We’re at a time of year now where if City have nothing to play for, as they do now, my interest can turn more towards Glamorgan cricket team and with Chris Cooke’s side proving themselves to be very competitive so far this year, it was the two day win over Kent completed yesterday, rather than the thought of today’s trip to Birmingham that provided my sporting excitement up until three o clock today.
However, I must say that I enjoyed our game this afternoon more than I expected to. Yes, with their Championship status for next season assured, Birmingham’s newish manager, Lee Bowyer selected an under strength side with a smattering of younger players, but this was still a very satisfying performance by City with no little style and a very interesting selection in the back three which might possibly offer a clue as to what we can expect next season from Mick McCarthy in terms of our approach and mode of play.
Before I come to that though, pride of place has to go to Harry Wilson – I’d still say Michael Chopra’s trio against Leicester in 2007 was the best hat trick I’ve seen by a City player, but Wilson’s three today runs it very close and has overtaken John Buchanan’s against Sheffield United in 1979 to move into second place on my not very long list of great City hat tricks.
Today all of Wilson’s goals came from outside of the penalty area, something which I would have thought was pretty rare for a hat trick, as must be a team winning 4-0 with four strikes from more than eighteen yards out.
In his pre game media chat, Mick McCarthy revealed what was a long injury list with Sean Morrison and Jordy Osei-Tutu once again ruled out. Put this together with Will Vaulks’ suspension and, while our side wasn’t as youthful as Birmingham’s, we were a long way short of being at full strength.
With McCarthy going with Dillon Phillips instead of Alex Smithies, there were three changes to last week’s starting line up with Wilson coming in for Josh Murphy and Leandro Bacuna replacing Morrison.
That was only the half of it though, because what our manager chose to do with his eleven once selected was very interesting. On seeing the side, I’d assumed Joe Ralls would be used in the left wing back role we saw him in at Swansea, but, instead, it was Ciaron Brown who remained out on the left, while Ralls stayed in central midfield alongside Bacuna, not Marlon Pack.
It turned out that Pack lined up at right centre back alongside Aden Flint and Curtis Nelson, as, at a stroke, Mick McCarthy introduced the passer we’ve been lacking into our back three and, while this didn’t bring about a total transformation, there was a composure and control about us that has been lacking for far too much of this season for my liking.
Of course, allowances have to be made for the strength or otherwise of the opposition. Although I’m all in favour of bringing some poise on the ball and ability to build from the back into the team, we are talking about defenders here and I’m enough of a traditionalist to believe that, above all else, defenders need to be able to defend.
Whether Pack would be able to do that to a satisfactory standard will need to be answered another time because, in truth, that side of his game was barely tested today and there’s also his unfortunate recent habit of giving the ball away in very dangerous areas to be borne in mind.
For now though, Pack at centre back is definitely an experiment that should be continued in the season finale against Rotherham next week.
Onto the game then and I thought City made something of a dozy start against opponents buoyed by a recent run of one defeat in eight which had taken them well clear of the bottom three – Birmingham were first to most of the loose balls and were winning most of the fifty/fifties, but the whole tenor of the match changed on nine minutes with a goal which would have had Mick McCarthy purring (hard to imagine I know!) and Lee Bowyer spitting feathers.
If we are going to be seeing a new, play out from the back Cardiff City, then Birmingham gave us a few reminders, if they were needed, of the dangers of such an approach.
For example, home captain Mark Roberts, having received a short pass from young goalkeeper Zach Jeacock really didn’t want to be playing the ball to Wilson stood nearly thirty yards from an unguarded goal with a keeper struggling to get back between the sticks. That probably makes Wilson’s chance sound easier than it really was – he needed to control the ball and then hit his shot very quickly, which he did, and yet it all looked so unhurried as he curled the ball delicately beyond the despairing Jeacock with the outside of his left foot.
It was “absolutely awesome” and “sublime” according to our manager and set the scene for something of a bitter sweet reminder of Wilson’s talent because it must be 99.99 per cent certain that he’ll only be our player for one more game – Mick McCarthy has said as much and, with the player himself saying it’s time for him to move away from Liverpool permanently, it’s hard to see him being loaned out again next season.
Still, what happened today should ensure Wilson heads to the Euros in a confident frame of mind and, after today, his goals (seven) and assist (eleven) figures have to compare very favourably with similar type players at other Championship clubs.
Wilson doubled the lead on forty minutes with his first goal direct from a free kick this season – you have to say it was a poorly aligned Birmingham wall which left Wilson with a fairly easy task, but I should emphasise that I mean fairly easy by his standards. For most, it would have been difficult enough to have curled the ball low around the wall from nearly thirty yards out to leave the goalkeeper without a hope of making a save, but Wilson made it look simple.
Wilson was chasing a hat trick a few minutes later when he fastened on to a perfectly flighted Brown pass (I’ve never understood why his passing has been thought of as being a step down from most of his team mates) and powered in a shot from eighteen yards which brought the first of three fine saves from Jeacock, who would foil sub Mark Harris and Rubin Colwill after the break.
Harris was introduced at half time for Keiffer Moore who had taken a blow to his head quite early in the game, but the loss of their attacking lynch pin was hardly felt this time as the home grown product, who has been something of a forgotten man under McCarthy, gave a reminder of his capabilities with a hard running performance.
Harris’ reward for an impressive showing came when City broke quickly and effectively as Wilson, just outside his own penalty area, fed Harris, who flicked on to sub Murphy, on for Colwill, and then ran on to the return pass before firing low and hard past Jeacock from twenty yards for his third goal in what has been something of a breakthrough season for him.
Birmingham then wasted their best chance when Steve Seddon shot well over after City had again proved to be susceptible to a ball pulled back towards the penalty spot and the home side were punished once more when Wilson doubled his season’s free kick goal tally within about forty five minutes of his first one – this one was in an ideal place and angle for his left foot and he shot hard and unerring across Jeacock and into the roof of the net from twenty or so yards.
This was City’s tenth, and biggest, away win of a season which has also seen them draw eight of their twenty three matches on opponent’s ground. That’s not quite a top two record (Norwich and Brentford have more away points than us), but it does confirm what has been pretty clear for a while – it’s our hone form that has cost us dear this season.
Finally, the one disappointing aspect of the afternoon for me was that, having named Sam Bowen, Kieron Evans and Isaak Davies among the subs, Mick McCarthy choose not to give any of them game time in circumstances that I would have thought were ideally suited to handing a youngster a debut with the side comfortably ahead in a game with nothing riding on it.
After their draw with Blackburn today and Derby’s 2-1 loss at Swansea, Rotherham know that a win at Luton on Tuesday would take them out of the bottom three at the expense of Wayne Rooney’s side. Even if they lose that game though, Rotherham will not be relegated when they come here next Sunday, so it becomes a match where we’re unlikely to see any youngsters given a debut from the start.