After a week of mounting criticism aimed more at the main off field players as opposed to those on it at Cardiff City, today’s home game against Rotherham was a fraught occasion.
Three consecutive defeats is as nothing compared to last season’s record breaking eight on the trot, especially when what has now been accepted as a wrong decision by the organisation representing referees apparently robbed us against Coventry and the red card we received early on at QPR has been rescinded. The one inside ten minutes at Swansea didn’t help either.
Also, I was grateful to Mike Ellesmere for a reply to my piece on last weekend’s derby game in which he provided a link to the Championship’s form table over the previous six matches which showed that we’d faced five of the top six most in form sides in the league in Mark Hudson’s half a dozen matches in charge.
So, all in all, it’s been a testing period, probably the most testing we’ve had in the year since those eight straight losses. Perhaps that has something to do with why Hudson and his players have escaped quite lightly during the week just ended? The defeat last weekend was as one sided as any we’ve received in our horrific run against the jacks, but there was an excuse this time in that Callum Robinson sending off and the team did not surrender in the manner they did in both games last season.
On the other hand, Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo may have been copping most of the flak because people genuinely think they deserve it – if that is the case, then I can completely understand why they feel that way. That said, when it comes to Vincent Tan, I’m always aware of the need not to forget that he has, firstly, provided the finances which should have made City far more successful than they have been in the past dozen years and, secondly, kept the financial wolf away from our door during that time.
It needs to be said however, that there have been so many “own goals” and poor decisions made down the years and, now, Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo have a feel of absentee landlords about them as they seem to be allowing the club to go to rack and ruin.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the situation regarding our “interim” manager. I said last week that, despite feeling well disposed towards Mark Hudson, I would prefer it if we appointed someone from outside the club now, but, if we’re not going to do that, then Hudson’s position should be clarified by the club. We keep on hearing about a new coach that is supposed to be coming in (one is certainly needed), but it’s been three weeks, at least, now since those first surfaced and I get the feeling the delay in making an appointment is more down to those in charge of the finances than Hudson.
If things had gone wrong today, I feel the atmosphere could have turned nasty – not in a Mick McCarthy kind of way because there is a reservoir of goodwill felt towards Mark Hudson, but in a way a bit like what we used to see when we were playing in red.
It never came to that though, because City got the job done today, not in a spectacular or even particularly exciting way, but, they were well worth their 1-0 win which pushed them four places up the table, while increasing the gap between them and the bottom three to four points.
The BBC’s stats show City dominant in all phases – 63/37 possession, 19/3 goal attempts, 5/0 attempts on target, 10/3 corners and 3/9 fouls (I thought referee Oliver Langford was possibly the best one we’ve had this season).
Indeed, although bare statistics never tell the whole story of a match, someone who hadn’t seen the game would look at those stats and ask how did it only finish 1-0? They’d be right to do so as well, but that is the nature of City this season when playing at home.
We’ve now played nine home games in all competitions and scored just six times – going into November, we’ve still not still not scored more than one in a match at Cardiff City Stadium.
When you bear that in mind, it’s true to say that we’ve done well to win four of those matches, especially when you consider that we don’t win at Cardiff City Stadium if we concede a goal. Given our inability to score two or more in a home match, it has to follow that the only score we can by is 1-0.
So far, we’ve done that against Norwich, Birmingham, Blackburn and now Rotherham. In the first of those matches, we came out on top in a tight encounter which could have gone either way, but the other three have all followed a similar pattern – Cardiff dominance, but an inability to finish outplayed opponents off with a second goal.
I didn’t think we played as well today as we did in beating Birmingham and Blackburn, but we were comfortably good enough to beat a poor Rotherham team. The table would indicate that the Yorkshire side are a lot better than they showed today and they did have the excuse that they played on Tuesday night, drawing 2-2 at Coventry, whereas we had a free midweek.
Nevertheless, the visitors looked like a team that could well go down this afternoon and yet I very much doubt that has been said too often about them so far this season. So, should more credit be given to City, are we better than many on the messageboards and other social media platforms make us out to be?
My cop out type answer to that is we are and we aren’t, but let me try and explain that. Although we look vulnerable from set pieces at times, a goals against record of nineteen in seventeen matches is perfectly acceptable – there are only six sides in the Championship that have let in less. We usually play with a midfield three and, increasingly, that trio is Joe Ralls, Andy Rinomhota and Ryan Wintle. Okay, they’re a bit samey, but they contribute to that decent defensive record and I rate them the best combination we’ve had in that area in recent years – they’re not an outstanding threesome by Championship standards, but they’re a lot better than bottom three level.
Add in a goalkeeper who is a reassuring presence and excellent with the ball at his feet, a talented and intelligent wide player in Callum O’Dowda and that’s a base to build a middle third Championship team around.
You don’t have to be a genius to see where the problem lies though – thirteen goals scored in those seventeen games with nearly half of them coming in the wins over Middlesbrough and Wigan speaks for itself.
Today’s game encapsulated the yes and no character of the team – comfortable at the back, dominant in midfield and profligate in front of goal. Furthermore, another stat from today had us being “successful” with just three out of twenty seven crosses.
The biggest indictment today was the familiar one of not taking chances. The cause was not helped by a lack of intelligent movement which might have led to more than three crosses being “successful”.
Things like Mark Harris and Sheyi Ojo making what was more or less the same near post run in the second half, Harris, Ojo and Wintle butchering a great opportunity to make it 2-0 soon after we’d finally got our goal, Ojo getting caught offside when a Harris shot inside the first two minutes was palmed into his path by Rotherham keeper Victor Johansson (maybe I’m being a bit harsh with that one) and the same player heading an O’Dowda cross wide from point blank range in the first half.
I’m convinced most other Championship teams would have scored from at least two of those chances and they were all easier than the one we scored from.
So, I suppose what I’m saying is that while I think we’re good enough to survive pretty comfortably in most areas of the pitch, our lack of firepower means that, especially at home, we can’t afford to make any mistakes in our stronger areas. Our keeper, defence and midfield can be good enough to cover up for the shortcomings of our forward players, but it’s not going to work if the boots on the other foot so to speak.
Mind you, it was good to see someone who I was beginning to write off come good with a quality goal to win the game. Jaden Philogene was one of our non performing wingers in my book, but today he did well for the whole forty five minutes he was on the pitch for.
Mark Hudson surprised many by changing his full backs at half time, but he was proved right to do so – the fit again Mahlon Romeo came on for Tom Sang and Philogene replaced Neils N’Kounkou, with O’Dowda moving to left back and it was the two subs that combined to great effect on sixty seven minutes.
Romeo received a pass from Ojo and put over a low cross that was cleared by the Rotherham defence. Luck then worked in our favour as the ball found its way back to Romeo who, this time, volleyed it across to the far post where Philogene, receiving possession some eight yards out, actually moved towards the penalty spot away from goal, then took an age before placing a shot into the top right hand corner of the net.
Having seen replays of the goal, I wouldn’t say that the finish from Philogene was particularly difficult. What was impressive though was how he kept his head while so many others were losing theirs and worked the chance for himself – when a team has gone more than three and a half matches without scoring, panic sets in or at least it should do when a chance like the one Philogene had comes along, instead he was coolness personified.
This win capped a few days of good results for the club as a whole. The under 21s gained a fourth straight win as a strong side beat Colchester 4-1 on Tuesday with Kion Etete, Gavin Whyte, Jaden Philogene and Ollie Tanner scoring. Colchester we’re also the opponents for our under 18s this lunchtime as a couple of goals by Tanatswa Nyakuwha and one by Morgan Wigley secured a 3-0 win.