I realise that the tone of these post game pieces have been almost exclusively negative this season and, believe me, I would far prefer to be able to adopt a more positive tone, but I’m afraid, I’ve seen so little to get upbeat about. The difference in results in our first five league games compared to what we did the last time we were in the Championship is marked, but more concerning for me is the difference in level of performance.
To be fair, those first five matches in 17/18 did represent the high water mark for that season when it came to performance levels and, by the turn of the year, our points were tending to be ground out rather than won with the swagger seen in August. Nevertheless, there was a belief, cussedness and unity in the squad which still marked out most of our wins as warranted ones.
There has been a lot of discussion this season about our style of play with what has been called Warnockball by some coming in for a lot of criticism. I have not been backward in coming forward in adding my name to the list of critics, but my concern and frustration at the start we’ve made is not solely down to style, or lack of to be more accurate, there has also been a feeling that a Neil Warnock side will never get anywhere if it doesn’t have those mental qualities I mentioned in the paragraph above.
Well, I thought in many ways tonight’s 1-1 draw with Fulham at Cardiff City Stadium was our most encouraging performance of the season, but I should emphasise that this is only qualified praise – City’s performance was still below the level of most of what we saw in 17/18.
However, in terms of defensive discipline and organisation and those mental qualities, I feel we saw an improvement on previous games.
I’ll do my impression of a stuck record again and say that I don’t like the way we play, but I realise that our 70 year old manager is not going to stop following the script that has won him so many promotions at this stage of his career. We are going to keep on playing Warnockball while he’s still at the club and the fact has to be accepted that any drastic change of approach would probably be more likely to fail than succeed given the rather one dimensional nature of our squad.
So, within the sort of parameters that I’ll come to later, I’ll admit that we played well in some regards tonight.
First of all, it’s easy to look at our possession stats for every match and conclude that our two central midfielders are being outplayed week after week, but I feel tonight’s match revealed why that belief is not entirely fair.
Whoever plays in those deeper midfield roles at Cardiff shoulder a lot of defensive responsibilities which, inevitably, restrict their capacity to get involved in the more constructive and creative aspects of any match and I thought both Leandro Bacuna and Joe Ralls did well in those facets of the game. In fact, I would say that was Bacuna’s best match so far for City and that Ralls’ displays so far make him the early leader, by some distance, in any player of the season speculation.
Behind them, I would say that while none of the back four were outstanding (Joe Bennett is still some way short of his best in my opinion), they looked more of a unit and as a result they seemed that much more solid with the one disappointment being how easily they were opened up for Fulham’s equaliser.
In goal, Alex Smithies looks to be benefiting from his run of matches and he did well on a few occasions in the first half especially, – the one down side being that I didn’t feel his kicking was as reliable as it usually is.
Even with the four attackers in the side, there was a willingness to put in a defensive shift with the sight of Lee Tomlin busting a gut to get back to help out defensively shortly before he was taken off perfectly illustrating the team’s unity of purpose – Robert Galtzel also was not averse to dropping back to help.
In saying all of that, I think Neil Warnock went over the top somewhat when he said in his post match press conference that it was an exciting game. Given the total contrast in approach between the two teams, I could perhaps see some justification for interesting, but I reckon a phrase I heard quite often in my youth but nowhere near as much now might be most appropriate.
“Game for the connoisseur” usually was used when the reporter wanted to convey some sort of tactical battle, but, to my young eyes and ears, it was, to all intents and purposes, a fancy way of describing a dull encounter – I’d be happy to go with that interpretation of game for the connoisseur if it were applied to tonight’s game.
From a Fulham perspective, they were far more solid than they were in their 4-2 loss here last season – this time the midfield was more defensively aware and they were more prepared to press City in the area just in front of our back four.
However, although they dominated possession for large periods of the game, they weren’t equal to the sum of their parts on the attacking side with both of their wingers and Tom Cairney pretty quiet and Aleksander Mitrovic often cutting something of an isolated figure.Of course, City’s improved defensive showing should be given some credit for this, but, apart from their 4-0 win over Millwall, Fulham have hardly been banging in the goals so far and on this showing, you could see why.
A decent Fulham fan who posts on the messageboard deserves credit because he predicted a 1-1 draw with his team getting something like 79% per cent for his team (they got 69% according to the BBC, but that figure would have included City’s late fightback in the possession stakes which was instigated by the issuing of a red card). However, he also said that much of that possession would be deep in their own half with their defenders passing the ball back and forth to each other.
Fulham visited Cardiff City Stadium three times in 2017 and in each of them played a possession based game which ensured they had more of the ball than us, but they also passed the ball with an attacking purpose that often wasn’t there last night – it was more passing for passing’s sake and, on this evidence, all three relegated sides are having their problems adjusting to life back in the Championship.
Nevertheless, it seemed to me that for the first three quarters of the game, there was only one side who were actively trying to win it.
As it so often is these days, City had the mentality and approach of a League Two side taking on Manchester City (that’s being hard on Newport County mind who had more of a go at Pep’s superstars than we did at Fulham tonight )with possession, territory and the onus to attack normally associated with a home team all conceded. Probably due to Fulham’s record 84.5% possession in that Millwall match I mentioned earlier, tonight was a more extreme example of this than you normally get from Neil Warnock’s team, but it is there to some degree against every side we play.
“Cowardice” is probably putting it too strongly, but we are set up to capitalise on our opponents over committing to attack and so the obvious question arises, what would happen if every team we played took the field with the same attitude as we do?
In saying that, Neil Warnock would I’m sure point to the goal we scored three minutes before half time as all the justification he needs for the methods he uses. It was a classic counter attacking goal with the assist being provided by the unlikely figure of Aden Flint who intercepted a loose pass about ten yards inside his own half, drove forward for a short while and then played an inch perfect through pass which left Josh Murphy with a clear run in on goal.
My first reaction when Murphy received the ball was to say “poor first touch” (actually, I should have said poor second touch) because it had taken him away from the goal with the angle he was faced with getting smaller. With an unmarked Glatzel looking at a tap in for his first City goal, Murphy instead opted to shoot, but, although his left footed effort was well struck, it seemed to me that it would not have gone in without what commentators would describe these days as a weak right hand from Marcus Bettinelli in the Fulham goal.
City undoubtedly took great heart from scoring first. I say this because they had created next to nothing to concern the visitors until the goal, but within seconds, Lee Tomlin influenced the match in the way most City fans hope him to for the only time in the match when he slipped Glatzel in with a lovely pass but the German striker, who again looked a tidy footballer when the ball is played into his feet, was denied by much better goalkeeping from Bettinelli.
A minute later and Fulham were level when Mitrovic tapped in a Cavaleiro cross from no more than three yards out – people talk about good movement off the ball to find space by strikers and there was a degree of that in the way Mitrovic got clear of Sean Morrison who appeared to be distracted by what looked quite a heavy fall a few seconds before the goal was scored, but it also has to be poor defending surely when someone like Mitrovic is left in such glorious isolation within the six yard box.
For the opening stages of the second half, the game continued on its expected path with Fulham still enjoying something like 75% possession. Indeed, at the end of the third quarter of the match, the visitors were so dominating the football, without doing a great deal of note with it mind, that a second goal for them was beginning to seem inevitable.
City were able to lift the siege though and Joe Ralls was in the process of launching a counter attack when he was taken down by a Harry Arter foul. The former City loan man picked up the sort of booking that became commonplace for him at Cardiff and everyone assumed that would be the end of the matter, but when Morrison showed some nifty foot work to work himself some space out by the corner flag right in front of where I sit, he then made contact with Arter, but, in truth, barely touched him and the midfielder went down like he been shot a second or two later.
Fulham manager Scott Parker talked of a foul on Arter before his dive and he may well have a point, but the dive was so ridiculous and wrong that it had to be deemed worthy of a second yellow and, after consulting with his linesman, referee Robinson pulled out the red card as well.
We now come to the parameters which I mentioned what must seem hours ago to anyone still reading this. Although I’m sure they was an intention to try to win the game there with City, I think it’s fair to say that their primary function was to stop Fulham scoring , but now with a one man advantage, they were the team that had to force the issue, they were the team who now looked the more likely winners.
With hindsight, it can be seen that our failure to capitalise on having a man advantage for a long period in two of our first three matches last season played a big part in our relegation. We didn’t have the quality to put Newcastle under any great pressure in the first of them, but succeeded in doing so to Huddersfield only for poor finishing to let us down.
This time, it was the first of those two that foiled us, allied to a lack of composure. Too many times our football was too desperate, with a string of free kicks awarded against them denying City any sense of momentum.
Only when Ralls fired narrowly high and wide from twenty yards and Bennett’s best moment of the match saw him deliver a lovely far post cross which Morrison took great care in heading back past Bettinelli (I changed my mind about three times as to whether it was going in or not!), but also narrowly wide of the far post did City threaten a goal in what had become the sort of game that the 17/18 side probably would have found a way of winning – for me, this was a step forward by City, but only a small one.
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During the Great War many an upstanding Englishman attributed German atrocities to the fact that they did not play cricket which, in those halcyon days, was based on absolute fair play. This same Corinthian spirit was inculcated by the comics I devoured more than sixty years ago. Although they later re-emerged as comic strips, they were originally and invariably well-written and seeped in the idea of sportsmanship.
I recall Bernard Briggs, a kind of rag-and-bone man who drove a motor bike with an old tin bath as a sidecar. He only ever conceded one goal (in a pre-match warm-up, if I remember correctly) but remained the very epitome of sporting fair play.
Then there was Limp-along Leslie, orphaned in a car crash and injured so severely that the wound never fully healed. He was an immaculate inside-left who would never resort to dishonest practices.
Why do I dwell on such nostalgic reminiscences? Simply because they influenced myself and probably most of my generation into always “playing the game” — and that is why I feel bound to say that Artur was fouled before he went down. I was a only a few yards away from the incident and my first reaction was to blame Morrison. In fact, I thought he was going to be booked rather than Arter.
From a sense of fair play I also need to note that I thought that Fulham’s goal was the result of some superb footballing skill and movement. By the same token Cardiff had the spirit but not the skill. In addition, I should like to congratulate our Blogmeister for his — as always — balanced and fair-minded report on last night’s game. His blog is a credit to him, and to the contributors who add their comments to his words of wisdom.
Thank-you, Paul. You must have great mental discipline to have resisted the great temptation of devoting reams to the role of the ref or Fulham in last night’s encounter. Perhaps I am less charitable so here goes.
There are those on message-boards who call Fulham, ‘a horrible little club.’ What I will say is that in 60 years of watching City I doubt that I’ve never seen a team that exhibited so much time wasting, diving and feigning injury in my life than the Londoners. That the London-based national media drools over them as if they are Brazil is perplexing. Yes the ref bookd 6 of their players and sent off Arter in the last 1/2 hr but he brought it on himself by letting them get away with it for 60 mins. That Parker then sought to defend the indefensible dive by Arter; and their fans (the ones I read on their sites this morning) criticised the ref speaks so loudly about that little club by the Thames and King Crimson’s practice room (1969-1971) on the Fulham Palace Road.
In a sentence: whereas I had clearly bought into the media view of Fulham FC before the game the reality was oh so different. The bark was nowhere near the bite. They were toothless in their attacking third as they preferred to play, ‘catch me if you can,’ with the ball their side of the halfway line.
What of City. Whyte, I am beginning to think could turn out into being a good prospect whilst Bacuna had another good game. Ralls, another who gets pilloried by some, is so essential to City and played excellently. Was there a foul outside the box on Morrison before the visiting goal or was it a slip?
Having seen the effort at Blackburn again on tv it was Bacuna and not Glatzel who blazed the effort over. I say that to say this: by playing a system where Glatzel gets one chance every 2 games is profoundly concerning. As a mate said to me this morning: “Warnock is a striker’s grave-yard.” There will be no lasting hope while this situation continues.
Good morning (afternoon by the time I’ve typed this) , Paul and friends.
Probably our best performance to date but still a lot to sort out.
I’m having to adjust my position on Bacuna, he seems to be growing into the job. Potential to be seen in Whyte and Glatzel. I know Murphy scored the goal but why did he think he’d done enough. Once again seen strolling back when Fulham attacked down the right. I think Warnock is asking too much of Ralls and Bacuna, the other three midfielders are not the types to help out defensively. We need a fit Marlon Pack back PDQ.
I thought we got lucky last night, if Fulham had come at us with a little more positivity they would have gone home with three points. From early on Bettinelli was taking his time over restarting play, even after his booking for time-wasting he didn’t change his ways knowing that he wouldn’t get a second yellow and then a red (has any keeper received two yellows for this offence?). The keeper wasn’t the only culprit. What has happened to Tom Cairney? Looked a really nice player on previous games in Cardiff he seems to have lost a lot of his influence on a game and yesterday got on the refs tits by I’m assuming constantly complaining. In his post-game interview Scotty Parker proved there is a lot of scope for improvement in his media skills, his comments on the red card incident made me glad he’ll never referee a game.
What are we going to do about Callum? As my daughter pointed out ‘he doesn’t even look like a footballer’. I can see why Neil brought him on, he was likely to break up the constant sideway and backward passes that Fulham persisted in, by the way I thought it was a bit nonsensical for us Cardiff fans booing that tactic, it was up to us to win the ball off them.
Just before the sending I had the feeling I wanted to be somewhere else. The incident certainly changed the approach by both sides.
Before the game I would have taken the one point so in that respect I should be happy but there are still so many things that are wrong with the way we play. After the game I heard Neil say that we were naive – picking out Gavin Whyte trying to stay on his feet after a push when if he had gone to ground he would have won a free-kick. After the amount of time he has been in football management it would be silly to accuse him of naivety but he is so out of touch with the modern game that that might be the case. We are still over-committing at set-pieces, I feel we are at our most vulnerable when we get a corner or free-kick around their box, we give the ball away so easily and so often. I think I’ve mentioned the futility of our throw-in tactics once or twice before.
Where do we go from here?
Thanks Paul and all.
Have to agree a decentish performance although Paul is right to highlight again our difficulty in breaking teams down when we have momentum and numerical advantage.
Like Colin I too am reassessing thoughts on Bacuna and Whyte shows good potential and has real pace and a trick or two. Just needs to get better on final delivery. Ralls again outstanding and sure we were all willing Tomlin to show some magic. He did ok but used up a lot of his energy reserves chasing and closing down, rather than in the attacking third of the pitch.
As others have commented in recent weeks, Glatzel just needs a goal. He does look the part, has skill and a turn of pace and won some headers, but should have taken at least one of his few opportunities. As Steve says above, he will be living off scraps the way Warnock sets us up and can’t see that changing for the foreseeable. ( PS Steve well done on working in a King Crimson reference into your post match analysis- could be a regular feature ?).
As for Fulham, again have to agree. Pretty passing, which I am envious of, but little by way of end product considering the skill at their disposal. Sure that when they click they will regularly score 3 or 4 .
Pauls statistical analysis proves that our more limited approach can work, but it is not pretty and not working as effectively as 2 years ago. As an example, I rarely now feel we will score from a set piece or long throw – more likely to get caught on the break. We have all spotted this.
Time for a breather for a couple of weeks. Maybe we all need to lie down and reflect after a strange opening block of fixtures. Bit sad though that pre-season optimism is starting to evaporate before it is even September!
Thanks Paul.
As I mentioned prior to the match yesterday, next week marks the 60th anniversary of my first ever City match – a 4-2 win against Bristol City. I can’t remember too much about the actual game but I suspect there was enough excitement and entertainment to entice my six-year-old self to want to return to Ninian Park the next time I was offered the chance. With that in mind, I couldn’t help wondering as I watched so much of last night’s proceedings whether a 6/7/8 year old witnessing that as their first City game would leave with a burning desire to repeat the experience. I also wondered what all those other, mainly long departed folk on the bob bank that day would have made of what they saw last night.
I felt what we saw were two teams who seem to have become caricatures of themselves. 1-1 didn’t seem a just scoreline to me – 0-0 would have been far more appropriate. In their way, Fulham were just as locked into their own stereotypical style as we were, until Arter’s sending off threw both sides into a kind of confusion as both manager’s best laid plans slid into disarray.
I wouldn’t be too harsh on any of our players individually – they showed plenty of commitment and the system they are being asked to play isn’t their fault. The bigger questions about our direction as a club and our true ambition and purpose for this season remain however.
Big thanks to Paul as ever, but, also to all the others – for an exile, the contributions were full of deft observations and informative ‘portraits’ of players I, inevitably, don’t know well.
As for Fulham, I’ve always rather liked them and their ground (King Crimson notwithstanding).
I lived in West London for decades after Welsh college graduation in 1970…used to watch Osgood, Cooke, and Hudson at The Bridge; Marsh, Bowles, and Givens at The Loft; a beautiful Fulham forward line of Conway, Earle, Halom, Barry Lloyd, and Les Barrett (they beat Bradford City 5-0 one Tuesday evening, scoring one each…at 4-0, kept feeding Les until he finally notched his).
I saw some of my favourite Bluebirds away performances at Craven Cottage, including great goals by Buchanan and Nathan Blake in victories, and an amazing rearguard draw, featuring ten men for 80 minutes (Dwyer sent off? Billy Kellock holding it together? Or, the other way round? Paul will tell us).
Meanwhile, I must have blinked – I thought we “HAD to let Camarasa and Arter go” because we were relegated. How come that chippy little geezer, The Dodgeful Arter, is playing for another Championship side? Anyone know?
“Bouncing Bernard” and “Limp Along Leslie” them were the days, Anthony.
Those comics were never the same after they went”comic strip” ………jumpers for goalposts, mutter, mutter…..
Morning everyone – thank you for continuing this season’s trend of the Feedback sections reaction to matches being a lot more interesting than the matches themselves!
Anthony, Limp Along Leslie meant nothing to me, but I found this after some research;-
http://storky-knight-s-roy-of-the-rovers-forum.1112789.n5.nabble.com/Limp-Along-Leslie-td994.html
http://www.britishcomics.20m.com/leslie.htm
Regarding Arter’s dismissal, as I mentioned to you yesterday, my view of the incident wasn’t the best because lots of people sat around me all stood up just as it was happening, but what I saw was the slightest of contacts on Arter by Morrison and then, after what seemed like quite a long delay, a blatant dive by the Fulham player. I agree that it could have been a foul by Morrison, but in this instance it was good to see a player punished for reacting in such a theatrical manner. I agree with you about Fulham’s goal – there was some talk of it being a little lucky on Radio Wales at half time, but I didn’t see much good fortune involved.
Steve, I’ve always quite liked Fulham from the time they kindly agreed to lose my first ever City away match 5-1, but I agree with you about their performance on Friday – Fulham teams are rarely dull in my experience, but I thought this one was. I’m with you as well on Glatzel who looks a good footballer to me, but he is now reaching the stage where he needs a goal and yet, as you mention, chances come along so rarely for him with the system we play. Also, too often there is a lack of support for him when he gets the ball in what would be dangerous areas if it wasn’t Cardiff playing Warnockball involved.
Colin, I couldn’t agree with you more about our supporters booing Fulham while they were passing the ball back and forth – it’s said quite often that we are happy to let our opponents have the ball in certain areas of the pitch, but sometimes it seems to me that we don’t want to have the ball full stop! Regarding Paterson, I think players who miss part, or all, of pre season training often struggle to “catch up” and I know what your daughter means about him not looking like a footballer, but, although I know Neil Warnock likes him, would he be picking him if he was as overweight as some supporters insist he is?
Huw, our lack of success from attacking set pieces last season could be explained away by the higher standards of the league we are in, but we’re not the threat we were last time we were in the Championship either. Off the top of my head, I make it that Flint’s goal against Luton is the only one we’ve scored from a set piece. Morrison taking the long throws probably doesn’t help, but I reckon his lack of goals since our promotion may be getting to him a bit, because I reckon he would have scored with that header from Bennett’s cross in 17/18, but now he seemed to want to make too sure with it – he looked like he was thinking about it too much rather than just going at in instinctively.
Richard, that’s an interesting line about the two teams becoming caricatures of themselves, but I think you’re on to something and I agree about 0-0 being a more appropriate scoreline. As for what you say about what would kids watching Friday’s match have thought of it, I’ll apologise in advance for, perhaps, saying something that you may have heard from me before, but I’ll be as bold as to say that absolutely no one first gets into football as a child as a result of watching it played in the manner that we do. With adulthood comes things like team responsibility and more appreciation of the tactical side of things and there’s also the fact that the very best young players often end up making football their job, so it becomes a case of putting food on the table for some. However, I would still say that even the most cynical pro would prefer to play the game with the sort of freedom and room for expression that they had when they were, say, twenty five years younger and I can’t help thinking that our style of play would start to grate even for pros if they had been playing it for two or three seasons.
Lindsay, I’m afraid I won’t be able to tell you for sure about the rearguard action you talk about – I do have a dim and distant memory of Andy McCulloch, maybe, scoring for us in a 1-1 draw where we’d had someone sent off which must make it sometime around 1973/4. Just looked it up and we did draw 1-1 at Craven Cottage on 31/3/73 with McCulloch getting our goal – Dwyer, Kellock and Alan Couch all played that day, but nothing I’ve got would record a sending off, so I can’t help you there, Richard would be able to though. As for what you say about Harry Arter, I think the fact that Scott Parker is his brother in law may explain why he was prepared to drop onto the Championship with Fulham.
Never was a huge fan of King Crimson (more of a three minute singles man myself), but it is a source of annoyance that I can never find Twenty First Century Schizoid Man on Spotify to add it to my favourite playlist.
Paul.
Just checked, that 1973, Craven Cottage 1-1 – McCulloch scored, and was the one sent off!
Yes, Andy McCulloch scored after 18 seconds of that game and was then sent off in the 12th minute for arguing over John Conway’s equaliser for Fulham. Certainly the first and possibly the only time we’ve had a player score and be sent off in the same match.
I’m also trying to work out when an ex City player was last sent off playing against us.
A PS:
For Bob and others
Here’s a snatch of the epic 1969 Crimson performance of 21stCSM at the Rolling Stones’ Hyde Park concert (July 1969) featuring vocalist Greg Lake.
https://youtu.be/MM_G0IRLEx4
And a little more recently:
https://youtu.be/3028oDEKZo4
Incidentally, I was at Fulham for that 5-1 City victory. The headline in the Pink Un SWEcho was: ‘City Sizzle and Batter Fulham.’ Talking of Vic Halom … Don Murray’s challenge on him 15 yds outside the box in the inside-right channel was one of the worst x rated challenges I’ve ever seen on a football pitch.
Thanks for the music feature Steve – a welcome diversion. Different times….
First game this exile has been able to watch – thanks to Sky – and I have to agree with your analysis of the game and our approach Paul – particularly about the need for Glatzel to get more support from players getting nearer to him when we attack. Lots of interesting comments again from everyone. Your research into “Limp Along Leslie” – mentioned first by my old friend Anthony brought back memories but of earlier stories in the comics of the 1960’s (newer readers of the blog might not be aware that Anthony (AMO) and I were compatriots at school then) but I cannot for the life of me remember whether they were in The Rover, The Wizard or The Adventure. Perhaps the “fair play hero” who lasted longest though was Roy of the Rovers who, I think, first appeared in The Tiger?
Limp Along Leslie was surely inspired by the one-and-only Garrincha – he of the twisted legs and banana shots, and diverting love-life.
Perhaps the other way round, Lindsay.
Think Leslie pre-dated Garrincha.
Thanks, Colin…I think you’re probably right.
I was going on Paul’s second ‘link’ being from a Wizard of 1960 – exactly at the half-point between Garrincha’s breakthrough World Cup (’58 – unlucky Wales!) and his Annus Mirabilis (’62 in Chile).
My own Sunday League team at Aber in the late-60s was Melchester Rovers.
I had an e-mail conversation with Anthony earlier in the week in which I mentioned that I was sure there was a football comic around in the late 60s, but I hadn’t been able to find anything online to confirm this. Well, I’ve now found something which confirms there was, but I was wrong on a couple of counts because, first, there were two of them and, second, they came out in the early seventies;-
https://www.soccerbilia.co.uk/acatalog/Football_Comics_.html
I’m pretty sure that Limp Along Leslie preceded Garrincha who was probably still deciding which boot to put on which foot before hitting the big time.
By the mid-1950s I was an avid reader of comics with well written stories which were not told via cartoon illustrations.
By the late ‘fifties I had gravitated to football magazines, or rather one such publication, Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly. which ran a competition to name a football team made up from professional players with the same surname from anywhere. I chose players called Williams. I think the goalkeeper was named Clarence Williams and the two fulbacks were the Welsh internationals from WBA, The prize was a T-panel ball and I remember taking it to a training session at Llantwit Fardre but forgot to take it home with me. When I went back for the next session I was told that someone had kicked the ball into the main road and a lorry had run over it. I took this story as gospel but many years later was struck by the possibility that someone had actually acquired the ball for themselves. If the ball was run over why did I never see the poor carcass? Had I been too trusting originally or had I become more cynical with the passing of the years? This and other such questions as what is the meaning of life, what was the real reason the chicken crossed the road, and what is to become of Cardiff City this year remain beyond the reach of all human comprehension. The most taxing one remains the fate of Cardiff City Football Club.