Recently, I’ve been doing two or three paragraphs at the start of my seven decades quizzes previewing our upcoming game and in the one for today’s encounter with a Preston side which had a 1-0 win and four goalless draws to start their season with, I said I was sure that Cardiff City, three goals scored in six matches in all competitions so far, would not play out a goalless stalemate with the 0-0 draw kings – what was I thinking!
What we got this afternoon at Cardiff City Stadium was a game of two on target goal attempts (one of which I can’t remember) according to the BBC’s stats. The one I do recall being a scuffed effort that Preston goalkeeper Freddie Woodman (who can barely remember what it feels like to concede a goal against Cardiff – he did used to play for the jacks after all) made a bit of a production of saving.
City had both of those goal attempts and another twenty of varying quality which missed the target besides, so that in itself tells the story that this was a better game than goalless non event we saw when Preston were last here in February.
In truth, It was like quite a bit of City’s season so far – good, but only up to a point. Preston manager Ryan Lowe was impressed for a start because after having a moan about his side’s performance, he went on to say that City had been “superb in everything they did”, while, more predictably, Steve Morison said his team had been excellent.
Morison must know though that averaging less than half a goal a game, as they are doing currently, over the course of a season will get his team relegated. I hasten to add that I think we’re showing that in most areas we’re too good to go down, but it’s becoming a common theme that, although we’re seeing a common reaction after games blaming the strikers when we don’t score, there’s too often been a lack of quality in the service they get – that’s something we can ill afford when we can no longer rely on a fairly steady stream of set piece goals.
Our current scoring rate is so poor that it’s impossible for me to ignore when I’m doing these post game reaction pieces, yet I do have some sympathy with our manager regarding a couple of his other post game comments – firstly, when he says “if we keep on playing like that, we’ll win more than we lose” and second, “performance first and the result will follow”.
Given their extraordinary record so far, I’m not sure what I was expecting today from Preston, but I was disappointed in them. Ryan Lowe said it was not a typical performance from his side and I should think not because they looked a very limited team indeed. To be blunt, they played like a team that was more concerned in maintaining their great goals against record than winning the game and all they had to offer was a series of good blocks and clearances on the too rare occasions when City looked like opening them up.
In two of our games so far (Birmingham and Bristol City), a finger could be pointed at our strikers for not taking opportunities that were created for them, but today was like the majority of our matches so far in that there was a lack of a cutting edge on two fronts.
Yes, our strikers drew another blank, but there was a lack of precision with the final ball from a team which I’d say is a lot better equipped technically all over the pitch to do better in that respect than the sides we’ve got used to watching in previous seasons.
I must be fair though and comment on the things we’re doing well. For example, I’ve talked about Preston’s lack of a goal threat, but it cannot be a coincidence that I could have said the same about Norwich and Birmingham as well. We’ve been fallible defensively at times away from home, but three clean sheets at Cardiff City Stadium speaks for itself and the only time our goal was threatened today it was courtesy of one of our own players
Apart from one moment early in the game when Ryan Wintle was robbed of possession too close to our goal, it was a good day for our play out from the back approach and, otherwise, the man who is the fulcrum of that new part of our game maintained the standards he has set this season.
Although I don’t expect many to agree with this, I also thought Max Watters had a good game and I believe our manager probably feels the same way considering that, for the first time as a City player I believe, he stayed on for the whole game.
The highlight of Watters’ game came during City’s best spell of the first half, when, with a mixture of pace, skill and perseverance, he somehow went by four opponents to find himself on the edge of the penalty area where his eventual shot could have been more composed I suppose as it whistled over the bar, but he was far from the only City player to be guilty of doing that.
City began with Callum O’Dowda at left back, Joe Ralls back as captain in place of Andy Rinomhota and Rubin Colwill starting wide on the left in O’Dowda’s normal position. This meant that, with Romaine Sawyers also starting, City had the two players I consider to be their most creative on the pitch for the majority of the game.
Colwill and Sawyers had their moments, most notably when they combined nicely around the hour mark to set up Ralls for a shot from twenty yards which beat Woodman, but came back off the inside of the post and out for what was easily the closest escape Preston had.
The thing is though, I can’t avoid the feeling that there should be more on the creative and attacking front with the group of players we now have. I say that while recognising that I’m being impatient there in not making allowance for the fact that this is a new team getting used to each other and, for those who were here in previous seasons, there’s also a new and completely different method of playing to be incorporated.
Wintle came the closest to scoring in the first half with a crisply struck shot from that just outside the eighteen yard box area which fizzed less than a yard wide and there was a Waters effort blocked away for a corner, a nicely worked corner by Wintle that found Mahlon Romeo free in that same area again, but this time the shot was one of the more wayward ones the team hit on the afternoon.
After forty five minutes, City we’re ahead 60/40 on possession (a lead they maintained until the end of the game) and thirteen to nil on goal attempts. The fact that it ended twenty two to five on that rating suggests a more even second half and, with Preston improving in terms of ball retention after a flurry of substitutions including the introduction of one time Wales wonder kid, Ben Woodman, it was – even if all of the meaningful goalmouth action bar one bizarre incident still took place at Woodman’s end.
Besides Ralls’ effort against the woodwork, Preston had to survive a series of testing crosses from Colwill who was now operating on the right and the youngster also had another one of those edge of the box shots that this time looked to be going wide when it hit centre back Liam Lindsay on the arm. Referee Andy Woolmer ruled no penalty but our manager was of the view that the shot was going in and it was a penalty – for me, it fell into the “I’ve seen them given” category.
Besides that, it was City’s new left back who came closest to breaking the deadlock. Niels Nkounkou arrived on a season long loan from Everton yesterday following the long term injury suffered by Jamilu Collins and Joel Bagan’s concussion and he replaced O’Dowda at half time (surely it wasn’t another injury with the left back curse striking again?). Nkounkou is twenty one years old, has played a couple of times in the Premier League for his parent club, spent last season on loan at Belgian club Standard Liege, played a game for France in last year’s Olympics and, on this evidence, is a typical modern full back with a lot of energy and a mindset that wants to be as active In attacking areas as he is in defensive ones.
Here, he showed to best effect in the former capacity – It was him who put in the one on target effort I can remember of the two we had and then, seconds before the end, he slalomed past a couple of defenders before knocking a fifteen yard effort not too far over the bar.
It was clearly a game where the old boxing analogy about one of the sides in a drawn game winning on points applied, but there was almost a sucker punch with five minutes to go when a near post cross by Preston’s Brad Potts was headed against an upright by Cedric Kipre, the ball struck the under employed Ryan Allsop without him knowing much about it and was scrambled away to safety by a relieved defence.
Away from first team level it was a busy week for the Under 21 squad who had a good win at a Sheffield United side which included our loanee from last season, Tommy Doyle. Gavin Whyte, who came on for the last minute or two today, scored a hat trick to complete a 3-0 win, but the bad news was that Kion Etete sustained an injury which is rumoured to be likely to keep him out for months, rather than weeks – to update this, Steve Morison said after the game that Etete had only rolled his ankle and would be out for about a fortnight..
Yesterday, a much younger and less experienced under 21 team played their first game in the League Cup competition (we’re in a group of four which also includes Wolves and Sunderland) at Reading and were beaten by a single goal to nil.
There was also just the one goal in it for the Under 18s at Birmingham this lunchtime, but this time it went in our favour, with Cole Fleming netting with ten minutes left.
I mentioned Blaenrhondda FC’s unfortunate demise a few weeks ago and it’s all the more unfortunate when you consider that they would have had local derbies against Ton Pentre and AFC Porth in the Highadmit Welsh Alliance Premier League this season if they’d survived. Of course, it’s a real shame to see a side with such an illustrious history as Ton Pentre competing so far down the Welsh football pyramid following another relegation last season, but a 3-0 win at Cardiff Airport today continued a solid start for them at this new level as they find themselves in fifth place. Unfortunately, though, Porth look set for another season of struggle having lost all four of their matches and conceded twenty goals in the process.
In the First Division, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club have begun well after last season’s promotion with four wins and twelve points from five games to find themselves in fourth place despite not having played at home yet.
Finally, as has been the habit at the start of a new season in recent years, can I ask readers if they’re willing to make a donation towards the running costs of the blog. I say running costs towards the blog, but, that’s not really true this time because this year any donations will go towards costs incurred in the production and publication of the book I aim to have out for sale by October.
As mentioned this time last year, I decided to do another review of a season to follow on from Real Madrid and all that which was about 1970/71. This one is about the 1975/76 season and will be called Tony Evans walks on water. I finished writing the book over the weekend and now it’s a question of tidying it up, proof reading, inserting a few photos and designing a cover before sending it off for printing.
As always, the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation towards its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site because there will never be any.
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