It's been ages since I looked forward to a season as much as this one and, although the league table may suggest otherwise, it didn't disappoint as far as I am concerned. However, my expectancy was mixed with trepidation going into the season - we had been linked with all sorts of high profile players during the summer, but, for one reason or another they never came, thereby offering a reality check to those of us who thought we were big enough to sign whoever we wanted. That may have been true in the Second and Third divisions, but now we were a just a smallish fish in a big pond and transfer targets needed more convincing before committing to Cardiff.
There were two newcomers to the City squad, John Robinson had signed from Charlton on a free to give us some of the versatility that we had lacked on the flanks and was generally regarded as a good buy. Robbo's signing was no surprise and, looking back, Tony Vidmars shouldn't have been either as we had tried to sign him a year earlier - Vidmar was signed the day before Jody Morris was due to be paraded to the press as our great new signing, so his arrival was either ignored or greeted with little enthusiasm by those "experts" like me who know the game inside out!
Set against these new arrivals were departures galore as Lennie, rightly, trimmed down the previous seasons huge squad. However, the fact that we were forever missing out on our transfer targets meant that, in my view, the squad starting the season was weaker than the one that had finished the previous campaign and was the main reason why I thought we would be fighting a relegation battle during the upcoming season..
An injury to Peter Thorne which would keep him out for the first month or so of the season meant that the signing of a new striker was imperative and City had put in a bid for Rotherham's powerful striker Alan Lee which had been turned down by the Yorkshire club, but the feeling was that the deal was far from dead.
However, Lee was in the opposing side when City played their first game at this level in nearly twenty years when they visited Rotherham. On a sweltering weekend when temperatures reached 100 degrees, a 0-0 draw was probably a predictable and satisfactory outcome for the City who spent most of the game defending against a Rotherham attack in which Lee played a prominent part.
Three days later the City gained a routine 4-1 win against Leyton Orient in a League Cup match which featured an Earnie hat trick. It was also the only time I can remember when his partnership with Andy Campbell (who got the other goal) actually worked - the City's need for another striker was becoming desperate and, significantly Alan Lee put in a transfer request at Rotherham the same night.
This had the effect of kick-starting his transfer to City and it was no surprise when he signed for us a couple of days later for an initial £800,000 which could rise to £1,200,000 with all the other clauses in the deal. What was a surprise though was that on the same day we also signed the highly rated QPR midfielder Richard Langley in a deal which could rise to £400,000. Langley was in the last year of his contact at Loftus Road hence the relatively low fee and seemed, on the face of it, an excellent signing. Amazingly, it also came to light on the same day that we were on the brink of signing Spurs' Gary Doherty for £1,000,000 although, in the end (to the relief of many message board contributors!), this deal came to nothing.
Lee was in the starting line up and Langley on the bench two days later when there was a feeling of expectation amongst supporters ahead of the first home league match against a Bradford side tipped by many for the drop, but two wonder strikes were to give the visitors a 2-0 win. The funny thing was though that supporters went home pleased with the City display as they had played some really good football only to be foiled by a combination of great goalkeeping and desperate defending.
The fact was though that we had played two sides thought to be amongst the weakest in the league and had one point and no goals to show for it, so there was not much confidence around when we travelled to a Nottingham Forest team widely tipped to be amongst the promotion contenders in the next ten months.
As it turned out City, with Langley in for his full debut, gave a display that those who were there to see it rated as their best in years. In five minutes they were 2-0 up as Earnie and then Kav with a lovely curled free kick got us off to a great start and there could easily have been more goals before half time. After the break Forest came into it a bit more and they eventually got a goal back, but City's response was impressive as they went in search of another goal rather than trying to sit back on their lead. The game finished 2-1 and the team had taken a significant step towards showing that they could cope at this level.
Two days later on August Bank Holiday Monday City entertained a Derby team, who had started the season poorly, in a televised game. Danny Gabbidon had picked up a foot injury at Forest which was to keep him out for six weeks and with Spencer Prior also injured, James Collins was drafted into the team. Collins responded with a man of the match display and the final goal in our win 4-1. Although the City played well, Collins' goal from a header which was judged to have just crossed the line was typical of a game in which they had all the luck that was going - this started when Alan Lee opened his account for us with a cross from the right which sailed over Grant in the Derby goal and into the net, Kav doubled the lead with a penalty shortly after and just before the break, the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Costa was red carded for having a hack at Richard Langley. Derby came back into it after the break pulling a goal back in the process, but a tap in by Earnie which would have been disallowed for offside 99 times out of a 100 and Collins' dubious header secured a comfortable win.
Next it was off to Walsall who had pulled off something off a coup by signing Paul Merson during the summer and he had inspired them to a 4-1 win over promotion favourites West Brom on the opening day of the season. After a tight first half the home side scored when, remarkably given his record with penalties, Neil Alexander blocked Aranalde's spot kick, but Leitao reacted quickest to nod in the rebound thus preserving our keeper's record of never having saved a penalty. Shortly afterwards Aranalde and Alan Lee were red carded after a scuffle and, although no one knew it at the time, that was the last seen of Lee in a City shirt for more than three months as he picked up a knee injury in training with the Republic of Ireland squad a few days later. City's response after going a goal down was impressive as they laid siege to the home goal and deep into injury time Gareth Whalley fired home an equaliser which was the least City deserved from the game.
A break for Internationals gave supporters a chance to reflect on what had been a promising start and when a Gillingham side that hadn't conceded an away goal until then were hammered 5-0 at Ninian Park, people started to mention the possibility of promotion for the first time. Gillingham were swamped during the first half as City turned on a passing display the like of which I hadn't seen in years - the fit again Peter Thorne opened the scoring with a trade mark header and then Earnie took over, scoring from close range, then taking advantage of a piece of quick thinking by Rhys Weston to make it three and, finally, converting a penalty to complete his hat trick just before half time. Inevitably, the second half was a quieter affair although Earnie was able to get his fourth after Willie Boland came as close as he did all season to scoring when his effort hit the woodwork.
It was after this win that I became convinced that we had no need to worry about relegation, we were playing some tremendous stuff at this time and the midfield of Langley, Boland, Kav (who had begun the season in great form) and the inspirational Robbo had a tremendous balance to it.
For all of our terrific football though, Forest apart, we had not played any of the teams expected to challenge for promotion so successive away fixtures at Reading and Sheffield United, both of whom had reached the play offs the previous season offered a real test of how good we were.
At Reading, a huge contingent of City fans saw us play well but end up narrow losers, Peter Thorne's early goal which came after a beautifully constructed passing movement kept us in the lead for a long time, but a couple of second half goals including a screamer from Sidwell saw the home side scrape through 2-1 in a game which John Robinson picked up an injury which kept him out for three weeks or so.
Mark Bonner replaced Robbo at Bramall Lane for a game which turned out to be one of the most incredible in the First Division that season. Goalless at half time, it burst into life with a goal by Earnie straight after the restart, Sheffield responded with long shots from Tonge and Ndlovu (Alexander being badly at fault for this one) which made it 2-1 only for Earnie again and Langley's first City goal from a great free kick to put us in front again. However the home side showed why they were so many peoples tip for promotion by turning the screw and scoring through a couple of Ndlovu penalties and a lovely volley by Lester (although it did look like he used his hand to control the ball) to come out 5-3 winners in a game which, for the second time in succession, City emerged with plenty of praise but no points.
After this game, Lennie seemed to reign in on the gung ho attacking approach which had so entertained City fans so far. Given that Lennie had looked to favour a cautious approach for much of his time with us, it was a pleasant surprise to see us playing so freely and well - after the dull sideways and backwards football that had typified so much of the previous season this was champagne stuff, but it wasn't going to last, the word was out that we had to become meaner and the full backs had to stop bombing forward so much (both Weston and Barker had started the season really well, with the latter looking the City's most improved player at that stage).
Part 2.
The City now faced successive home games against the two teams who had accompanied them up from the Second Division. Danny Gabbidon was fit again and replaced James Collins who had done his cause no harm at all for the game against Crewe. Goals in each half by Peter Thorne either side of one by Earnie created by a lovely through ball from Kav gave us another convincing win by 3-0, although it showed how well we had been playing that supporters were fairly critical of our display!
Paul Jewell's always impressive Wigan turned up three days later and the City kept another clean sheet as a game of very few chances ended 0-0. However, rather than being down to crappy attacking this goalless draw was down to some excellent defending and, in it's way was an absorbing match.
City were right in there amongst the early front runners, but now faced three consecutive away games and in the first of these, at Crystal Palace gave their first poor performance of the season. Goals immediately before and after half time (the second from a series of defensive errors) gave City a mountain to climb and their cause was not helped by the sending off of Willie Boland. Kav did get one back with a magnificent volley from twenty five yards, but they deserved nothing from the game and a bad day all around ended with the dismissal of Andy Campbell.
Boland and Campbell were given three match bans for their red cards and with Kav facing a one match ban for five yellow cards and Peter Thorne injured again, the lack of depth in the City squad was becoming apparent. Lennie reacted to this situation by bringing in Palace's Julian Gray on loan - Gray was in dispute with his club for rejecting a new contract and had been told that he would not play again for them, hence he had not played any football so far during the season and much of his first month with us was spent getting him match fit.
Gray made his debut when he came on as a sub at Sunderland where a very impressive turn out of City fans for a midweek match saw them get a satisfactory 0-0 draw in a poor game. This game saw John Robinson make a comeback, but this was balanced by the loss of Rhys Weston with a knee problem that would keep him out for two months.
The televised game at mid table Coventry saw a patched up City side sent out - Weston, Boland, Kav, Campbell, Lee and Thorne were all missing for one reason or another and their absence saw people like Mark Bonner, Gareth Whalley and Gavin Gordon given a chance to show what they could do, whilst there was a first appearance of the season for Gary Croft who had been laid low with appendicitis on his way back from the pre-season trip to Scandinavia.
The opening minutes were ominous for the City as the home side went a goal up and could have had more, but all of a sudden an Earnie inspired City clicked into gear and scored three times in twenty minutes to take command of the game as Whalley bundled in the equaliser, Gordon scored with a bullet header and Earnie converted a penalty. The second half saw us hold on to our 3-1 lead with few problems (in fact we could have added to it) as the City gained a victory which, in retrospect, was one of their best of the season.
The television cameras were there again a week later to see us entertain West Ham in a game which saw Kav return after his one game ban, This was the match that City fans were probably looking forward to more than any other and this was reflected by the fact that the biggest home gate of the season turned up to watch it. A few weeks earlier the two sides had played out a thriller at Ninian Park (again in front of the cameras) which saw two goals by Earnie trumped by a hat trick by the Spurs bound Jermaine DeFoe who gave the best display from an opposing player that I had seen in years. This time around though it proved to be a much tighter affair which ended up as City's third 0-0 draw in their last five matches although what opportunities there were fell to us with Gavin Gordon missing an excellent headed chance in the first half and Robbo hitting the post in the second.
Disappointingly, the 19,000 plus crowd dropped to one of just over 14,000 for the visit of struggling Watford three days later and there was a feeling of after the Lord Mayor's show for much of the first half hour as City struggled but a defensive blunder allowed Earnie to give us the lead and we played better in the second half as further goals by Vidmar (his first for the club) and Kav gave us a convincing if flattering 3-0 win.
Julian Gray was making regular substitute appearances at this stage and got another half hour or so in against Watford whilst there was also a first league appearance from the bench for striker Stuart Fleetwood who (James Collins apart) seems to be the most highly rated of the youngsters at Ninian Park.
The following weekend saw one of those lunch time kick offs police forces up and down the country like to inflict on us when we went to Burnley to face a team in trouble near the foot of the table. Spencer Prior made one of his few starts of the season at Turf Moor and, by all accounts, didn't do badly as a so so game ended 1-1 with Earnie's excellent volley from the edge of the box cancelling out Burnley's opener.
If Earnie's goal at Burnley was good it was surpassed by the one he got against Stoke at Ninian Park a week later in a game which saw Julian Gray make his first starting appearance. Earnie's incredible left footed volley from nearly thirty yards was one of the best I had ever seen the team score and my choice for City goal of the season, but there were those who thought his second as City broke at speed to turn a Stoke corner into a goal within about ten seconds was even better. The game was level at 1-1 at that stage with the visitors showing signs of getting on top having equalised just after the break, but the City were never troubled again once they had regained the lead and Danny Gabbidon's first goal of the season made the final score 3-1.
Talk at this time was of a play off challenge, but with the division turning out to be a very tight one, the truth was that automatic promotion was definitely on. However, looking back, this match turned out to be a turning point in the City's home form. Kris Commons' goal for Stoke was the first we had conceded at Ninian Park in the league since Derby's goal on Bank Holiday Monday five games ago. The fifteen remaining home matches only saw three clean sheets kept and just five wins gained as the term "fortress Ninian" turned into something of a sick joke.
It is hard to explain precisely why home form should fall away so markedly, but factors in it may well have been the International disappointments suffered by three of our most influential players in the fortnight before the team were next in action.
Earnie had been tremendous up until now and I don't think it is an exaggeration to say he was the form striker in the country - he had fourteen league goals from seventeen starts, five League Cup goals in two appearances and another one at International level as well!
Wales were involved in a two legged play off with Russia for a place in the finals of the European Championship and while a case could be made for leaving him out of the first leg in Moscow which finished 0-0, incredibly he was on the bench again for the home return four days later - when he eventually got on with Wales a goal down and chasing the game, he seemed to be deployed in a central midfield role!
Wales' 1-0 defeat was a great disappointment and coincided with the moment that Earnie's goals started to dry up whilst Danny Gabbidon, who had been in tremendous form until then, didn't look the same player afterwards as City's results began to suffer.
The third bit of bad news came from Dublin when Graham Kavanagh's International return was ended after three minutes by a wild challenge by Canada's Marc Bircham. Kav's spectacular form had seen him earn a deserved recall to the Republic of Ireland squad, but the injury he picked up was to keep him out for six weeks. Although he came back just before Christmas, he never really shook off the injury or looked quite the same player that he had been in the opening months of the campaign and it was no surprise when his season was ended in early March by surgery on his damaged foot.
Part 3.
Gary Croft's fortunate goal gave the City a hard fought win at rock bottom Wimbledon who were now playing their football at Milton Keynes and City prepared to face more testing home games against West Brom and Ipswich.
West Brom were many peoples pre season tips for the Championship and, despite having problems at the Hawthorns, were looking the strongest team in the league at that stage, but City gave as good as they got in another quality game. Jason Koumas' deflected shot gave the visitors a second half lead, but Peter Thorne's introduction off the subs bench in his first game back after injury sparked a fightback as Earnie converted a penalty given for a foul on the hard working Mark Bonner. After that both teams went for the win and Langley hit the Albion crossbar, but as Alexander was forced into two brilliant late saves a 1-1 draw was probably a fair outcome.
Next up were an in form Ipswich team making their first league visit to Ninian Park in 36 years. Ipswich were the best visiting team I saw during the season by some way and proceeded to play us off the park in the first half as their slick midfield had us chasing shadows. A 2-0 interval lead was the least they deserved and, although the City came back into the game after the break this had more to do with grit and determination than ability. A penalty awarded for reasons known only to the ref allowed Earnie to reduce the arrears from the spot, but poor defending allowed the visitors to regain their two goal cushion and Peter Thorne's late header was largely academic as City slipped to their second home defeat of the season ending an eight match unbeaten run in the process..
Ipswich's second goal by their centre back Santos was significant as it was the first goal we had conceded for ages from a corner (Lennie claimed it was the first one we had conceded since April!), but it was a sign of things to come as we conceded goals from a succession of corners and free kicks for the rest of the campaign - a weakness that the late introduction of James Collins only partially cured.
City entered December still well in touch with the leaders but it was to be the defining month of the season as far as I am concerned because, after a good start, results fell away badly and the first whisperings of possible financial worries surfaced.
Peter Thorne made a memorable return to Stoke when his hat trick gave the City an excellent 3-2 win (and a satisfying double) over the team that ended our promotion hopes two seasons ago. Thorne had been finding goals a lot easier to come by in Division One than he had done at the lower level during the previous season and was now entering a purple patch which saw him as just about the only player in the side in prime form as results began to suffer. Thorne opened the scoring that afternoon after about half an hour, Stoke quickly equalised, but Thorne.s header restored our lead almost immediately and he seemed to have made the points safe with another header midway through the second half, only for a quick home response to ensure that we had to endure a nervy finish before claiming the victory as we extended our unbeaten away record to five matches.
The Stoke game was Julian Gray's last for the club - as he regained his full fitness, Gray had became a more and more influential player in the side as his ability on the ball made teams double up on him, thus creating space for others. The signs were that Gray still had no intention of agreeing to a new deal at Palace and most City fans assumed it was only a matter of time before he came back to us on a permanent basis - the fact that as Gray left, the Hereford winger Paul Parry was having a trial for us which included a specially arranged reserve team fixture at Derby passed largely unnoticed.
A Preston side challenging for the play offs were the next visitors to Ninian Park and, looking back, the most significant incident of this match occurred around the half hour mark when John Robinson went off with an injury that was to keep him out for a couple of months. With Gray gone, this meant we were, all of a sudden, short of wide midfield players with only Richard Langley (and debate raged on this board throughout the season whether he was really a central midfielder being played out of position or not) able to play there.
The game sprang to life after a uninspiring and goalless first half as Preston scored shortly after the break, only for Richard Langley to equalise with a good shot from the edge of the box. The visitors looked to have won it five minutes from time when substitute Healy restored their lead, but Peter Thorne's header from an excellent Chris Barker cross just as the match was going into stoppage time meant the game ended 2-2.
Actually, the City could have won it after Thorne's goal as they bombarded the Preston goal and the character and spirit shown by the side to come back that night was a feature of the team's performances all through the season up until then, but, for some reason, it was to disappear completely over the next few games.
Part 4
Alan Lee made a return to the squad for the visit to promotion chasing Norwich who boasted the best home record in the league. There probably wasn't a good time to got to Norwich, but with eight goals conceded in the last three matches this certainly wasn't it. Throw in the fact that Darren Huckerby was signing off for the canaries after a three month loan from Man City and the 4-1 defeat should not have come as too much of a surprise. That said, it was the first time all season that City had been heavily beaten and offered further evidence that a few cracks were starting to appear in the team.
The aforementioned Huckerby scored a fine individual goal to give his team the lead at the interval and, after the break, Norwich got right on top - another goal from Peter Thorne did give City some hope at 2-1 down, but with us defending so poorly, Norwich were always going to add to their goal tally and, apparently, the three goal margin was an accurate reflection of the difference between the two sides.
It emerged a couple of weeks later that, according to Sam Hammam, this was the game that made him decide not to curtail the spending on new players for the rest of the season. Whilst the teams all around the City were looking to strengthen their squads, City looked to be tightening their belts financially. Sam told the press that if we had won at Norwich he would have really gone for it as far as new players, instead he branded the season as a wasted one (even thought there was half of it left yet!) and accused the team of under performing (he thought we should be challenging for automatic promotion).
Of course, such statements only fuelled the talk of financial meltdown at the club that had begun to emerge at that time and it became a recurrent theme on this board and in the media as hardly a week went by without somebody claiming that the club were on the brink of financial ruin. My own take on this hasn't really changed - how anyone could think that we could keep on spending what we did on transfer fees, wages, bonuses, ground improvements and new staff etc. on the gates we were getting without running up substantial debts is beyond me. Also, if the club had the foresight to produce a feasibility study costing around a million pounds into the funding and impact of the new ground, then, surely, they would have been aware of and made provisions for the substantial debt that we currently have?
Be that as it may, under these circumstances, it was hardly a surprise that the City weren't going to be trying to sign Julian Gray and, to be fair, you could see their point. City wanted to extend Gray's loan to a third month, but Palace were insisting that we sign the player permanently. However, this was because Gray had now reached an age when he could leave for nothing in the summer on a Bosman if he did not sign a new contract at Palace, so City's reasoning was that, with our season, apparently, "wasted", why spend money on the player now when we can get him for nothing in the summer?
Ian Dowie's arrival at Palace changed the situation with Gray though. Whereas Gray had previously been banned by Chairman Simon Jordan from playing for the first team, Dowie insisted that he be allowed to pick him and with Gray showing fine form as Palace went on a great run which saw them reach the play offs, nobody could argue that he was wrong. Gray's contractual situation at Palace is still unresolved and he could easily leave them in the summer, but, even if the City were still after him, it now seems more likely that he will end up in the Premiership one way or another next season.
As City's immediate interest in Gray waned, so the name of Paul Parry began to be mentioned more. Parry a left sided midfield player/cum winger was regarded by some as the best player in the Nationwide Conference and did his cause no harm as Lennie watched him score a hat trick for Hereford in their 7-1 win at Forest Green - perhaps we didn't need Julian Gray after all?
Part 5
A dip in form, no home wins in three games, rumours of financial problems and the fact that we weren't reinforcing our squad when everyone else at the top of the table seemed to be adding to theirs meant that the doom mongers on here finally had something to get their teeth into. One of my responses to them was to say that we were halfway through the season and I hadn't seen a bad game at Ninian Park yet, but I was unable to use that line again after our 3-1 defeat to a Millwall team beset by injuries and boasting one of the worst away records in the division!
Kav's importance to the team was emphasised by the fact that he was rushed straight back into the side without the normal game for the reserves to build up his match fitness. The fit again Rhys Weston was also recalled for this match in preference to Gary Croft who many thought was unlucky to miss out, but, like the rest of the side, both players struggled. Credit to Millwall for a deserved win in tough circumstances, but City were really poor in a game which, unfortunately, was covered live by Sky.
City were up against it right from the start when Roberts' corner caught on the blustery wind and sailed over Alexander and into the net. Peter Thorne's close range equaliser around the half hour mark meant that the teams went in level at half time which was about right, but City fell away after the break. Alexander's bad day continued with Millwall's second goal coming from his failure to make a worthwhile challenge for a ball that could have been his, the visitors then made the game safe with another in the closing stages and a dreadful day all round for the City was complete when the linesman on the Bob Bank side was hit by a coin thrown by "supporter"
When the team had been carrying all before earlier in the season, Lennie warned that we would eventually have a bad spell and the Millwall result confirmed it had arrived. The manager's reaction was to shake up the defence again for the Boxing Day visit of Walsall.
Conceding fourteen goals in five matches would have an effect on most keepers and there were definite signs against Millwall that Neil Alexander was going through a crisis of confidence so his patient understudy Martyn Margetson was given a rare start - what most people wouldn't have predicted was that Alexander did not get his place back, he hardly covered himself in glory at Wrexham in the only first team match he played after being dropped and the season ended with him out of the Scottish squad and facing an uncertain future at the club.
There was also a recall for Spencer Prior as Tony Vidmar moved over to left back, but things didn't improve - Prior did okay, but the fact that he was many people's nomination for man of the match when, in my view, all he did was perform his centre half duties competently said it all about another off key City performance. Walsall, without Paul Merson, looked a limited team who seemed to be happy to settle for a 0-0 draw, but a scrappy goal twenty minutes from the end was enough to give them all three points.
If you looked at the game in isolation, you would say that City were unlucky to lose it, because, once they went behind, they bombarded the Walsall goal and did everything but score, but set against the context of what had gone before, it confirmed that the team were on the slide.
Without John Robinson, the team, just like for most of the previous season, were lacking width, but Lennie seemed to be doing nothing about it after he abandoned plans to watch Paul Parry again later that evening.
There was one significant change for the visit to struggling Watford as Earnie was left out (something that would have been unthinkable only a couple of weeks earlier) and Andy Campbell brought in, but it made no difference as the team slid to their fourth straight defeat. Yet another goal by Peter Thorne gave us a half time lead, but some comedy defending early in the second half allowed a poor Watford team to equalise and after that there was an air of inevitability about their winner two minutes from time.
A break from their league struggles and a home Third Round FA Cup tie with Sheffield United seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for the City, but the gloom deepened in front of a crowd of just over 10,000 with City barely threatening the visitor's goal as Sheffield won more comfortably than a 1-0 scoreline would indicate - worryingly, the goal was yet another example of City's newly acquired weakness of being unable to defend crosses.
City fans needed something to cheer them up and, although there were plenty of people willing to write him off just because he was a Conference player, the signing of Paul Parry in the week before the City's next match (against Rotherham at Ninian Park) went some way towards doing that. Parry signed for an initial £75,000 which could eventually rise to double that if he managed to play a certain number of games, gained International caps etc.
The City's need for attacking width was emphasised by the fact that Parry went straight into the team for the Rotherham game, but, after just ten minutes of his debut, he must have been wondering what he had let himself in for! I said earlier that after City beat Gillingham 5-0, I never thought we would be in danger of going down, but the one time I did begin to waver was when Rotherham's team of journeymen went 2-0 up in no time - at that time, I did start to think I was watching a relegation team! More woeful defending from a corner gifted the visitors the lead and then Mullin was left in glorious isolation to net the second from about ten yards out - it was the lowest point of the season and the crowd were beginning to turn against Lennie and the team, but their response was impressive and, amazingly given what had happened over the past month, they went in at half time in the lead!
With Parry to the fore, City gradually fought their way back. Although no one would have thought it at the time, what turned out to be Peter Thorne's final goal of the season put us back in it and then the target man showed his qualities as a provider by setting up an equaliser for Kav, who was beginning to look more like his old self, and another for Earnie to score his first goal in open play since the Stoke home match ten games earlier. City should really have extended their lead after the break but, with Rotherham no sort of threat now, there was never much danger of them losing their lead - the game finished 3-2 and the feeling of relief around the ground at the final whistle was palpable.
Part 6
A 1-0 win over a physical Bradford team at Valley Parade had the talk amongst supporters turning away from relegation to the Play Offs again. Bradford had struggled since their fortunate 2-0 win at Ninian Park and their eventual relegation came as no surprise to most, but they were in decent form at the time having won at leaders Norwich the previous week.
An even game seemed to have swung in favour of the home team midway through the second half when Gary Croft was given a straight red card, but virtually straight away, the City were awarded a penalty - Earnie's spot kick was blocked by the keeper, but Richard Langley reacted well to follow up and score with a firm header. Apart from one fine save by the dependable Margetson, Bradford had little to offer after that and the City were able to record their fifth away win of the season.
The defeat by Sheffield United in the FA Cup meant that it was a fortnight before City were in action again, but there were a couple of news items that attracted attention in the meantime. Firstly, the club were granted Academy status which, essentially, meant that their various youth teams would be able to compete in leagues with the best teams in the country rather than in the regionalised leagues they currently did which, invariably, included quite a few youth sides from non league teams. The City's bid was described by the assessors that granted it as the best they had ever seen from a non Premiership team and the large sums of money involved in running the Academy seemed to go some way towards proving those who claimed we were skint wrong.
It was also reported that we were on the brink of signing York's midfield player Lee Bullock who had been used by his team as a striker in recent matches. This didn't turn out to be the case, it was obvious that the City were interested in the player, but, rather like the Paul Parry transfer, the whole affair dragged on for a few weeks before City finally got their man (albeit on loan).
City returned to action with a home fixture against Nottingham Forest. Far from being the promotion candidates that everyone assumed they would be at the time we won at the City Ground early in the season, Forest came into the game in real danger of relegation having not won in twelve matches and not even scored a goal in their last five outings. That run was to continue, but Forest would have been far more happy with the 0-0 score line than us, although, truth be told, the visitors were slightly the better of the two teams with City just managing one effort on target (although people struggled to remember it!) throughout the game.
Next up were Derby County at Pride Park - Derby were deep in relegation trouble, but were pretty strong at home (they were only to lose two out of their last fifteen home matches during the season), so, on the face of it, a 2-2 draw didn't look a bad result, but look a bit closer and it was very much a case of two points dropped. After a goal less first half, the home team took the leader when Taylor scored with a free header from a corner (City were becoming good at conceding goals from such situations!), but two goals within a minute by Earnie and Kav put us in front and there were plenty of opportunities to make the game safe before we went to sleep at the back again and allowed Derby to equalise with two minutes left.
We were unbeaten in four games now, but the last two results had been disappointing and offered credence to those who thought a play off place was beyond us - teams that go up do not generally throw away points against struggling teams with the sort of poor defending seen at Derby.
Because I had been so pleasantly surprised by the standard of football we had played and the results we had achieved, I tended to belong in the glass half full camp throughout the season and, at that time, I would look at the table and think that a Play Off place was certainly not beyond us. However, I also realised that two things needed to happen quickly for us to do that.
Firstly, we desperately needed to improve our record against the teams above us in the table - at that stage, we had not beaten one team in top ten. Indeed, apart from the early weeks of the season when league positions can change so quickly, we had barely beaten a team in top half of the table!
The other thing was that we had to get John Robinson back in the team! There are those who say that Robbo is just a workhorse who gets by on passion and commitment, but that takes no account of the amazing contrast in results when Robbo was in the side as opposed to when he was missing through injury - at that time we had won eight and lost just three of the 18 league matches Robbo had played whereas we had won just three and lost six of the twelve matches he had missed!
Although it could be legitimitaly argued that a promotion side would never rely on just one player in the way that we seemed to on Robbo, the fact that he had recovered from his injury and would be in the squad for the next game seemed to fulfil the second of the requirements I mentioned and the City were now entering a period where they were have plenty of opportunities to try and sort out the first one as well because eight of their next nine matches were due to be played against teams who could be called promotion contenders!
Part 7
The first of these matches was at second placed West Brom. City didn't travel to the Hawthorns without some hope though because Albion, rather like we had done the previous season, were finding it hard going at home in front of supporters who expected rather than wished for promotion. As it turned out, City gave their best display for weeks but ended up 2-1 losers in a hard fought encounter. Albion's growing pressure was rewarded early in the second half by Clement's header from a free kick - City came into it more after that and deserved their equaliser when sub Alan Lee glanced in Kav's free kick, but, for the second successive week, they were undone by a late goal, this time scrambled past Margetson by Lee Hughes.
Paul Parry had given Albion's Swiss International right back Bernt Haas a very uncomfortable afternoon and was, by common consent, City's man of the match. Parry's performance persuaded the watching Mark Hughes to call him up to Welsh squad for the upcoming friendly with Scotland and, after just five games for the City he made his International debut when he came on to replace the injured Gary Speed around the half hour mark. Typically given the Roy of the Rovers nature of his career since leaving Hereford, Parry immediately made a contribution with his run along the left wing helping to set up a second goal for Wales and, in the second half, his fine pass gave Gareth Taylor the chance to net Wales' fourth goal.
Parry got a fair bit of coverage after Wales' satisfying 4-0 win, but most of it was reserved for Earnie, who left his barren spell in a City shirt behind him as he netted an impressive hat trick which offered further proof that he could be a success at whatever level he played. A shambolic Scottish defence certainly had something to do with Earnie looking more like the player he had been earlier in the season, but you also had to wonder if he had benefited from a better quality of survive from the Welsh midfield than he had been getting from his City colleagues lately - after all, it wasn't as if he was missing chances galore for the City, it was more that he just wasn't getting any opportunities.
City had players returning from the Irish, Australian and Jamaican squads for the visit of a Sunderland team right in the thick of the promotion battle, but it was probably the Welsh returning players who took most satisfaction from another 4-0 win. There was a nasty moment before the game when a minority of visiting supporters chose to disrupt a minutes silence held in favour of John Charles, widely viewed as Wales' greatest ever player. who had passed away earlier that day and whether that was the reason behind City tearing into Sunderland from the start or not I don't know, but they were well on top by the time Jochim Bjorkland was dismissed for a professional foul on Richard Langley around the twenty minute mark.
It became a double punishment for the visitors when Kav curled the resulting free kick around the wall to beat Poom on his near post and, shortly, afterwards, a fluent move down the right was finished off in style by Langley when he converted Weston's cut back from about fifteen yards.
Sunderland were glad to get in at the interval only two down and withdrew both strikers in a bid to get a foothold in the game, but Danny Gabbidon's goal two minutes into the second half finished the game as a contest. Little had been seen of Sunderland as an attacking force up until then, but they had their chances after that and tested Margetson on numerous occasions, but City were always dangerous on the break and the powerful Alan Lee added a fourth late on and could have had another one as well as his header beat Poom only to hit the bar.
In all the celebration of a great win, the fact that Peter Thorne went off with about a minute to go passed almost unnoticed, but as it turned out, he had played his last football of the season as the foot injury he picked up in the game took longer than expected to heal.
City had finally beaten a side in the top ten and the manner in which they achieved it only made it a mystery why it had taken them so long. Sunderland could point to the fact that they had played most of the game with ten men, but they were being completely outplayed when it was eleven against eleven.
There were hopes that this win would kickstart the team into a real assault on the top of the table - Norwich and West Brom were beginning to get clear at the top now, but it was a tremendously tight competition for the play off places and, although they had ground to make up, the City were still in the thick of it. However, all this great win did was signal a spell where the team became maddeningly inconsistent with some real highs being mixed in with the lowest of the lows!
A trip to West Ham at Upton Park was a clear representation of how far we had come in the past four seasons. The Hammers were another team finding it hard to satisfy the demands of their expectant supporters, but they chose this afternoon to give what was described as one of their best performances so far of the season. City, with Alan Lee a ready made replacement for the injured Peter Thorne were seldom in the game as an attacking force and rode their luck most of the afternoon with their woodwork being hit three times. Outplayed completely in midfield, the City were having to rely on a mixture of good goalkeeping, dogged defending and poor West Ham finishing to keep the scoresheet blank but, just when you were beginning to think that they might escape with a point, Bobby Zamora, who makes a habit of doing these things to us, scored the goal that sealed a 1-0 win for the home side.
Millwall's progress to the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup meant that the City's scheduled trip to the New Den had to be postponed. This gave us three consecutive home games coming up - on the face of it, an ideal opportunity to propel ourselves into the heart of the play off battle, but in reality, all it did was show that we didn't have the consistency, quality or belief to be genuine contenders.
Part 8
About a fortnight earlier Lennie Lawrence had been saying that, for the first time this season, we had no injuries and he could select from a full squad - predictably, this was the cue for players to start dropping like flies! Rhys Weston limped off at West Ham with an injury which, effectively, ended his season (he was to play just one more match) and there were to be other significant injuries over the next few marches.
Gary Croft, who had been out of the side since his sending off at Bradford returned in Weston's absence as the City followed one 1-0 defeat up with another one in what was is generally regarded as their worst performance of the season in the home game with Coventry.
For the second successive match at Ninian Park, the opposition had a player sent off. Against Sunderland City showed just how to deal with a team reduced to ten men, whereas against Coventry.........! Peter Clarke the visitors centre half on loan from Everton ploughed into Robbo after about thirty seconds, it was an awful tackle and he was given a deserved red card. After that City's performance reeked of complacency, as they waited for Coventry to capitulate - it was if they thought that, just because they had won easily at Highfield Road with a weakened team, it would be a doddle this time around. That was five months ago however and took no account of the fact that Coventry were in a run of good form and had three consecutive away wins behind them. City struggled to create chances and even when they were given an opportunity from the penalty spot failed to take it as Kav's effort was turned on to a post by keeper Shearer.
By the time Coventry got a penalty of their own midway through the second half, the writing was on the wall - City were never going to score and Coventry had cottoned onto the fact that the three points were there for the taking. The penalty arrived when Julian Joachim burst through the middle of the City defence and was taken down by Martyn Margetson. It looked a stone wall penalty and City's keeper was red carded. This gave Neil Alexander the chance to play some first team football, but his first act was to pick the ball out of the net as he dived to his left and Mc Sheffrey's spot kick flew high to his right!
That was that, City huffed and puffed bit never looked like equalising and left the field to boos. It was only when I got home to see the television pictures that I noticed that City (and most people watching the game had been conned - Margetson never touched Joachim as the Coventry player fell over when there was no contact (Margetson's red card was later rescinded). However, given the teams performance, it was hard to work up any sense of injustice about the winning goal because the City got exactly what they deserved!
There were a couple of significant events before City were next in action again leaders Norwich. Kav had given what I regarded as his worst performance of the season against Coventry and, apparently, he had been little better at West Ham, so it wasn't much of a surprise when it was announced that he was going to have an operation on the leg damaged by Bircham's challenge back in November because it hadn't fully recovered.
Kav was out for the season, but a midfield player came in to replace him as Lee Bullock joined on loan for the rest of the season with a view to a permanent signing which could eventually cost the City £150,000. The Bullock deal had stalled because York had been playing him up front whereas Lennie saw him as a midfield player and, apparently, wanted to see him play there before making his mind up on whether to sign him, so this loan arrangement seemed a good move by the City.
Bullock wasn't included in the squad for the game with Norwich as Willie Boland (another injury victim) returned for Kav after missing the Coventry debacle. Norwich arrived unbeaten away from home and pulling clear at the top of the table, City had lost consecutive games 1-0 and had given an appalling performance in their last game so, of course, the final score ended up 2-1 to us!
It was a deserved win as well. After a quiet start, City had a Paul Parry inspired purple patch midway through the first half as, first, Parry's cross luckily flew into the net to give him his first goal for the club and then, three minutes later, he robbed his full back and showed great awareness to lay a goal on a plate for Earnie. If Alan Lee's header from a corner a couple minutes later had gone in rather than hitting an upright, who knows what the final score would have been, but, after that, apart from an effort by Robbo wonderfully saved by Green in the Norwich goal, City never threatened again, but, although the visitors did get a goal back early in the second half, their impressive defending meant that Norwich created very little and Margetson was barely tested as City held on for a very impressive win.
This was typical City around this time, just as you conceded that their play off challenge was over, they did something that got you dreaming again! The next game against play off rivals Reading therefore became a very important one.
Under previous manager Alan Pardew, Reading had been a good footballing side with the emphasis on getting the ball down and playing. Pardew's replacement Steve Coppell has always favoured a different brand of football though and Reading certainly favoured the long high ball against City and how can you knock them when it worked so well?
It was a bizarre evening with officials getting injured left, right and centre, all of which played into the visitors hands as City were never given a chance to build up much momentum. The game burst into life just before half time with a spell of three goals in five minutes - City allowed their concentration to slip when the game was delayed for the first of the injuries to an official and, when the game was restarted, the visitors were allowed to take the lead with an unchallenged header from a corner. Earnie equalised virtually straight away when he tapped in Alan Lee's unselfish pass, but one time City target Dave Kitson restored Reading's lead when he outjumped Margetson to head in a long free kick.
Lee Bullock was brought off the bench by Lennie at half time for his City debut. In truth he didn't make a great contribution in midfield, but what he did do was score an equaliser with a well struck effort from the edge of the box. The game was there for the winning now, but, invariably whenever City got in a position to put real pressure on Reading, there would be some delay and the game would go flat.
A draw would do neither side any good really, so both sides were chasing the win in the dying moments when Robbo broke clear on the right and pulled over a cross from the bye line - it looked a certain goal for the waiting Earnie, but the Reading keeper made a marvellous save to block the cross and seconds later, the City were behind when their inability to defend crosses again cost them as sub Morgan headed home from point blank range for the winner.
In truth, City had been unlucky on the night, but a return of three points from three home matches was just not enough for a team with designs on reaching the play offs. Lennie seemed to concede as much when he said he would be experimenting with side over the remaining games - obviously, the team weren't listening because the next three matches were won and we were still able to keep dreaming of the Premiership!
Part 9
Besides, seemingly, ending any Play Off hopes, the Reading match also brought the matter of Richard Langley's relationship with the Ninian Park crowd to a head. Langley had divided opinion virtually from the moment he had signed for us and soon became one of the players (Rhys Weston is another) who the crowd are quick to have a go at when things start going wrong, but against Reading it was far worse than that With some in the crowd on his case from the very first time he touched the ball, Langley had an absolute stinker that night as things developed to the stage where he seemed to be avoiding the ball so that his critics in the crowd weren't given the opportunity to boo him.
As someone who was in the pro Langley camp, I thought the best thing would be for Langley to try and restore his shattered confidence would be for him to have a spell in the reserves, but with our injuries in the midfield positions mounting (as well as Kav's long term absence, Paul Parry had limped off during the Norwich game with a hamstring injury which was to force him to miss the next three matches and Willie Boland was to miss five out of the next six matches as well), Langley had to play in the next match at Crewe. Lennie had little option but to field a midfield quartet of Langley, Bullock, Whalley and Robbo. The manager also tried to address the team's weakness with dealing with crosses into the box, by bringing in James Collins (not before time in the eyes of most City fans!) to play in central defence alongside Danny Gabbidon with Tony Vidmar moving across to left back.
Going back to Langley, in my view, what happened next reflected well on him and those City fans who follow the club away who seem to be far less fickle in their treatment of players compared to the home crowd. With the City support fully on his side, Langley gave a much improved performance at Crewe and this was to became the norm for the rest of the season with the Ninian Park crowd responding positively to better displays from the player as well.
City were able to complete their second double of the season with a 1-0 win at Crewe in a match played in a gale which Martyn Margetson described as the word he had ever played in.
Margetson and Crewe's debut making keeper Ben Williams were largely responsible for the fact that the game remained goalless until midway through the second half as both made a string of fine saves. It was ironic therefore that it was Williams' own goal that decided the match as Gary Croft's speculative shot bounced off the upright, hit him and trickled over the line into the net,
A week later City gained what for me was their most satisfying home win of the season when they defeated promotion chasing Sheffield United 2-1 in a televised match. The team had better victories at Ninian Park throughout the season, but, Rotherham apart, this was the only game they came from behind to win (they only did it once away from home as well!).
Trailing to a spectacular volley from Ndlovu, we equalised when Paddy Kenny allowed Richard Langley's free kick from nearly thirty yards to slip under his body and into the net and then in the second half City scored one of those quick fire counter attacking goals that they specialised in from time to time when a break from a Sheffield corner ended with Robbo scoring his first goal for the club with a fine low, angled drive from a Gary Croft cross.
Willie Boland had returned from his injury for the Sheffield United game, but was out again for the trip to struggling Gillingham. However, Paul Parry was fit again and replaced him with Langley moving infield. The game turned out to be an incident packed one - we missed our third consecutive penalty when Earnie's spot kick, awarded for a foul on Alan Lee, was saved by Steve Banks. Banks' afternoon was to get worse after that though as his rash charge outside of his box allowed Paul Parry to take the ball past him and cross for Earnie to head home. The City looked pretty comfortable at 1-0 up at the interval, but Gillingham came back strongly after the break, equalising with a header from the last of a series of corners and, for much of the time it looked like the home side would run out winners, but Banks blundered again with five minutes left when he came for and missed a cross which was immediately returned into the middle by Richard Langley for sub Lee Bullock to head home. The drama was still not over though, as Gillingham went straight down the pitch to gain a penalty which was knocked a foot wide of the post by Pouton!
Not for the first time during the season, City had responded to adversity through injuries well - three straight wins had reignited the play off flame, but their good spell had to be maintained over the next three matches which were all against rivals for those four play off places.
The following Wednesday City travelled to Millwall to play their rearranged fixture. With just one defeat in their last twelve league matches Millwall were in great form, but having beaten Sunderland three days earlier to reach their first ever FA Cup Final, it was impossible to know how they would react to a return to league action.
As it turned out, the game was a low key 0-0 draw which did neither sides play off aspirations that much good. City barely threatened the home goal throughout, but defended well and, with only two goals conceded in the four games played since he returned to the side, James Collins' impressive form was, hopefully, going a long way towards persuading Lennie Lawrence that he had a long term future in the team.
Ian Dowie's in form Crystal Palace were the next visitors to Ninian Park for a game which both sides simply had to win. If anything, City had slightly the better of a goalless first half, but faded badly after the break - once again when attacking the Grange End in the second half, the team gave those at that end of the ground little or nothing to get excited about as Palace (with Julian Gray prominent and doing the Ayatollah!) gradually, assumed control.
In their end, their 2-0 winning margin did not flatter Palace whose speed on the break proved to be the deciding factor. For City now it had reached the stage where they almost certainly needed wins from each of their last five matches to make the play offs, but they fell at the first hurdle as they were well beaten 3-0 at Wigan with the home sides powerful strikers Roberts and Ellington sharing the goals between them as the City defence had an uncomfortable evening.
Part 10
With nothing to play for now, City did well to finish the season with a four match unbeaten run, but, as only one of these were won, the effect was to drop them into the lower half of the table just about for the first time in the season. There's a football cliché that says the final table doesn't lie and you finish where you deserve to, but I would say that the team deserved to finish two or three places higher than thirteenth.
Burnley arrived at Ninian Park in relegation trouble and were just about as bad a visiting team as I saw during the season, but for most of a mundane game they looked like they would get a point as the City's goalless run looked like stretching to four matches. However, the introduction of Paul Parry and forgotten man Andy Campbell for the last quarter of an hour transformed the match - Campbell immediately won a penalty which Langley confidently converted to prove that others besides Earnie and Kav should be considered for the job of penalty taker and then a couple of minutes later, the play off hero of last year finished off one of our length of the field breakaway goals after good work from Margetson, Parry and Robbo.
The plan now was for Campbell and Bullock to see out the season in the first team and Lennie made further changes for the visit to mid table Preston with Weston and Barker returning at full back. The match turned out to be an entertaining one with City coming back from 2-0 down to get a draw as Campbell with a long range shot that should have been saved and captain for the day Danny Gabbidon with a good header from a Langley corner scored within three second half minutes.
Gareth Whalley had been taken off during the Burnley game and had not played at Preston. Nobody was that surprised by this at the time as the player had been steady but hardly eye catching during his run of ten consecutive matches in the team. However the story then broke that Whalley only needed one more first team appearance during the season to qualify for a bonus of £50,000 and had been told before the trip to Preston that he would not be considered for selection in the remaining matches. After that, all hell broke lose with bonuses rather than football becoming the main topic of conversation for the rest of the season!
Everybody was having their say on the matter and the general consensus seemed to be on the side of the player. For myself, I didn't see the matter in purely black and white terms. Unfortunately details of Whalley's wages emerged during the controversy - I tried (but failed!) not to let it influence my judgement, but the fact that Whalley was earning in one week what it took me about four months to earn was always in the back of my mind. For that reason, I struggled to see why a player who had hardly set the world on fire during the season should automatically expect to have the right to pick up what was a ludicrously high bonus, in my view, just as a matter of course. Understandably, Lennie wanted to have a good look at Lee Bullock in first team action before deciding whether to try and make his loan signing a permanent one and, with Willie Boland now fit again, Whalley was the natural candidate to be left out - in short, there were legitimate footballing reasons to drop him.
That said, it was hard not to feel sorry for the guy and the club certainly deserved criticism for what seemed to be an inconsistent approach regarding the bonus. Andy Campbell's substitute appearance against Burnley was his twenty third appearance of the season so, presumably, he qualified for the bonus (even though he only started five league matches all season!) and Gary Croft was another who only qualified for the bonus in the last month of the campaign.
Add to this the fact that, after initially deciding not to play Alan Lee in the last two matches to put off paying Rotherham an appearance bonus under the terms of his transfer, Andy Campbell's injury forced the City to pick Lee at Ipswich in the last game, thus giving Rotherham their money. This proved that the City could find the money to pay these bonuses if they had to, so it was hard to avoid the feeling that Whalley was being treated differently to others in the squad and I certainly felt that the whole affair was a not very subtle way of trying to force the player (who still had a year left on his contract) out of the club.
The upshot was that Whalley did not play again and so, I assume, didn't get his bonus - at first, it seemed that he would be demanding a transfer, but he relented and decided to see out his contract at the City, but, after what has been said on both sides, it's difficult to see him having much of a first team future at the club.
Back to the football! City brought the curtain down on their Ninian Park season with a lacklustre performance against already relegated Wimbledon. John Robinson looked to have won the game with a late goal after good work by Collins and Langley, but the visitors struck back straight away with a straightforward header from a free kick - to be fair to them, a point was the least Wimbledon deserved from a match which had a distinct end of season feel to it.
The team finished off their season with another 1-1 draw, but, unlike the response to the Wimbledon match, there was a very positive reaction to this City performance and rightly so as they largely outplayed the Ipswich team that had been so impressive at Ninian Park earlier in the season. There were mitigating circumstances mind, Ipswich were, obviously, very nervous because their place in the play offs depended on the outcome of the match, whereas City had nothing to play for (or worry about).
The City were on top when the home side took the lead after Langley lost the ball about thirty yards out, but it didn't take us long to equalise as Lee Bullock (who did well in the closing matches) scored with a deflected header after one of several good passing movements by the team in the first half. The second half turned out to be more of a backs to the wall struggle, but, at the end, the City's point was fully deserved as they had done the right thing by the other sides in the play off hunt by giving a fully committed performance in front of the television cameras which augured well for next season.
For the first time since 1970/71 City ended a league season at this level with more wins than defeats - true, Richie Morgan's side of 78/79 finished higher than this team, but that was on the back of a great unbeaten run at the end of a season spent struggling against the drop. In my view, the current team has more attacking flair and style than that team and offers more promise for the future than Morgan's side - we were far from perfect and there are changes that need to be made, but I am certain in my own mind that we have been watching the best Cardiff City team for thirty three years this season!
That's all folks!