“What takes from Bonfire Night to St. Valentines Day?” sounds like the first line of what could be a brilliant joke, but the punch line of “Cardiff City to win a game.” would be likely to draw bemused looks from most people – for a few thousand from south Wales though it would bring a satisfied smile.
City’s bid to equal the club record for the longest run without a win failed well into the final stretch tonight as they completed a double over Birmingham City with a 2-0 victory at St Andrews to leave them one short of the fifteen which would have given those involved not immortality, but notoriety.
It was surely inevitable that when a win finally came, it would not arrive with a footballing classic, it would be scruffy, mostly dull and probably by 1-0 and it was all of those things except for the suggested scoreline because we managed a second in the fifth of six minutes of added time.
In fact, for eighty-four minutes, I was thinking I was watching a kind of replay of the recent away games at Blackburn, Luton and Hull – all matches of low quality that the home team edged by a single second half goal.
We were well in all three of those matches, but it’s probably true to say that we didn’t deserve to get more than a single point out of them. Tonight though, I think we were deserved winners even if for most of the time, a goal looked as far away as ever in this season which seems set to see a record low scoring total for a campaign of forty games plus – it may well turn out to be our worst in seasons with less matches than that as well.
It’s been a bit of a mystery to me as to why City have made so little use of a three central defenders system in this season of struggle and tonight I was pleased and surprised to see that Sabri Lamouchi went with what was very close to the team I would have selected. A back three of Perry Ng, Cedric Kipre and Mark McGuinness were flanked by wing backs Mahlon Romeo and Callum O’Dowda. There was a midfield three of Romaine Sawyers, Andy Rinomhota and Ryan Wintle and Sory Kaba and Kion Etete formed a two man attack (I would have had Callum Robinson in for Etete).
Going with two big men up front predictably led to a more direct approach and the sight of Ryan Allsop coming up to the halfway line to take long free kicks into the Birmingham box was a depressing sight for me because it was a throwback to a type of football I’d hoped we’d left behind us..
I’ll come back to talking about our play at the top end of the pitch later, but I must say that at the other end, three at the back definitely worked as I cannot remember a more comfortable away game defensively for us all season.
A feature of this season has been the number of times I have related that there were only one or two occasions when we looked like we might score, but, this time, the boot was on the other foot – Joe Ralls, on as a sub, made a great late block to foil young Welshman Jordan James when a Birmingham equaliser looked inevitable, Troy Deeney had the ball in our net, but was, rightly, ruled offside and I started getting twitchy when the towering Lukas Jutkiewicz moved his position to target Ng rather McGuinness, but the only home on target effort of the game came when his header had most of the pace taken off it by a defensive block and Allsop saved easily.
That was it really, City were in charge against a side that had scored six in winning their last two matches against Swansea and West Brom.
There were signs why the home side had scored so often recently because there were flashes of play suggesting that they could pass the ball at pace just around our penalty area, but there was not the necessary accuracy from them most of the time and on the others, there was always a grey shirt there to break things up when Birmingham looked like clicking into gear.
That’s not to say it was a packed City defence throughout. The two wing backs were very willing to get forward and prompt attacks – Romeo in particular was adventurous and it was a good run by O’Dowda which won the free kick that produced the opening goal.
So, I’d say the system worked well, but I have to qualify that by adding that the wing backs’ sense of adventure was not reflected by the goalmouth action it produced. The long ball approach saw us as toothless as normal with Kaba and Etete being dominated in the air and it was invariably a home player who got his head on the ball when our big men from the back came up for set pieces.
Kaba, who certainly likes a spectacular volley, was well off target with his first attempt at one in an opening half almost devoid of action. His second attempt was closer, but, in truth, it still ended up yards wide and then his more conventional third effort from a Wintle free kick flashed a foot over after a much better connection.
That was, far and away the closest we came to seeing an end to the stalemate until our first goal arrived very late on, but Connor Wickham, who finally completed his free agent transfer today, made an encouraging first contribution within seconds of coming on with Robinson to form a new front two with a good turn and shot which finally forced home keeper John Ruddy into action.
City were able to get the ball down and play a little bit in the game’s final quarter and began to take control of the midfield as a result, but, I must be honest and say I was settling for a 0-0 even when we were awarded that eighty fourth minute free kick on the edge of the penalty area for the aforementioned foul on O’Dowda.
My lack of expectation only grew when I saw that it was Ng who was going to take the free kick, but, as the saying goes, oh ye of little faith! Ng stepped up and curled his shot high and wide of Ruddy right up into the corner of the goal that he was never going to reach – the best compliment I can pay the scorer is to say it was like watching a right footed Whittingham!
Understandably given the run they were on, City concentrated on preserving their lead after that and were very grateful to Ralls following their one piece of unconvincing defending of the night.
There was another goal though when, rather than head for the corner flag, Robinson took a pass from Wickham, dribbled past two defenders and scored with a shot which probably left Ruddy very annoyed at being beaten on his near post.
It was good to see Allsop running the length of the pitch to join in with the wild celebrations in front of the City fans as it suggests that at least the spirit in the squad is strong for the battles to come, but this one only lasted a few seconds more after Birmingham restarted and finally City have the win which, surely, could not have been delayed much longer.