Well, the players may change, the manager may change, but one thing which is almost guaranteed come early August is that Cardiff City will bow out or the League Cup at the First Round stage.
Last season was an exception as we somehow scraped past Sutton United by 3-2, thereby probably ensuring First Round defeats for the next five years or so.
“Pathetic” is the word which springs to mind when I consider the litany of humiliations City have suffered at the hands of various lower league sides down the years since we reached the Final of the competition a decade ago, while when we’ve been drawn against other Championship sides in the First Round we’ve tended to be hammered.
Occasionally of course, we get hammered by a lower league side – Northampton did it to the tune of 3-0 two years ago and tonight Portsmouth won by the same score at Cardiff City Stadium.
I mentioned the word pathetic earlier, but there is a very slight possibility that I’m being harsh on City there, because I only have the Radio Wales commentary to go on at the moment. However, based on what Andy Legg was coming out with, I think the description is justified because what Leggy was saying should be setting alarm bells ringing even if there were ten changes from the starting line up at Reading.
It’s not the lack of presence in the opposition penalty or the poor quality on the final ball that most concerned me on this occasion. As it stands, we’re getting used to that after watching our first two matches, it was more about Leggy talking regarding how Portsmouth were stronger and more committed than us and that was something I thought applied equally at Reading.
However, for a side that, it seems, has been outmuscled in its last two games, we already have a shocking disciplinary record with ten yellow cards (two of them to Perry Ng in the Norwich match) and a straight red card shown to Vontae Campbell late on tonight already.
It needs to be said as well that I still don’t get why Curtis Nelson was not sent off on Saturday after the penalty he gave away and tonight Leggy spotted Kion Etete twice elbowing an opponent after he came on as a sub (apparently, the video of the match confirms one of the elbowing incidents).
I don’t know what Steve Morison said after the game tonight, but I think the nature of our last two defeats means the pressure is on against Birmingham this Saturday lunchtime.
This was another of those games like a few we saw in the seasons where we sometimes looked like we didn’t want the ball and yet occasionally we’d dominate possession – unfortunately, all that would do was showcase our lack of creativity and attacking punch.
Unlike our two league matches we had what looks like an acceptable level of goal attempts tonight, there were fourteen of them, but then you notice that only one of them was on target. This came when Gavin Whyte and Jaden Philogene (two players who quite impressed Leggy in the first half) combined only for the former to denied by a great goal line block by Sean Raggett. Mark Harris also touched in a shot by Vontae Campbell, but the goal was ruled out for offside as City generally had the better of things before the interval.
I’m not going to bother much more about this game except to record that, in a one sided second half, Joe Piggott with a strange bobbling effort after a Nelson blunder gave Portsmouth the lead, Ronan Curtis made it two after Nelson gave away what is becoming his usual penalty and then Colby Bishop scored with a header from a corner to complete the scoring within a fourteen minute period.
Meanwhile the signings keep on coming with centreback Josh Simpson joining us on a two year contract from Rangers for an undisclosed fee. Simpson, who it appeared we were on the brink of signing in January 2021 from Bournemouth, is a left sided centre half, so you would think he’s coming here to be a first team player, but one possible cause for concern is that he did not play much first team football while at Ibrox Park.
The bad news is that it was reported today that City have turned down a bid, believed to be £2.5 million, from Burnley for Isaak Davies, but they really have left the door open for the Lancashire club to come back with an improved offer, I can’t help thinking that, with Craig Bellamy there as Richard Kompany’s Assistant, Burnley will be bidding again for Isaak.
Finally, the Under 21s continued their pre season programme this afternoon with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth thanks to a couple of goals by a “trialist number nine” and one from James Crole.