Cup matches are seen as a 'complete irrelevance' writes Paul Evans
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I usually end up writing in the region of 2,000 words in my reaction pieces to City first team games, but, although I’ll refrain from my original intention of just typing “a team that could control and pass a football easily beat a team who could not control and pass a football”, I have no intention of this having more than a quarter of that number. If 2,000 words represent “normal” effort on my part, I think 500 is being a bit generous towards the Cardiff City side that, yet again, embarrassed themselves and the club in a cup competition by losing 3-0 at home to a Luton team that was some way short of being their strongest.
From memory, Vincent Tan watched his first game at Cardiff City Stadium when we beat Crystal Palace on penalties in the second leg of the League Cup Semi Final in 2012. The atmosphere that night was fantastic with a full house cheering the team on and then showing their appreciation for the man who had saved their club. This latest in a long line of cup humiliations for Mr Tan’s team came in front of the lowest ever crowd for a first team fixture at the stadium. There were just 4,111 mugs there to watch the game, the other 17,000 or so realised that the whole experience would be a waste of their money – that everyone at Cardiff among the Boardroom, in the dug out and on the pitch appears to prefer nights like the one I’ve just endured to ones like seven years ago is a genuine mystery to me.
There are probably ten or more pieces on here where I’ve railed at length at the club following couldn’t care less efforts by the team in cup matches, but I’m not going to do so here because the penny has finally dropped with me that nobody at Cardiff City is interested in them. They are seen as a complete irrelevance – maybe a few people should be shown videos of us going to Middlesbrough and playing a Premier League side off the park in 2008 to show them what Cup football is all about and while they’re at it, they can watch the final against Liverpool in 2012 again because they seem to have forgotten all about that great occasion.
Neil Warnock actually got around to picking some youngsters tonight with Cameron Coxe getting a second chance to impress in a home early round League Cup tie – obviously the poor lad has upset his manager somewhere along the line to have to suffer like that twice, but I see Wales Online made him City’s Man of the Match and, thinking about it, I’d say I’d go along with that judgement.
Shamar Moore, who was impressive in the Under 23 team’s game against Sheffield United earlier this month, didn’t do badly either when he came on at half time for what I presume was an injured Isaac Vassell and considering that he came on just as City were restarting the game after going 3-0 behind, James Waite didn’t let himself down.
No, it was the likes of Flint, Nelson, Vaulks, Paterson, Hoilett, Bogle, Whyte and Vassell that did that , because, after a lively first quarter of an hour or so, they all reverted to normal City senior squad members cup mode.
My mate said after about half an hour that Luton were passing the ball around quite nicely. My reply was everyone passes the ball around nicely compared to us, so it becomes difficult to figure out how “nicely” they were playing and, with the word counter showing 647, this seems a good time for me to finish – although I should just add how sorry I am to learn of Bury’s expulsion from the EPL tonight, I cannot begin to imagine how their fans must feel, although I’m sure it will be a lot worse than the money men responsible for their demise are.
