Cardiff City took their unbeaten run to five matches tonight, but at the same time ticked another of those boxes that mark them out as a probable relegation team. Struggling sides at home against an out of form team that are looking like one of the worst visiting outfits seen all season simply have to win when they go 1-0 up. City didn’t, they conceded with three minutes left, then tried their best to lose the point they had as baffling substitutions left them hanging on through the five minutes of added time as the opposition, Watford, realised they had a chance of snatching a ridiculous win given how ninety per cent of the match panned out.
Watford looked like a team that had lost four straight matches and for all but the final eight minutes or so seemed resigned to their fate. Although the BBC’s stats, surprisingly, indicate a very even game, City won the physical battle throughout and when they scored on sixty five minutes, it seemed there’d only be one winner, but that was the signal for them to take a backward step and, although they looked comfortable enough in the following twenty minutes, this is a team that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in the league for three months. So, although the desire to preserve the lead was understandable to an extent, City were well on top when they scored and a second goal looked on the cards.
City continued with Rubin Colwill leading the attack and this time he played more like a proper nine than a false one, but, in a very poor first half, all they did despite generally edging it was show the sort of lack of attacking understanding and combination play that has plagued them at home in particular this season.
It took Watford eighty seven minutes to get an effort on goal, and it earned them their point, so there was little from them to suggest a goal, but, by the same token, they were comfortable at the back as City’s attacking limitations gave them hardly anything to worry about.
We did have the only two on target efforts of the half. In saying that, Alex Robertson’s dribbler from twenty yards may have been going just wide as Jonathan Bond dived to make an easy save, but the keeper was much more impressive in turning Chris Willock’s shot from the corner of the penalty area aside as the winger tried to bend his effort into the far corner.
The first forty five minutes looked like either a 0-0 or one of those games that would produce just the one decisive goal, but the second period suggested one of the two teams could go on to win more comfortably than that.
It’s not been very often this season, particularly at home, when you could suggest that a City goal was coming, but, after a quiet first ten minutes or so, that’s how it felt as the game neared the hour mark.
Watford had escaped when a Robertson corner bounced free just short of their line only for defender Matt Pollock to scramble the ball clear. Shortly after that, Colwill’s shot from twenty yards was not cleanly struck, but rolled only a yard or so wide and then, when Jesper Daland headed down to Perry Ng, the full back’s volley from around the penalty spot was diverted around the post by a defender.
Next, Colwill was inches away from reaching a Dimi Goutas header when any sort of contact must have seen him score, but, just as I was beginning to think that all of the pressure would come to nothing, the player who seems to me to be the only one in the senior squad who can challenge Callum Robinson for the title of best finisher showed the others how to do it.
There was luck involved as ricochets helped Robertson and our best player on the night, Callum Chambers, but when the ball found it’s way to Cian Ashford, he took a touch and then finished crisply from fifteen yards.
That should have been that and, although City’s attacking intent was quite substantially reduced after that, they still had two great chances to make the points safe. The forst came when Ollie Tanner, on as a sub for Willock, gave Pollock the chance to clear for a corner with a pass aimed at the unmarked Robertson that was not good enough and then when Ashford was somewhat greedy, understandable in view of his confidence at the moment maybe, when he opted to shoot instead of passing to better placed colleagues inside him.
Tanner had come on a few minutes after our goal and he was followed ten minutes later by Yakou Meite coming on for Colwill. However, surprisingly, Omer Riza delayed any other substitutions until almost the very end as Joel Bagan and Joe Ralls were ready to come on as defensive substitutes for Robertson and Ashford when Watford launched an attack.
City defenders had been getting first contact on balls into our box and down the channels all night, but when Andy Rinomhota was penalised for a foul out on our left some thirty yards from goal, City were grateful for Meite’s sliced clearance past the far post as a couple of Watford players closed in on a dangerous dead ball delivery.
The resultant corner saw City struggle to clear and an isolated Callum O’Dowda was made to pay for not getting to the ball first as Kwadko Baah got to the bye line and crossed for the unmarked Vakoun Bayo to head in from inside the six yard box.
If that was a real kick in the guts, Riza’s decision to go ahead with the substitutions he had planned at 1-0 was just bizarre- this was a game we had to win and yet he went ahead with his shut up shop changes with the result that we barely crossed the halfway line after that.
Indeed Watford could have won it as Jak Alnwick had to make a good save to keep out a shot by sub Rocco Vata and so, although our point takes us out of the bottom three, it’s now five victories out of twenty six and we’ve got no chance of staying up unless that win rate starts to improve quite dramatically.
Sadly, it seems the mid season break has had a negative effect on the under 21s who had been the bright spot of this miserable campaign. While the 5-1 thumping at Ipswich last week was understandable to a large extent because of the number of Academy youngsters involved, it was a much stronger team in action at Leckwith this afternoon against league leaders Brentford, but they could have few complaints about a 3-0 loss that didn’t flatter the visitors at all. I thought Dylan Lawlor did pretty well on what was a testing afternoon and Isaac Jeffries showed up well in attack at times, but there was little to enthuse about as it begins to look as if our second string might be in for a difficult second half to the season.