My liking for quirky footballing statistics means that I was a little disappointed with Cardiff City’s 2-1 win over Wycombe Wanderers today because, in the season’s penultimate home match, our record of needing to score at least three times to get all three points when we played at Cardiff City Stadium has come to an end.
Still, beggars cannot be choosers and all that – one of the reasons that odd stat survived as long as it did is that we have won so few matches at our own stadium this season. It’s just eight victories in twenty two attempts at home now, so it’s become a case of enjoying any home win you can.
When you think that we were able to become serious Play Off candidates for a while despite an almost season long inability to win1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 at home, it’s something of an achievement I suppose that we find ourselves still in with a chance of finishing the season in seventh position with a couple of matches to play..
However, many of the reasons why I believe such a high final position would flatter us were on show today – there was the usual poor passing (our crossing was really poor for the most part as well), an individual error which led to a goal conceded, a lack of creativity which has meant we have had to maintain a high conversion rate in terms of goals scored as a percentage of on target efforts and a lack of discipline and streetwise thinking which manifests itself in clear and obvious fouls given away- we had the biggest example of the season today when it comes to this one!
Before I go any further though, a few words about Wycombe who now need snookers to stay up – with two matches to play, they’re six points behind the only side they can catch outside of the bottom three and they have a much worse goal difference.
I’m trying to think if I’ve seen a better example of a side punching above their weight more in reaching the second tier than Wycombe in all of my time watching the game, I believe I’m right in saying that they had the smallest budget in the division when they were promoted from League Two and League One in recent years’ let alone the meagre funding they must have had this time around and you have to congratulate Gareth Ainsworth and his players on what’s been a tremendous few years for the club. I wouldn’t write off them coming back to this level again soon either and, if there were any justice, it would be a wretched dodgy Derby side who would go down this season and not them.
Back to the game then and it was good to see Rubin Colwill make a first start for City today. To be honest, I’d been a little suspicious about Mick McCarthy’s motives for bringing the eighteen year old into the first team squad because the first time our manager talked about. him, it seemed to be all about how big he was. Colwill’s pretty fleeting first team appearances had done nothing to dispel a feeling of mine that he was being seen as the closest thing to a back up Keiffer Moore we had at the club.
Now, I’ve watched Colwill play at youth levels for about four years now and in all of that time, I saw nothing to indicate that he was a potential first team centre forward – more importantly, I’m pretty sure the Academy coaching staff didn’t either because I’ve never saw him play there in all of that time. It’s funny, but myself and another regular watcher of City’s Academy team both came to the conclusion separately, but at the same time, that the past City player Colwill reminded us most of was Jason Fowler.
Despite his size, it’s always been what Colwill can do with his feet that marked him out as a prospect – this may change as his career develops if he continues to grow in the next couple of years or so, but, for now, Colwill is definitely at his best as an attacking midfielder, so it was both pleasing and a relief to see him lining up in the number ten role today and I owe our manager an apology for wondering whether he had noticed where the player’s true talents lie.
I’ll admit to being biased here because I’ve flown the flag long and hard for the cause of locally born young players when it comes to first team recognition for what seems like all of the almost twelve years of this blog’s existence, but I think it’s true to say that the only youngsters from South Wales to be given a league debut during the tens decade were Declan John, Tom James and Mark Harris.
Therefore, while accepting I’m probably going over the top a bit here, I thought Colwill was a bit of a revelation on the quiet today. He looked right at home from the start, creating a decent opportunity for the again disappointing Josh Murphy in the first few minutes with the sort of pass that has been missing from our play for much of this season, and for a few before that as well.
Unlike too many of his team mates, there was never the feeling that Colwill did not have the ball fully under control after he’d received a pass – there was an intelligence in his movement, composure on the ball and some lovely examples of what quick and gifted feet he has.
The one disappointment for me in his performance was that he maybe took too many touches when he had a decent chance of marking his memorable day with a goal in the first half. It was also a disappointment to see Colwill withdrawn around the hour mark because it looked like the thinking was that he would only be having sixty minutes on the pitch no matter what happened.
However, for me, something went out of City’s play when Colwill left the pitch – the player that had offered some thought and cleverness in attacking areas had gone and we were back to the familiar hustle and bustle with the hope we could do something with the ball rather than an expectation that we would.
Colwill was more impressive today than he has been in recent Under 23 matches for me and that might be because he stood out in a team that, generally speaking, is not comfortable in possession – when he plays in age group football, he has team mates who are as comfortable on the ball as he is and I’d love to see what the effect would be on the first team if we could get three or four of these youngsters on the pitch at the same time for a while in one of our remaining games.
Moving on, it would not be fair on the rest of today’s team to just write off their contribution – I thought Ciaron Brown did well at left wing back despite not really being a natural in that position, Curtis Nelson was, once again, a dogged and accomplished defender, Joe Ralls, given a chance to play in his best position, shone while looking to play most of his passes forward and, with his confidence enhanced by his two penalties in the past week, Keiffer Moore showed why the City Player of the Season award has to surely be a one horse (man) race this year.
Moore’s first goal midway through the first half had to be his best of the season so far as he moved out on to the right wing to receive a pass, cut inside a defender, then another one towards the corner of the penalty area to deliver one of those shots which starts off quite a way outside of the post before curling into the corner in a manner which leaves the goalkeeper, in this case David Stockdale, without a hope of saving it – here was another example of the fact that, for all of his size and strength, Moore is probably a better player when the ball is played towards his feet than he is when it is launched towards him in the air.
City deserved their lead at the time, but maintaining any superiority has been something of a problem this season and they couldn’t here – Wycombe had been getting back into things and were looking increasingly confident in the minutes leading up to half time when a rare mistake by Perry Ng as he slipped to gift Fred Oyedimna possession enabled the midfielder to burst into the penalty area where the back from injury Sean Morrison, who never quite looked himself after sustaining an arm or elbow injury early on, brought him down for what looked a clear penalty from one camera angle and a case of Morrison playing the ball from another. Referee Matt Donahue decided on the first of those options, thus handing Wycombe a way back into the game.
Around fifteen years ago to the day I think it was, Wycombe captain Joe Jacobson had made his one league appearance for his home town club in a losing cause against Norwich at Ninian Park when Earnie had got the only goal and yet, in much the same manner as Aaron Ramsey with Arsenal, was applauded by the home crowd after scoring it. Now, Jacobson was returning to play for what I think was his first game in Cardiff against us and, having been one of the two defenders who could probably have done better against Moore for the goal, he now had the chance to put his side on level terms.
In truth, Jacobson’s record as a penalty taker always made the stat of no opponent having scored a penalty against us this season, despite them having had four chances to do so, likely to fall and so it did, as he shot virtually down the middle as Alex Smithies dived to his right.
That goal gave Jacobson something to remember in years to come from his return to Cardiff, but, obviously, the afternoon was a disappointment for him as relegation was all but confirmed despite my feeling being through most of a pretty dull second half that if anyone was going to win, it would be Wycombe.
As it was, the visitors were left to rue not having a finisher of Moore’s capability in their ranks as, a fine, long range strike by Marlon Pack which hit the outside of an upright apart, the Welsh international made it twenty league goals for the season for him with our only chance of the second half.
I mentioned our poor crossing before and for a second or two it looked like sub, Leandro Bacuna had added his name to the long list of culprits in that respect as his effort went over the heads of all of those gathered near the goal, but he had noticed Brown unmarked beyond the far post and when his header was deflected into the path of Moore, stood fifteen yards from goal, his finish was low and emphatic first time into the net to become our first striker to twenty since Jay Bothroyd a decade ago.
When you think that Moore was missing through injury for around a month either side of Christmas, it is some achievement for a striker who had never been especially prolific prior to this season and, although he’d probably be considered too old for most Premier League sides to sign these days, I don’t think it’s beyond the bounds of possibility that an exception might be made in his case this summer.
The last twenty minutes or so saw Wycombe forcing the pace in an unsuccessful effort to get the two goals they needed to maintain some hope of escaping the drop and the five minutes of added time at the end provided two things worthy of note. The first was the sight of Stockdale coming forward for four or five corners and him having what looked like a reasonable chance on the near post from one of them and then there was what I’m fairly sure must be a club record set by Will Vaulks.
The midfielder was brought on for Ralls with three of the additional five minutes played in one of those wind down the clock type changes you so often see and yet he was walking off again within what must have been less than a minute after a wild challenge on Curtis Thompson which left referee Donahue with no alternative. but to show the red card – quite what possessed Vaulks I don’t know and, barring a successful appeals (on what grounds I know not), he now faces missing the final two matches of this season and the first one of 21/22 for what must have been the quickest sending off in City’s history.
Returning to Rubin Colwill’s substitution for a sec, he and Murphy made way for Bacuna and Jonny Williams, not Harry Wilson and Sheyi Ojo as would most likely have been the case before now. However, Mick McCarthy confirmed what was pretty inevitable in the lead up to the match by saying that neither of the Liverpool loanees would be with City next season (Wilson for obvious reasons and Ojo probably because he’s just not been consistent enough under this manager after a decent first few months of the campaign under Neil Harris).
Therefore, the omission of both players from the starting eleven today was understandable in many respects, but, on the afternoon when Junior Hoilett, whose non use as a substitute over a period of months has offered the broadest of hints that he won’t be signing another contract with us this summer, finally disappeared from our bench, the presence of Wilson and Ojo seemed somewhat perplexing given their non use today and the manager’s comments the previous day.
Maybe it’s too soon to jump to a conclusion that we’ve seen the last of Wilson and Ojo in a City shirt yet, but with next week’s opponents, Birmingham, now safe from the drop, wouldn’t it make more sense to have, say, Keiron Evans and Isaak Davies, both scorers in last night’s 2-1 Development team win at Nottingham Forest, as substitutes rather than the two soon to be returning loan players? A couple of other snippets from that match, Lee Tomlin played the full ninety minutes and there was a first start at this level for Cian Ashford who is still young enough to be playing for our under 16s this season.
Similarly, Vailks’ absence will, hopefully, see a place on the bench for one of Sam Bowen and Keenan Patten – although I believe the latter may be injured because he’s not played in the last few Under 23 matches.
Finally, the Under 18s, who had a good 4-2 home win over Northern Section leaders Wigan at Leckwith in midweek, were beaten 3-0 this afternoon at Sheffield Wednesday.