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By winning last week at Nottingham Forest, it seemed to me that, for the first time this season, we’d worked our way into the race for a top six place. Seven days later, after having to come from behind twice to record a 3-2 home win over the Championship’s bottom side, Barnsley, it, paradoxically, feels less like that despite a rise to eighth and a gap that is now only one point from sixth placed Preston.
Today’s game really did send out mixed signals. For long periods, especially in the second half, we were second best to a Barnsley side that looked to be in something of a false position when it came to attacking play, but had a frailty at the back which had me thinking that,even when we were really struggling, there could still be, not just a way back into the game, but also the opportunity for all three points.
For City, they did what we are told all successful sides do and that is find way to win when their performance doesn’t merit it, while there was a mirror image for our opponents who found a way to lose inside the final minute of the signalled extra five.
For Barnsley, this was the sort of result that marks out relegation sides in that they went away to a team in good form after experiencing a new manager bounce, attacked bravely, skilfully and pretty successfully and yet were left with nothing thanks to that late, late goal.
The visitors had other reasons to rue their luck. Firstly, when a ball drops out of the sky in the ninety fourth minute, it does so to the Cardiff player they would least like it to – it was a fairly routine strike for this player to find the net for the winning goal, but for many in his side it would be asking too much of them to have delivered like he did.
Secondly, they would almost certainly have been right to think that if the game had been played a month ago, the matchwinner would not have been on the pitch by that time if he had been selected in the starting eleven, because Lee Tomlin was always, and I mean always, substituted by Neil Warnock well before the ninety fourth minute.
Things are different for Tomlin under Neil Harris’ management though. Last week he played the whole game at the City Ground and he was doing it again today with a showing which could probably be called a slow burner because, far from fading out of the game in the manner which Warnock’s handling of him suggested, Tomlin became more influential, and stronger, the longer the match went on.
In fact, after about fifteen minutes, I asked the question “has Tomlin touched the ball yet?”. That question would imply that City were struggling in those early minutes, but they weren’t really as they opened confidently – as you would expect from a team with seven points from their last three matches.
Not only that, City were were knocking the ball around in a pleasing manner – it was as if Warnockball had never existed!
With Nathaniel Mendez-Laing also not enjoying much possession, it was left to Junior Hoilett to provide the “get you up off your seats moments” and the best of those came when he fired a twenty yard shot about a yard over at the end of a thirty yard run into the heart of the Barnsley defence.
The visitors had begun in the way you would have predicted from a team with just two away points out of a possible twenty seven and, as the corners they had to face mounted, it had the feel that this could all be pretty comfortable for City.
There had however been some evidence that Barnsley could be effective going forward and, Hoilett’s effort apart, the closest we had come to seeing a goal came when the very impressive Connor Chaplin, signed from Coventry for a reported fee of under a million pounds in the summer, hit a shot which looked to be goalbound until it was blocked.
Chaplin was to enjoy more luck in the seventeenth minute when Barnsley won the ball around the halfway line and moved forward in slick fashion to create a situation where Bahre was able to play the forward in to score with a shot calmly rolled past Neil Etheridge.
This wasn’t in the script, but Neil Harris had spoken in his pre game press conference about Barnsley being a dangerous young side that could attack with pace and accuracy.
With the confidence of that goal behind them, Barnsley proceeded to show for much of the rest of the game that they were a more effective attacking unit than City in terms of urgency and teamwork – City have their share of attacking pace, but it always seems to be applied in an individualistic way with those most responsible for adding that speed tending to be somewhat erratic performers.
That said, it only took City three minutes to equalise as they moved the ball well to Hoilett out on the left who swung in a cross which Aden Flint challenged for, but the defender’s rather half hearted goal celebration tended to suggest the last touch had come off opposing centreback Bambo Diaby – I should say Flint has since claimed the goal and, if he gets it, it will be the fiftieth of his career.
Nevertheless, the goal couldn’t disguise the fact that City were more laboured in their build up play than their opponents who were now also beginning to make us look slower to challenges and second balls.
Gary Madine was denied that so elusive first Cardiff goal by a linesman’s flag, but Woodrow with a shot that almost proved too hot for Etheridge, Chaplin with a shot wide and Woodrow again caused flutters in the City back line as half time was reached at 1-1.
Although the score felt about right to me, I think most in the crowd would have expected City to go on and take control in the second half, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
City began the second period in such a lethargic and, dare I say, complacent manner. After the game, Neil Harris admitted his team had not played well and suggested he may have been to blame for that because he had worked them so hard through a week which did not contain a midweek match, but, if that was what he thought at half time, his attempts to change things did not work at all.
Barnsley were first to the ball from the restart and were also finding a worrying amount of space. For example, Chaplin was in glorious isolation on the right of the penalty area when he fired in a fierce cross which Diaby challenged in much the same manner as Flint had done for the equaliser, but, again, the decisive touch looked to come off a defender with Lee Peltier having to be debited with an own goal I’m afraid.
It had taken just two minutes of the second half for Barnsley to hit the front again and, this time, City’s reaction wasn’t as urgent or impressive as the last time they’d gone behind. In fact, the next twenty minutes offered a return to the worst days of this season as simple passes were misplaced, poor first touches were taken advantage of and there was an alarming amount of empty space for opponents to run into behind our midfield.
On top of that, Neil Etheridge was having one of his bad kick days, so that, even when City tried to knock it long to Madine, the ball was often landing some ten to twenty yards short of him.
During this period, City were grateful to Flint in particular for some effective last ditch defending. If his team had conceded a third goal, then the game would have, almost certainly, have been gone, but, such was the paucity of even the most basic of elements of football from Cardiff, it felt at times like Barnsley had already done enough to win.
Josh Murphy replacing Hoilett did little to change how the game was going, but after an hour or more of minimal involvement with only the most fleeting reminders of his ability, Lee Tomlin began to become an influence on proceedings.
He was probably helped in this by the introduction of the more mobile Danny Ward for Madine because his off the ball work opened up spaces for the playmaker to exploit.
This was shown to good effect within three minutes of the change as Tomlin set up Ward for City’s second equaliser of the game. It was hard not to feel sympathy for Madine who had toiled away for little reward only to see the man who replaced him score so soon after he had left the field. Madine would not have presented Tomlin with the target to aim for that Ward did though as the player Neil Harris called City’s “magic man” showed a surprising burst of speed, as well as strength, to keep clear of a couple of defenders and then slip an exquisite pass through to Ward who calmly shot past the advancing Samuel ?ahin-Radlingercing to net his fifth goal of the season.
Ward had certainly livened City’s front line up, but there still wasn’t a great deal of evidence that they could find a winning goal until Tomlin was further fired up by a clash with defender Mads Andersen which saw both men given yellow cards.
Shortly afterwards, Tomlin created space for himself to hit a shot which looked to have beaten Sahin-Radlingercing, but flew the wrong side of a post and then a snap shot from Pack following a corner flew over.
City had now switched to a much more direct approach as they hunted a winner and, with Flint spending more time in the Barnsley penalty area than his own, it was the giant centre half who was looking their main hope of a goal.
In a way that’s how things worked out, because he was able to get his head to a cross from Mendez-Laing that would have cleared many in the City team and send the ball up into the air from where it dropped onto Tomlin’s right foot for the volleyed winner.
So, City go into a testing run of games before Christmas which sees them visit Brentford and Leeds in the next week before entertaining Preston in a fortnight. It may be that we’ll be back to square one by then, but there is more resilience in the side under Neil Harris and confidence levels have to have risen after taking ten points from four matches – we should be able to tell a lot more about where we stand after Griffin Park on Wednesday.
There was also a good result for City’s Under 18s at Leckwith this lunchtime when they beat Ipswich 3-0. I travelled by train to Cardiff this morning from Treherbert and this means that I tend to arrive for Academy matches some twenty minutes after they kick off -I was told when I arrived that I hadn’t missed much in the way of goalmouth action, but Ipswich were looking slightly the more dangerous.
What soon became clear was that the visitors were generally bigger and stronger than us, but they were unable to make these advantages count during a first half where there was precious little to indicate City had a goal in them either.
With hindsight, there was a telling moment just before half time when City midfielder Tom Chiabi limped off to be replaced by Rubin Colwell. The change had no impact in what little time remained of the first period, but, straight from the restart, Colwill threaded a lovely ball inside the full back to Isaak Davies who burst down the right and laid a goal on a plate for Taz Mayembe who tapped in from about eight yards.
There couldn’t have been more than fifteen seconds between the referee’s whistle to restart the game and the ball hitting the net and City, and Mayembe in particular, responded by playing some superb stuff in which their superior attacking skill and pace came to the fore.
Mayembe was as impressive as I’ve seen him during this period as he showed a willingness to pass and cross early when it would have been so easy for someone so young to become a little self indulgent when they were playing so well – I know for a fact that’s what I would have done at his age if I’d had anything like his ability!
This quality was seen to great effect eight minutes after the opening goal when some fine passing found him in space on the left and he flighted over a lovely cross which Davies diverted in at the far post to make it 2-0.
A fine save by keeper Bort denied Tristan Jones after the central defender got his head to a corner as City chased a third goal in ten minutes, then Bort saw a Harry Pinchard free kick from out near the corner flag hit the outside of a post and bounce out for a goal kick out as a visiting side which had a much better record than City going in to the game, looked to be in danger of disintegrating.
There were a couple of Mayembe crosses just out of the reach of Davies before Ipswich finally showed some signs of getting back into the game with about twenty minutes left. In fact Ipswich striker Simpson was very unlucky not to score when he lobbed over City keeper Bradley Stewart and looked to have a simple task to net when his effort came back off the post, but the bounce off the upright was more fierce than he anticipated and the ball went past him and to a grateful defender.
It was probably frustration which fuelled Stewart’s fierce shot shortly afterwards which drew a good save from Stewart, but any hopes of a comeback were dashed inside the last ten minutes when City broke to great effect and, after combining with sub James Crole, Mayembe rounded Bort and rolled in the third goal for his team.
This game was by way of a dress rehearsal for a Youth Cup game between the teams which will, apparently, be played next Saturday with a 3 o clock kick off – this story confirms that the match will be played at Cardiff City Stadium and there will be a small charge for admission.
City will certainly have a chance of progressing if Mayembe plays and is half as good as he was in the second half today. Besides the qualities I’ve mentioned already, he also showed a great team ethic as he was willing to track back when Ipswich were threatening to get back into the game late on – there were others who impressed today, but it really was a stand out performance by the sixteen year old.
Just to mention there were wildly contrasting fortunes for Ton Pentre and Blaenrhondda this weekend. The first named were trounced 7-0 at Goytre last night, while the latter were 8-0 winners at Caerau this afternoon. Therefore, Ton Pentre continue to look in a precarious position near the bottom of the Welsh League South, while Blaenrhondda are consolidating their position in the top half of the Premier Division of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance following their promotion last season.
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