Therefore, is it any wonder that we are going to be stretched defensively at times at home? There is so much attacking intent from BBM’s team that even someone like me who grew heartily sick of the attritional “anti football” that became the norm at Cardiff for close to fifteen years, often asks under my breath for us to be a bit more “pragmatic” in our attitude!

Look at Doncaster’s second goal today, from their perspective there was a very perceptive through ball by our former Academy player Charlie Crew to Brandon Hanlan who netted with a calmly taken finish across Nathan Trott. However, from our point of view, Crew had got the wrong side of our two deeper lying central midfielders and he wouldn’t have seen many blue shirts in front of him as he contemplated what to do next – there was enough room to drive a bus through the empty spaces beyond him!

So, our attitude at home seems to be the archetypal “you score three and we’ll score four”, but that doesn’t mean that rank bad defending is tolerated and there was far too much of that today.

While I’ve maybe tried to put Doncaster’s second goal down to our mega attacking attitude, that doesn’t explain the big gap between Ronan Kpakio and Will Fish that Hanlan had to run into -Kpakio should have done more to get across to cover inside and didn’t seem to realise the danger until it was too late.

As for the first and third goals, they weren’t down to us being short of numbers behind the ball. For the first one, Joel Bagan was beaten by the very impressive Luke Molyneux who then pulled a cross back to the penalty spot where the unmarked Owen Bailey must have had about five or six City players in front of him as his shot got a touch off Ryan Wintle and went into the middle of the goal. 

The third goal came from dead ball as we lost a header, were beaten to a second ball and allowed the scorer, Harry Clifton to get free of his man, cut past another blue shirt and fire in.

I must say I was impressed by Doncaster who came here with just one win in twelve and I can’t help thinking they’d have left with three points if you swapped the two keepers around – they were very unlucky to have lost. However runs like City are on create a special kind of momentum in that our winner in the ninth minute of added time didn’t come as a total shock and the same applies in reverse if you’re going through a spell like Doncaster are.

 City went with Kpakio in for Perry Ng, Omari Kellyman for Joel Colwill and Isaak Davies for Chris Willock and made a careless start that suggested complacency or having Tuesday’s visit from Chelsea on too many minds.

Putting our early issues entirely down to that would be a disservice to Doncaster though who were playing attractive and effective football with Molyneux a threat down the right. When the visitors took the lead on fifteen minutes it was deserved, they’d been the better team, but, within twenty minutes, they were behind and City fans settled down thinking their team’s slow and scratchy start had been put behind them.

Strangely, I was thinking Isaak Davies is more effective coming off the bench than starting games about twenty seconds before Wintle found him out on the left, Davies then burst past his marker, despite being fouled twice by him (the hopeless American referee decided conceding a goal was sufficient punishment for the transgressor despite there clearly being bookable offenses committed) and played a clever ball to Kellyman who controlled with his rightt foot and scored, with the aid of a slight deflection with his left in one slick movement.

Nine minutes later, City’s best player on the day, Cian Ashford, received a header from Yousef Salech out on the right forty yards from goal and embarked on a run which showed pace and power in driving past two opponents before stabbing in a shot as he fell from ten yards that found the corner of the net.

From a City perspective, a fine individual goal, but Doncaster would rue the failure of those two defenders to stop Ashford in his tracks and keeper Thimothee Lo-Tutatha not being able to get a stronger right hand on a shot which was not that powerful.

Doncaster were averaging less than a goal a game before today, but they had no trouble in creating chances here and any thoughts that, having fallen behind, they would meekly accept their fate were dispelled by Hanlan’s equaliser.

The notion that BBM was angry at our first half was given credence by the replacement at half time of Kpakio, Will Fish and Davies with Ng, Dylan Lawlor and Willock (BBM has said in a posty game interview that Kpakio had been ill earlier in the week and was not feeling right, while Fish had a series of bumps and bruises which was affecting him – he did though confirm the unlucky Davies’ replacement was tactical with the danger Molyneux was causing at the heart of it) .

For a while, the changes seemed to have worked – City scored s fine third goal early in the second half when Wintle’s great ball was swept in expertly by Salech (I thought our top scorer was very good today – he dominated the Doncaster’s defence physically, exemplified by the way he brushed aside his marker in scoring his goal).

Still City couldn’t shake off the visitors though and after they’d made it 3-3 in the seventy second minute, Doncaster were the team that looked the more likely winners, but then, with the clock at ninety eight minutes plus (seven minutes added time had been shown), Ashford came in from the right and got a decent strike away from twenty yards. Ashford’s shot left Lo-Tutatha with an awkward save to make, but it was one he’d have been expected to manage, but instead he spilled it to his right and Bagan followed up to score his first goal since his three goals in a week spell under Mick McCarthy early in 2022 and send the crowd wild.

It was far quieter last night at Leckwith as City’s under 21s beat QPR 3-1 in the EPL Cup We probably deserved our 1-0 half time lead through a Troy Perrett penalty in an even first half, but got right on top after the break with goals by Tanatswa Nyakuhwa and the impressive Luke Pearce before the visitors grabbed a late consolation – like the senior game less than twenty four hours later, the entertainment value from the second string was very high.

It was also 3-1 at the same venue this lunchtime as the under 18s came out on top against a Premier League club’s Academy team. Brentford were beaten by with goals from Riley Hilaire-Clarke and a couple from Mannie Barton, both of which were penalties.

There was a welcome point for struggling Treherbert Boys and Girls Club as they drew 1-1 at Cardiff Corries in the Ardal League South West. Ton Pentre played their first Saturday game in what seems like months as they went down 3-1 at Penycraig United in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Championship and have dropped down the table due to a combination of lack of games and a falling off in results, while Treorchy Boys and Girls Club were 4-2 winners at Porth Harlequins in Division One East to maintain a position in mid table.

An injury hit Cardiff City side snatched a draw at the death against visitors Bristol City this lunchtime, the outcome was only half decent in the position they’re in, but drawn games always seem more satisfying when you’re the team that equalises late on.

The wurzels, who would have gone into the top six with a win, led for around half an hour and seemed to be on their way to three points for a victory similar to the one we managed at Ashton Gate last season when a single goal from a set piece decided a tight, even, derby.

There was a surprise before kick off when the City side was announced. Sadly, Joe Ralls missing a game after playing twice in four days no longer comes as a shock, but Calum Chambers’ unavailability did and it meant that City weren’t far short of being down to the bare bones in midfield as Andy Rinomhota became one of two sitting midfielders alongside Sivert Mannsverk, while Ruben Colwell was used further forward. The recall of Perry Ng was predictable in the circumstances, less so was the inclusion of Joel Bagan at centreback alongside Dimi Goutas – Callum O’Dowda was left back.

The talking point up front was the inclusion of Will Alvez on the left for his first start and Anwar El-Ghazi was on the right behind Callum Robinson as Cian Ashford dropped to the bench.

The first thing to say about the game is that it was an improvement on Portsmouth, but I’d be lying if I said I believed that upturn in form meant we should have gained all three points – the BBC’s post match stats had us winning the goal attempts contest 13-11 and the on target attempts one 6-4, so we shaded those competitions and I’d say we did the same in the main event, but not to the extent that we should have won.

Those figures are suggestive of a contest that provided a decent level of entertainment and it’s fair to say that it did in the end, but almost all of the worthwhile action came after the break – the first period was the usual turgid fare for the opening forty fiver minutes of a Cardiff home match these days with the talking points limited to a number that you could count on the fingers of one hand.

There was a promising early raid down the left by City which ended with an O’Dowda shot that keeper Max O’Leary hung on to easily and a clever, quick free kick by Bagan presented El-Ghazi with the chance to work himself a shooting position twenty five yards out, the shot when it came was powerful and well struck, but straight at O’Leary.

For most of the half, the visitors were even more shot shy than City, but Mark Sykes brought Jak Alnwick into action with another shot that required a routine save and, with City getting more sloppy as the half wore on, there was a feeling that the wurzels were taking a degree of control.

Overall though it was cautious stuff as the two sides cancelled each other out despite using different formations as our usual 4-2-3-1 was faced by a 3-4-3.

Frankly, it seemed like a match between two teams more interested in not losing, rather than trying to win which was pretty disappointing as they both had big incentives for chasing the win.

It was still a bit of a shock to see Bristol manager Liam Manning making a couple of half time changes as Sam Bell and Yu Hirakawa were introduced for Scott Twine and Mark Sykes. The substitutions saw Bristol match us with a 4-2-3-1 and you may have thought it would add to the sense of stalemate, but, instead, it opened the game up.

The early stages suggested that the tactical changes would work to the visitor’s disadvantage as City tried to emulate the Swansea derby win with a strong ten minutes after half time. O’Leary had to make a save, albeit another easy one, from Robinson shortly after the restart and there were encouraging signs down the left as O’Dowda and Alvez combined well to engineer a couple of crosses to El Ghazi which could, and maybe should, have provided goals – the first one, from Mannsverk, was nodded over from close range by the Dutch international, but he did better with the second one as his header dropped towards Robinson only for our top scorer to volley wide from ten yards.

Although the play was now generally towards the Canton End City were attacking, it was Alnwick who had to make the best save of the game as Hirikawa cut in and tried to beat him on the near post only for the keeper to get down quickly to turn it aside.

Colwill’s piledriver from twenty five yards had O’Leary diving late as it curved in a long way, but not quite enough as it fizzed a yard or so wide. However, soon afterwards, the visitors took the lead in this fixture for the first time since early in the 23/24 season when Hirikawa’s wicked free kick was headed in on the far post by Bristol captain Jason Knight.

I’m getting tired of saying it was a poor goal to concede when we let one in, but it was another set piece and it’s not a good look to have virtually all of your team standing there with their arms in the air appealing for offside as the ball hits the net. In mitigation, it was great delivery and it was very close to being offside – having seen replays of the goal, there were definitely some Bristol players stood in an offside position when the ball was played, but it seems to me that Knight wasn’t one of them.

Having said earlier that we were down to the bare bones in the middle of the park, it wasn’t quite that bad because the fit again Aaron Ramsey was ready to come on in place of Rinomhota when Bristol scored. 

The introduction of the veteran made little difference initially as Bristol became more cautious and were tending to snuff out City attacks very early. Omer Riza introduced Chris Willock and Yousef Salech for Robinson and El-Ghazi to little avail as we became nervy and too frantic as the thought of a third straight league loss loomed larger.

The closest we came to an equaliser as time ticked down to the ninety minute mark was when a Ramsey corner flicked off wurzels sub Nahki Wells at some pace, but it went straight into the grateful hands of O’Leary.

It seemed a bit later than it should have been to introduce Ashford for Mannsverk with just under ten minutes left, but it paid dividends when a lovely ball inside the right back by Ramsey set Ashford running towards the bye line and his low cross picked out Salech who was left with the simple task of scoring from about four yards out – it’s nice to have someone who gets into those positions though because we certainly don’t have enough of them.

Both sides had a chance to win the game after that as Ramsey played an even better pass to leave Willock in exactly the same sort of position as Ashford had been, but this time nothing came of it and Bagan was to get in a great block off a goal bound Wells shot with seconds remaining.

Mention of Bagan takes me on to a theme I’d like to develop to finish on the game – with one exception, all of the better outfield performances from City came from younger players.

I’ll begin with the exception though. Aaron Ramsey had played a few nice passes before he picked one out through the massed ranks of the wurzel’s defence – we struggled to open up their defence when it was far less populated than in the ninetieth minute, yet he found one pass that did the job and then another one that maybe should have resulted in a winner. While he can do things like that, you have to think that Ramsey has a big part to play in deciding whether we remain  in this division or not – just a couple of quibbles about him though, for such a technically gifted player he’s a pretty poor corner taker and that very late chance for Bristol came from him losing possession cheaply in his own half.

As for the youngsters, talk of who should be our player of the year tends to develop into an argument between O’Dowda and Rinomhota, but I’d like to put a word in for Bagan – currently I’d say he’s our best and most reliable defender, he is composed where others are far from that and his use of the ball is very good.

A word for Mannsverk too who was very good in the first half and his ability to run with the ball gives us something different. I like what I’m seeing of Will Alvez, he doesn’t give the ball away, there’s usually an end product from him and he has a maturity beyond his years to go with the required team ethic.

Rubin Colwill had a strange game, the wurzels found it very hard to dispossess him and I remember Max Bird bouncing off him such was the power of his running at one stage, but, for all of the many good things he did, there wasn’t a great deal of an end product – still, I would have thought that a few visiting players were pretty tired by the end given the amount of chasing they had to do after him.

I’m almost pleased to say that Salech doesn’t contribute a great deal n build up play because we’ve really needed someone who can get on the end of things and, to that end, it’s very encouraging that he already on three goals despite only having started one game.

Finally, we come to Ashford who, for all that he could be blamed for Portsmouth’s first goal in midweek, also created our goal when his quick feet provided the space for the cross that O’Dowda scored from. Ashford has shown in far less opportunities than other wide players that he has a cool head when put in potential scoring or goal creating positions. He did it again today and really shouldn’t be relegated to the almost afterthought of the final sub used with less than ten minutes to play.

I don’t mean to be critical of more senior players, but the contrast between what happened after those two passes by Ramsey is clear – Ashford affected the game more than El-Ghazi and  Willock did in far more time on the pitch than him and he and Alvez seem to be the best wing options we have at the moment.

You think back and the large majority of match turning moments this season have come from either Callum Robinson’s goals or something younger players have done – besides those I’ve mentioned today, Alex Robertson and Ollie Tanner have done their bit as well.

While I accept the obvious risk of becoming over reliant on youngsters in a struggling team, have the more experienced players got it in them as a collective to come up with enough of those match changing moments in our remaining matches?

Talking of youngsters, a blow today to our under 18s who will probably lose second spot in their league after their 4-2 defeat at Brentford this lunchtime, Robert Tankiewicz and Alyas Dabono were our goalscorers.

Cardiff City took their unbeaten run to five matches tonight, but at the same time ticked another of those boxes that mark them out as a probable relegation team. Struggling sides at home against an out of form team that are looking like one of the worst visiting outfits seen all season simply have to win when they go 1-0 up. City didn’t, they conceded with three minutes left, then tried their best to lose the point they had as baffling substitutions left them hanging on through the five minutes of added time as the opposition, Watford, realised they had a chance of snatching a ridiculous win given how ninety per cent of the match panned out.

Watford looked like a team that had lost four straight matches and for all but the final eight minutes or so seemed resigned to their fate. Although the BBC’s stats, surprisingly, indicate a very even game, City won the physical battle throughout and when they scored on sixty five minutes, it seemed there’d only be one winner, but that was the signal for them to take a backward step and, although they looked comfortable enough in the following twenty minutes, this is a team that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in the league for three months. So, although the desire to preserve the lead was understandable to an extent, City were well on top when they scored and a second goal looked on the cards.

City continued with Rubin Colwill leading the attack and this time he played more like a proper nine than a false one, but, in a very poor first half, all they did despite generally edging it was show the sort of lack of attacking understanding and combination play that has plagued them at home in particular this season.

It took Watford eighty seven minutes to get an effort on goal, and it earned them their point, so there was little from them to suggest a goal, but, by the same token, they were comfortable at the back as City’s attacking limitations gave them hardly anything to worry about.

We did have the only two on target efforts of the half. In saying that, Alex Robertson’s dribbler from twenty yards may have been going just wide as Jonathan Bond dived to make an easy save, but the keeper was much more impressive in turning Chris Willock’s shot from the corner of the penalty area aside as the winger tried to bend his effort into the far corner.

The first forty five minutes looked like either a 0-0 or one of those games that would produce just the one decisive goal, but the second period suggested one of the two teams could go on to win more comfortably than that.

It’s not been very often this season, particularly at home, when you could suggest that a City goal was coming, but, after a quiet first ten minutes or so, that’s how it felt as the game neared the hour mark.

Watford had escaped when a Robertson corner bounced free just short of their line only for defender Matt Pollock to scramble the ball clear. Shortly after that, Colwill’s shot from twenty yards was not cleanly struck, but rolled only a yard or so wide and then, when Jesper Daland headed down to Perry Ng, the full back’s volley from around the penalty spot was diverted around the post by a defender.

 Next, Colwill was inches away from reaching a Dimi Goutas header when any sort of contact must have seen him score, but, just as I was beginning to think that all of the pressure would come to nothing, the player who seems to me to be the only one in the senior squad who can challenge Callum Robinson for the title of best finisher showed the others how to do it.

There was luck involved as ricochets helped Robertson and our best player on the night, Callum Chambers, but when the ball found it’s way to Cian Ashford, he took a touch and then finished crisply from fifteen yards.

That should have been that and, although City’s attacking intent was quite substantially reduced after that, they still had two great chances to make the points safe. The forst came when Ollie Tanner, on as a sub for Willock, gave Pollock the chance to clear for a corner with a pass aimed at the unmarked Robertson that was not good enough and then when Ashford was somewhat greedy, understandable in view of his confidence at the moment maybe, when he opted to shoot instead of passing to better placed colleagues inside him.

Tanner had come on a few minutes after our goal and he was followed ten minutes later by Yakou Meite coming on for Colwill. However, surprisingly, Omer Riza delayed any other substitutions until almost the very end as Joel Bagan and Joe Ralls were ready to come on as defensive substitutes for Robertson and Ashford when Watford launched an attack.

City defenders had been getting first contact on balls into our box and down the channels all night, but when Andy Rinomhota was penalised for a foul out on our left some thirty yards from goal, City were grateful for Meite’s sliced clearance past the far post as a couple of Watford players closed in on a dangerous dead ball delivery. 

The resultant corner saw City struggle to clear and an isolated Callum O’Dowda was made to pay for not getting to the ball first as Kwadko Baah got to the bye line and crossed for the unmarked Vakoun Bayo to head in from inside the six yard box.

If that was a real kick in the guts, Riza’s decision to go ahead with the substitutions he had planned at 1-0 was just bizarre- this was a game we had to win and yet he went ahead with his shut up shop changes with the result that we barely crossed the halfway line after that. 

Indeed Watford could have won it as Jak Alnwick had to make a good save to keep out a shot by sub Rocco Vata and so, although our point takes us out of the bottom three, it’s now five victories out of twenty six and we’ve got no chance of staying up unless that win rate starts to improve quite dramatically.

Sadly, it seems the mid season break has had a negative effect on the under 21s who had been the bright spot of this miserable campaign. While the 5-1 thumping at Ipswich last week was understandable to a large extent because of the number of Academy youngsters involved, it was a much stronger team in action at Leckwith this afternoon against league leaders Brentford, but they could have few complaints about a 3-0 loss that didn’t flatter the visitors at all. I thought Dylan Lawlor did pretty well on what was a testing afternoon and Isaac Jeffries showed up well in attack at times, but there was little to enthuse about as it begins to look as if our second string might be in for a difficult second half to the season.

Back in our 1987/88 promotion season from what is now League Two we played Burnley at Ninian Park on 19 December. Although it’s nearly forty years since the game was played, I have two very strong memories from it. The first one is irrelevant to this piece, but I’ll just quickly mention that it was played the day after the Companies House Christmas party, an occasion that always became notorious through its pay a fiver and drink all you want policy – suffice it to say that the game features in my top five worst hangovers at a City game table!

The reason I mention this match today though was that it was of a type I’d seen very little of in what was even then nearly a quarter of a century of watching us play. Burnley took the lead quite early on and held on to it through what must have been an hour or more so that they were less than ten minutes away from a win that would keep them in the promotion hunt.

There were about three minutes left when City finally equalised through Jimmy Gilligan, who then only went and scored the winner about three minutes later. For decades after that game I recalled it because it was so rare – I’d seen countless examples of us scoring late on to turn a defeat into a draw, but I struggled to remember a match where a defeat had been turned into a win with a couple of goals so late on.

Now, if you’d have asked me to rate the year 2024 in terms of entertainment and enjoyment when it comes to watching City, it would not be that highly, the football has been mostly boring because the manager set us up so negatively and, not only was it like watching paint dry, it was usually unsuccessful. However, despite all of the dross and the misery, this year has seen three repeats of that Burnley game from the 80s and, not only that, all three of the victims of these late turn around wins have been high quality Championship teams.

In fact, the first two teams to see three points turn into none very late on at Cardiff City Stadium this year are now playing the Premier League. Ipswich and Southampton suffered what looked like serious blows to their promotion hopes at Cardiff City Stadium in the spring, although quite how we did it, I’m still not sure. 

Truth be told, I think there was a fair bit of dragging Ipswich down to our level in the first of the games. They never showed the superiority that the league table suggested they would and were looking as if they were content to “win ugly” against a City team that had begun brightly, but then it had become a pretty typical Bulut fare until we equalised and, once that had happened, there was only one side which was going to get a winner and it duly arrived late, late in addedtime through Callum O’Dowda.

Southampton was different, they scored early on and had the chances to put the game to bed against what was an experimental City team, but got careless and complacent causing the game to turn in favour of us in the last quarter when we brought a group of youngsters on. We equalised with about a quarter of an hour left and the winner came in added time through Cian Ashford who was making his first start.

I find it remarkable that having had lightning strike in the same place this year, it now has done again today. This time the victims were an impressive Norwich City team that were on a seven match unbeaten run which had almost taken them into the top six after a slow stsart to their campaign. Norwich, missing important players through injury and suspension, generally had the better of things against a City team that also had to make changes themselves because some important members of the team during the recent improvement under Omer Riza were unavailable.

City replaced Perry Ng, who was serving a one game suspension with Andy Rinomhota and, despite Omer Riza making no mention of this, during his press briefing on Thursday, it seems Alex Robertson was suffering from a knock which meant that he had not trained all week – predictably, Manolis Siopis came in to replace Robertson. Finally, Callum Robinson had gone off with an injury at West Brom and was only considered fit enough to be a substitute, so Chris Willock came in to play alongside Rubin Colwill through the middle almost as a pair of false number nines.

The game looked like a decent one on paper as both sides had been scoring goals and winning games – including cup games, Norwich had been scoring at just short of two a game this season and their defensive record wasn’t too great either.

In their previous two games, Norwich had come back from 2-0 down at Preston to draw 2-2 and I’d watched a lot of their very entertaining 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough last weekend in which they’d trailed 3-1 at one time. For fifteen minutes or so, today’s game lived up to expectations as play swung from end to end with City coming closest to scoring when Ollie Tanner got past the highly rated  Callum Doyle to cross for Willock to hit a first time shot into the side netting.

After that though, Norwich began to dominate possession and put us under more and more pressure. The division’s top scorer Borja Sainz was largely contained by Rinomhota through the first half, but he got clear once to run twenty yards, accelerating away from the oursuing Dimi Goutas in the process, before hitting a shot from twenty five yards that Jak Alnwick dived to save. 

There was also a tremendous penalty area scramble following a corner where Callum Chambers got in a h couple of blocks of close range shots as Norwich knocked on the door and left City grateful to get to half time with their tecord of not conceding stretched to seven halves.

By contrast, the stats after forty five minutes showed City had not had an effort on target for a game and a half.

Turnbull, looking much more convincing than he did last season, ended that record soon after the restart by getting in a shot which goalkeeper George Long saved without too much difficulty.

Turnbull then blotted his copy book though with a pass out from the back which caught Colwill on his heels as the ball was nipped away from him and quickly moved on to Sainz – he’d scored a couple of beauties last weekend, but this one was perhaps better than either of them.as he left Alnwick clutching at thin air as his shot from well outside the penalty flew over the keeper and then dipped into the net.

City responded well for a while with Turnbull having a much fiercer shot than his first effort as Long opted to punch clear the Scot’s swerving effort. By and large though, Norwich’s defence looked far from suspect as they dealt with crosses pretty easily as City’s lack of a recognised striker was sorely felt.

Shane Duffy, who once scored two own goals and was shown a red card in a 2-1 defeat for his team, Blackburn, here eight years ago, almost made it three ogs in our stadium as he headed a Tanner cross narrowly wide, but, gradually, the match reverted to its first half pattern with the visitors looking the more dangerous.

Duffy had been left unmarked beyond the post from the first half corner from which Norwich had almost scored and, again, the centre back got his head to a deep flag kick to draw a good save from Alnwick.

The keeper’s best save though came from Sainz and then Goutas (one of the nominations for Championship player of the month for October) blocked sub Jack Stacy’s follow up.

Stacy had been brought on for Kelley Fisher – that was a full back for full back swap, but fellow defenders Grant Hanley and Ben Chrisene were brought on for a midfielder and a forward as the visitors opted to shut up shop. 

There were distinct parallels between what Norwich manager Johanes Thorup did today and what Omer Riza did at Bristol where he made what I’d rate as his only mistake so far in his spell as interim manager. 

Riza’s blunder arguably cost City two points, but Thorup’s handed three points to Norwich’s opponents. While I’d say City were helped along the way to victory by the opposition manager, that should not take away from the credit they get for their terrific late fight back during which they got right on top . Colwill and Tanner had not been able to exert the influence they had on previous games during Riza’s spell in charge, but now their right hand side partnership became more important as the game reached its climax. A clever contribution from Cian Ashford, on for Willock, added to the problems Norwich were now facing and the arrival of Robinson, for the largely ineffective Anwar El-Ghazi, gave the attack a much needed focal point.

It was on the left though where City’s improvement was most severely felt by the visitors as man of the match Callum O’Dowda , having switched to more of a wing back role with Jesper Daland brought on to give City a back three, was able to get to the bye line on several occasions as City forced a string of corners.

O’Dowda crossed earlier with the clock showing eighty nine minutes and he found Robinson who was able to worked himself a little space to get away a shot from around the penalty spot that got a slight deflection which left Long wrong footed as the ball rolled into the corner of the net.

I would happily have settled for the point at this stage, but Robinson’s reaction to scoring was telling as he chased into the net to retrieve the ball and head back to the centre spot.

Clearly, City felt they could win the game as Norwich’s defensive resolve showed signs of wilting, but I doubt it if anyone thought that the ninety third minute winner would come as the result of a Colwill header from a Tanner longish throw! Colwill’s flick found Robsinson who returned it to Rubin who went past a man and worked the ball to Robinson who looked to have again worked himself the space to get away a shot, but, this time, it was blocked and rolled free to O’Dowda who took a touch and then powered in an unstoppable shot from eighteen yards to bring about pandemonium in the ground.

There was no coming back from Norwich after that and so it’s now four straight home wins with ten scored and just the one conceded, while Riza’s record stretches to four wins, two draws and one defeat and you have to say that tactically, and in his substitutions, he got it dead right today .

There was also a very good win for the under 18s at Leckwith this lunchtime as they beat Brentford 3-1. Harry Watts gave City an early lead which Dan Ola restored after an equaliser by the visitors. The second half produced just one more goal, scored by Jake Davies at a time when City were down to ten men following a red card for Jac Thomas.

In local football, there was a first point of the season for Ton Pentre in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier Division as they drew 1-1 at Aber Valley.Treorchy Boys and Girls Club continue to go well in their debut season at this level as they beat Penrhiwfer 1-0 at home in Division One West.

Chwarae teg, as someone who has often been critical of Cardiff City this season, I thought we played pretty well on our first visit to the new Brentford Community Stadium tonight. It finished 1-1 and so, although our promotion hopes realistically ended at Sheffield Wednesday, we’ve damaged the aspirations of two of the sides above us in the last four days.

With Reading on Friday, we were playing a team that knew automatic promotion was out of the picture and their Play Off hopes were fading pretty quickly. Tonight, it was different – Brentford may have stopped winning matches recently (one in six going into tonight’s game), but, with a top six finish virtually certain, they still entertained lingering hopes of automatic promotion.

However, with Watford winning tonight at already promoted Norwich, Brentford find themselves ten points adrift of second place with just four matches to play – they have to face the fact that they are going to be in the Play Offs once again and they have an appalling record in the end of season mini competitions.

It’s hard to avoid the suspicion that what happened at the back end of last season is haunting a club thats recruitment policy is equally admired and envied by many in the game. I’ll be wanting Brentford to win the Play Offs because I think they deserve promotion, but losing both of their last two matches last season when two points would have seen them go up automatically is a tough one to get over and I suspect promotion may be beyond them again this time around.

Certainly, Brentford weren’t as impressive tonight as they were on Boxing Day at our place when, after a low key first half that saw them trailing by that Will Vaulks goal from inside his own half, they went up through the gears in the second period to deservedly win 3-2 with Sergi Canos netting a hat trick.

For City, there was frustration tonight at losing a hard won lead within minutes of scoring just like they had done at Reading, but they could be satisfied that, as a team with nothing really to play for now, they did not lack for effort at all and may even have won but for a very poor individual error.

There was disappointment again for supporters like me who were hoping that these last few games would see some game time, or squad experience at the very least, for some of our home produced youngsters, but, once again, Mick McCarthy stuck with the “tried and trusted” senior men with teenager Rubin Colwill stepping down to accommodate the return of Leandro Bacuna to the substitutes bench after a spell of illness in the only change to the squad for the Reading game – as has been remarked upon by many, the continuing selection of Junior Hoilett in the squad when our manager, apparently, has no intention of using him seems very odd.

City made a bright start, pushing Brentford, who had drawn both of their last two home matches 0-0, on to the defensive with their urgency, but they only had a half hit Perry Ng shot which home keeper David Raya saved easily to show for their pressure. Coversely,at the other end, Brentford, distinctly second best for the first ten minutes or so, created a better chance out of nothing really when an unmarked Marcus Forss put his shot straight at Alex Smithies from about twelve yards out.

Brentford were able to impose their passing game on proceedings more as the half wore on, but City were unrecognisable defensively from the team that collapsed at Hillsborough as they maintained their shape and discipline to largely keep the hosts at arms length. Forss carelessly shot over after the Championship’s top scorer, Ivan Toney, nodded back a deep cross – in fact, I’m being generous when I say it was a deep cross, because it looked for all of the world like it had gone out for a goal kick.

Marlon Pack then must have feared the worst when his back pass was picked up by Toney who bore down on the City goal only for Smithies to produce a good save to deny the striker who City have done a good job of keeping in check in their encounters with this season. Going back to Pack, I must say that I’ve more time for him than many City fans do, but he has been prone to giving away or losing the ball in deep areas lately due to wanting to take too many touches – it’s not cost us a goal(s) yet, but I fear it will do soon.

City had a chance of their own as well when Ciaron Brown’s pass was flicked on by Moore into the path of Joe Ralls who went for goal himself rather than look to play in the unmarked Harry Wilson – Ralls’ shot was held on to in regulation style by a diving Raya.

The first half was short on goalmouth action, but it had a watchable quality to it and this continued into the second half as Brentford upped their efforts in attack, but City were able to launch counters of their own that showed they were not solely preoccupied with defending.

With wing backs Ng and Tom Sang both looking impressive, City were able to move the ball around more cohesively than normal, but there was still a lack of precision in their passing at times which meant that good chances, particularly late on when the home side were chasing the win they so desperately needed, went begging.

City took the lead on fifty seven minutes when Wilson and Sang’s persistence won a free kick close to the bye line right on the edge of the penalty area. Vaulks’ resultant cross was met by an unmarked Curtis Nelson standing just beyond the penalty spot, but his header looked to be going just wide when it hit Ethan Pinnock on the hand and referee Darren England pointed to the spot – by the interpretation of the handball law we’ve seen this season it looked a fair decision to me, but the referee’s decision not to further punish the player looked the right one to me given that Pinnock had not kept out a goal attempt which looked like it was going in.

Keiffer Moore’s three penalties before today had all been aimed high into the net, but this time he went low to Raya’s left as he dived to his right – it was another impressive spot kick by the striker who has now reached twenty for the season if you include his goals for Wales.

City had been defending well enough to make me think that Moore’s eighteenth goal of his league campaign would prove decisive, but I figured without an awful blunder by Smithies who allowed a shot from Tarique Fosu from twenty yards which was well struck, but straight at him, to slip through his hands and dribble apologetically into the net.

With Smithies having been at fault with one of Blackburn’s goals in his comeback game after his illness enforced withdrawal at Bristol City in January and his erratic spell around Christmas (at least one of Brentford’s goals at Cardiff City Stadium should have been saved to my mind), our number one goalkeeper is having his worst season since signing for us nearly three years ago and it only re emphasises that Dillon Phillips has been very hard done by – he’s been penalised for letting in five in his last match, yet none of them were down to him.

Brentford forced a lot of corners and free kicks after that and City needed to be vigilant at the back in the twenty five minutes or so that remained. However, with all of the back three continuing with the improved form seen at Reading, they came through their defensive examination despite the ball sometimes bouncing around dangerously in their penalty area and Smiithies opting to fist away a Canos shot late on which moved about a fair bit in the air.

However, it was us who missed the best chance of a winning goal when Raya made a mess of Vaulks long throw in and the ball fell to Wilson on his left foot about five yards out – it was an awkward ball to hit, but it was the player in blue you would most want the chance to fall to and it was disappointing to see the shot dribble wide.

Finally, it was good to see Jordy Osei Tutu back in action after his long lay off (even if it was at the expense of injuries to the very good Sang and Ng) and he was able to give us a few signs of what we’ve been missing – we look like we will be losing a lot of wingers/wide players this summer and I wonder if we could try to get him back for next season to play further forward than he has done in his all too rare appearances for us this time around?

Quite unusually, Cardiff City’s season is coming to a gradual halt with no promotion or relegation issues to concentrate on. Just four matches left, with the first of those at Brentford tomorrow evening – here’s seven questions on our opponents with the answers to be posted on here on Wednesday.

60s. Beginning his career in the city of his birth playing for the Hatchetmen at Seaview, this forward scored goals wherever he went, but he scored most for Brentford. His first move saw him playing in Brentford’s colours and scoring at a rate of better than a goal every other game, but the arrival of an England striker whose record was even better saw him drop out of the side and he was eventually transferred to wild Rovers to the south where he did pretty well for a couple of seasons. He next moved to a place which calls itself an “industrial garden town” (most of the industry’s gone now though). This club became the first in the Football League to move to a new stadium in thirty three years, but this was a long time after our man left having scored at a rate of better than one in three in just over a season there. Brentford, his next club, was an unusual move for him in that he came south of Watford for the only time in his career, but he must have been happy there because the four years he was with them was a long time by his standards. It was back up north after that with a club with an x in their name and then he finished his league career with five years at a County set that has hopes of a return to the Football League next season. His last club saw him playing in a city with a name which is the same as a town in his homeland and, in doing so, he took the number of countries he had played in to three. Internationally, the first of his four caps came in a 3-2 defeat by Wales, can you name him?

70s. This defender started off playing for a club that had a preoccupation with building a white elephant stand which had a good deal to do with their subsequent relegation towards the end of his time with them. Never establishing himself at his first club, his move to Brentford was a short one both in terms of distance and time spent there, but he did enough to earn himself a move to a higher division for a pretty big fee in those days to another club that played in a combination red, white and black. There was a relegation and a promotion during the seven years he was there before he stayed in the same three colours again to team up with a club in the midst of a fairly rapid drop from the top flight to the bottom one. His last club saw him get a change of colours in a location well to the south of his previous two where he represented a team that gained only its second win in its last twenty six matches on Saturday. He played once for his country, against Denmark, but who is he?

80s. A much travelled Brentford player of this decade, he and his family took thirty three chickens, three horses, two dogs and two ducks with them when they moved from Leicester to Blackpool (he also acquired seven turkeys while at Blackpool), while he once came fifteenth in a Time Out poll to find the funniest person in London – who?

90s. A scorer for Brentford against us during this decade, he was once sent off at Ninian Park while playing for Swansea, who is he?

00s. Brentford scorer out of Nepal and Suva?

10s.Man of the cloth from Shropshire turns up at Cardiff City Stadium?

20s. He’s a member of the current Brentford squad and his first three teams in senior football were Hadley, Hayes and Hendon – who?

Answers.

60s. Belfast born Ian Lawther signed for Sunderland from Crusaders and did very well there for three years before the arrival of Brian Clough saw him relegated to the reserves and an eventual move to Blackburn. Scunthorpe were Lawther’s next side and then after his spell at Brentford between 1964 and 1968, he signed for Halifax. Three years later, he moved to Stockport and then had a season at Bangor City before retiring in 1977.

70s. Stewart Houston started his career at Chelsea, but only played nine league matches in the five years he was with them. After an initial loan spell at Brentford, he jointed them permanently in 1971 and did well enough to earn a £55,000 move to Manchester United in 1973. Houston played over two hundred league games for the Old Trafford team, winning a Second Division title medal while he was there, A new decade brought a move to a new club in Sheffield United and he was part of a squad that was relegated to Division Four for the first time in their history, but he won another title medal when they made sure their start was the shortest one possible the following season. Colchester were Houston’s final team, playing over a hundred times for them to take his career record for league appearances to just under five hundred before retiring in 1986.

80s. Ian Holloway.

90s. Joe Allon scored for Brentford in a 1-1 draw against us at Griffin Park in November 1993 some six years after he had been sent off in Swansea’s 1-0 loss at Ninian Park in August 1987.

00s. Paul Evans.

10s. Harley Dean.

20s. Charlie Goode.