Today’s just about deserved 1-0 win for Cardiff City at Ashton Gate in what has become known as the Severnside derby must surely mean that we’ll be playing Championship football again next season, but it also means City win this season’s Bristol Channel league, a tournament which only exists in my head and maybe the heads of one or two more who share my nerdish tendencies!
City have grown used to finishing bottom of the mini league based on the outcome of games between us, the jacks and the wurzels in recent years, but in 23/24 that’s three wins out of three now with one to play, while both Swansea and Bristol (who meet at Ashton Gate next weekend) are going to have at least two defeats each to their local rivals.
I suppose if there is such a thing as a typical Cardiff City away win in the 2020’s, then this encapsulates it – a tight game, low on goalmouth incident and talking points, decided by a solitary goal headed in from a free kick or corner by one of our defenders.
Former Bristol striker Leroy Rosenior was the guest summariser on the stream of the match I watched and, like all ex footballers commenting on a match in which one of his former clubs was taking part in, he was very biased. However, by the end he was admitting that Cardiff “had done what they do” in scoring from a set piece and there was a kind of grudging acceptance that City had done a job on the team he and his son had played for.
For me, City were more impressive this lunchtime than they were in beating Stoke last weekend and in the relatively recent away victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Watford. This was more like the win at QPR on New Years Day sandwiched in between those Sheffield and Watford matches because I felt pretty confident watching us at what I still call Loftus Road and, apart from one or two dodgy moments late on, it was like that today.
It wasn’t the fast, flowing attacking football we were playing which was responsible for my feeling of comfort (when was the last time the term “fast, flowing attacking football” could be applied to us unless we were the victims of it?), but the way we were able to keep the wurzels at arms length so easily.
Going back more then eighteen months to our previous visit to Ashton Gate in a game we lost 2-0, I can remember thinking that Bristol had a squad with so many goals in it. Tommy Conway had just broken into the team and scored a typical striker’s headed goal to open the scoring that day and there were experienced front men like Andreas Weimann, Nahqi Wells and Chris Martin in their squad
Of course, there was also the very talented Alex Scott in midfield to prompt things, but, looking at Bristol from a distance it seems that a decision to tighten things up at the back has been made with the intention of turning them from streaky, fairly high scoring mid table mediocrity merchants into top six challengers, but all that has happened is that they’ve become streaky, lower scoring mid table mediocrity merchants.
Martin is still in Bristol, but is now playing for Rovers, Weimann has moved to West Brom and scored against us recently and Scott is now making an impact in the Premier League with Bournemouth. Wells is still there and started today, but is thirty three now and he looked all of those years this lunchtime. Wells was replaced quite early in the second half by Conway who is top scorer this season and received plenty of publicity for the couple of goals he scored in the two recent games with West Ham in the FA Cup, but he’s not scored a league goal since before Christmas.
Bristol scored three in their recent win over Southampton and it wasn’t too long ago that they scored seven in beating Watford and Hull in successive matches. We’ve not scored more than two in a match for almost five months, so they’re still capable of scoring bursts that we can’t match, but we’ve scored more goals than them overall this season and, based on their last three, goalless, games with us, which have all been lost, they are no nearer becoming serious Premier League contenders than they have been since they returned to the Championship under Steve Cotterill. This is despite their successful Academy which has helped raise tens of millions of pounds in transfer fees for them in recent years.
City recalled David Turnbull for the injured Karlan Grant in the only change from the Stoke win and the Scot was used in the central attacking midfield role behind Kion Etete with Rubin Colwill moving over to the left as a completely different type of operator to the missing Grant.
There was some snow overnight on both sides of the Bristol Channel, but it was persistent and often heavy rain which made the pitch into the sort of greasy, fast surface which can often lead to plenty of goalmouth thrills and spills. Here though, the slick surface was more of a factor in causing intended through balls and passes to shoot on out of play or through to goalkeepers – the surface also was a factor in exposing faulty techniques and the early stages included plenty of miscontrolled touches on both sides as the first half passed by with little in the way of incident.
Bristol did build up something of a head of steam as they forced a series of corners that City struggled to deal with. From one of them, the ball found its way to Mark Sykes who got away a ten yard shot that Ethan Horvath was able to block, but there wasn’t too much else to concern the away side.
In truth, it was they who came closer to scoring in the first period, first when Turnbull, giving his best display by a distance in a City shirt so far, turned a Josh Bowler pass wide and the winger then fired not too far over from twenty five yards, but it was Perry Ng’s well struck effort from a similar distance which seemed to gain pace off the pitch and was well held by home keeper Max O’Leary, which represented the highlight of a pretty dull first forty five minutes.
City looked the better team in the early minutes of the second half as Etete picked up the injury which forced him off shortly afterwards in gaining a free kick some thirty yards from goal Interestingly, it was perhaps proof of Turnbull’s increasing influence that it was he, not Ng, who had the shot from the free kick as O’Leary held on easily.
As the game reached the end of its third quarter, City still hadn’t had a corner or a free kick from which they could swing in a testing cross, but a weaving run by Josh Wilson-Esbrand carried on by Colwill finally got that elusive corner and it was Turnbull who flighted over a cross which was met by Ng with a firm header into the bottom corner from six yards which gave O’Leary no chance.
Turnbull took two more corners that caused some alarm for the home side and Etete’s replacement, Yakou Meite, making one of his more effective substitute’s appearances, drew another decent save from O’Leary with a shot which looked to get a slight deflection.
Up the other end, an unmarked Sykes headed straight at Horvarth from an angle that he was going to struggle to score from seconds after Ng’s goal, but, that apart, it was plain sailing for City really until the eighty fifth minute when centreback Rob Dickie’s header was well saved by Horvarth, but the ball dropped to Conway who netted from six yards out to spark home celebrations which died down when the fact the linesman was flagging for what replays showed was a correct offside call was noticed.
Nevertheless, the disallowed goal got the home team and their supporters going and for the first time in the second period, there was an air of desperation to some of City’s defending as the six minutes of added time were seen out safely to make it seven points from the last nine to leave us equidistant from the top six and the bottom three – the nine point gap in both directions should prove insurmountable barring a run even worse than the one we have emerged from in the last ten days or so or the sort of winning run that I feel this side is incapable of.
Finally, I’ve mentioned before on here that because we barely ever played the jacks in the league in my early years supporting the club, I’ve always regarded the wurzels as our main rivals and I wonder if there has ever been a season where we did the league double over them at first team, reserve team (under 21) and youth team (under 18) levels like we have in 23/24? Yet, you ask how many of those age group teams who have faced each other this season will end up playing for their club’s senior team and all of the available evidence since we opened our Academy suggests it will be Bristol City.
I also saw the Brizzle stream of the match, with Leroy Rosenior doing co-commentating and analyst duties. On the whole I thought it was a more professional job than our club usually provides, although it helps when you have someone like Leroy available. Of course you have to look beyond his red-tinted specs (every strong challenge on a Brizzle player was ‘an obvious foul’ and a similar challenge on a Cardiff player was met with silence or ‘just a strong challenge there’).
However, he does provide useful insights. In the first half he mentioned that Turnbull was too frequently finding pockets of space and being a danger, and admitted in the second half that Meite was causing the Bristol defence different problems that they struggled to deal with.
Leroy also pointed out early in the second half that Bristol were allowing Cardiff to seize the initiative, that Brizzle had dropped their tempo as Cardiff were becoming more of an offensive and pressing threat.
The goal was brilliant from an attacking viewpoint and terrible from a defensive one, which could be why Brizzle have been getting better results from the higher teams and worse from the teams below them (wins against Southampton, Boro, Hull, Sunderland, Coventry, but defeats to Millwall, QPR, Blackburn and Sheff Wed).
Surely everyone in the Championship knows by now that we’ve scored more goals from set plays than anyone else in the division. NG & Goutas are two of our top three scorers, this season so any opponent knows that from set plays you need to block and/or jump against both players. From our first corner, the Brizzle defenders around NG did neither. While NG showed fantastic strength and determination to attack the ball, the nearby defenders showed the opposite.
Apart from a couple of scary moments near the end when Brizzle got their high tempo game going again, I thought we mostly dealt well with defending/managing the game side of things from then on.
Finally I almost hesitate to say this, but I did think ref Sam Allison had a pretty decent game. He did give a couple of soft fouls to Brizzle but he wasn’t taken in by Nahki Wells theatrics and histrionics, and mostly let the game flow. I also felt he got the yellow card decisions right (I thought the Wilson-Esbrand one for time-wasting was a bit harsh at the time, although it got the point across and stopped it from continuing).
I said I hesitate to praise him because the last time I praised a ref (John Busby in our away game at Watford), I was told off by a fellow fan, because he said it meant we’d get a stinker of a ref in our next game to even things up, which was sadly proved correct with the awful Dean Whitestone home to Preston.
I just hope I haven’t jinxed us for another poor ref in the upcoming midweek game against improving Huddersfield. They got a very impressive draw against Leeds yesterday, despite playing the entire second half with ten men, after their captain Jonathan Hogg was sent off, which at least means he won’t be able to play against us.
Thanks TOBW. Derby wins are always uplifting and yesterday was no exception although I still think the Jacks is THE derby game. It seems that the new signings are starting to gel apart from Diedhou who not only isn’t starting but couldn’t get on as a sub, even against his old team. It looks as if Bulut doesn’t fancy him. I was also pleased to see Tanner back and looking as if he was enjoying himself, I think he has talent but recent events were a little concerning. Returning to Bulut, he seems to be looking ahead to next season but the lack of any news on contract talks is puzzling as I think he could take us forward with the right backing. I wonder if the dear leader is harking back to what happened with Mad Mick after his contract was extended (prematurely and rashly!). Hopefully, Erol will be kept on and we can finally start to think that the Club is stabilising.
Paul, compadre…
Thanks for a most comprehensive report.
Interesting to see our fans housed in the Atyeo Stand. I guess most City fans under 70 won’t know who he was, let alone have seen him play.
Atyeo made his England debut at inside right in a 4–1 friendly win over Spain at Wembley on 30 November 1955 in a forward line of Tom Finney (PNE); Atyeo; Nat Lofthouse (Bolton W); Johnny Haynes (Fulham) and Bill Perry (Blackpool).
He only won 6 caps, but much of that was down to his club never being in the top flight while he spent the bulk of his career with them. Indeed, they were briefly relegated to the Third Division South.
I recall him as a very dangerous player, though in the three seasons I saw when their 2nd Division careers overlapped, Danny Malloy kept centre forward Atyeo well in check. I particularly recall as a 12 year old travelling on the Cardiff City Supporters Special train to Temple Meads in the promotion year of 1959/60… and watching us coast it at 3-0 (I think… forgive me if our opponents can be shown by Mr Google to have got a solitary reply.)
Before signing off, a word re two of your contributors here. Gee, how I live BB’s ‘Brizzle’… it makes me smile just saying it. It seems redolent of something on TV (again from my boyhood)… ah yes… Popeye the Sailor Man. Brilliant, BB. The late Fred Wedlock lives on.
And I always like Clive’s thoughtful contributions, and wish he would speak to us more often. He is usually spot-on in his thinking, as he assuredly is with his assessment that Vincent is ‘once bitten, twice shy’ over giving Mr Bulut a new contract.
But I part company with Clive over his desire to see him granted one.
Oh please God no.
I was at Blundell Park on Saturday watching a dire 6-pointer with the Mariners defeating Forest Green in a game with only one shot on target in the whole game… and that came from a Grimsby fluke.
And gee, Town reminded me so much of Erol Bulut’s Cardiff City. Amazing how Ugbo is suddenly the toast of Hillsborough, eh? I suggest we give the manager’s job to Ramsey. He cannot do worse.
And talking of managers… the most entertaining aspect of the Grimsby game for me was watching the antics of Steve Cotterill in his technical area. Vintage Steve. I was seated just 10 yards from him… he was very entertaining. Even though he has badmouthed us Bluebirds more than once down the years, I confess to being curiously drawn to this chap who was clearly born provocative. His after the game post mortem* was the most entertaining aspect of the whole afternoon, where incidentally, I sat in a seat originally designed for the Spanish Inquisition: a seat where it helped if you were a double amputee, as there was nowhere to put your legs.
*Here is the bounder, on the pitch at Blundell Park. He had clearly just seen a different game to me. He makes no mention of the fact that his team never forced the Grimsby keeper to save a single shot.
But gee, a leopard cannot change its spots. Steve is Steve… destined to join Steve Morison managing in the 5th tier next season. And frankly Town should be down as well, were there any justice… but luckily there are two worse teams than them.
https://youtu.be/aqe1TXHKRFY?si=uT2hwXJjKE5zHi3P
DW
Thanks every one for the replies. Blue Bayou, I agree about the Bristol stream being a more professional job than the City ones. I don’t mind the City commentators really, but was disappointed to hear the Ron Atkinson inspired term “early doors” four times in the first five minutes of one of our recent matches, with a “late doors” (a term I’ve never heard before in a commentary) thrown in as well in those opening minutes for good measure. You’ve captured the reason I made mention of Leroy Rosenior as well, his early comments sounded like what constituted a foul depended on whether the “foulee” was wearing a blue or red shirt – that said, he wasn’t as bad as some I’ve heard.
As for the ref, based on that game, I can understand why he has recently been in charge of a Premier League match – he didn’t do anything that made me sit up and think he was a Howard Webb or Michael Oliver in the making, but he did a perfectly decent job.
Good to hear from you Clive, I’ve long since accepted that my view as to who our main rivals are is not shared by many City fans apart from some who were probably born a couple of years either side of me who did no see their first league game against the jacks until they were in their early twenties (in fact, it’s probably truer to say I was in my mid twenties when I first saw us play them – I was 23).
As for our manager, I’m afraid I’m increasingly coming around to the Dai Woosnam view of him.
I take your point about stabilising and I know that the chances are that Tan and co would get it wrong again if they had to pick another new manager in the summer, but the football under Bulut is just SO boring and I admit I’m in agreement with the opinion voiced on the messageboard recently, that if he was given a lot of money to spend in the next transfer window, it would be spent on players who would make us play a better version of the defensive, set piece dependant game we’ve seen this season from his team rather than any progression towards a more attractive style.
Dai, didn’t Atyeo win full England caps while a Third Division (South) player? I can remember Peter Taylor winning a cap(s) while in the Third Division at Palace, but I can’t think of anyone else who has done it in my football supporting life time.
That interview was typical Steve Cotterill. He’s had a decent managerial career and spent much of it in the Second tier, so, especially given his west country roots, it’s a bit of a surprise that he’s never managed us – the type of football his teams tend to play would be right down Vincent Tan’s street I would have thought.
Cotterill’s not one of my favourite managers, but I’d like him to keep Forest Green up – can’t see it happening though. I’m surprised they’ve struggled so much this season as until the the end of 21/22, they seemed like a side on a long but gradual ascent which might have seen them end up in the Championship.
Speaking of which, Grimsby were a good second tier side forty years ago and I can’t help thinking they should be doing better than they are now – I can remember seeing them at Newport in the National League about ten years ago and was struck by how many of their supporters had made the long journey to south Wales, when you bear that in mind, I’d say they are a club that are a natural Third tier outfit.
Besides the Cotterill interview, I had a look at a two minute highlights package of the game and I can see what you mean – if what they showed were really the best bits of the game, then Forest Green could still be playing now and not scored. As for the goal, a nice finish, but the ball arrived at the scorer’s foot via a fortunate and very bottom of the Fourth tier route.