ust before the first lockdown in March of last year when Storm Dennis was pounding the Rhondda Valley with trains cancelled and roads flooded, I decided it was not worth battling the elements to try and get to Cardiff City Stadium to watch the game with Wigan (ironically, the weather in the capital was not that bad with not that much rain about as Keiffer Moore scored twice to grab a point for the visitors).
It was the first home game I’d missed for a reason other than illness or injury in the twenty first century, but a spell had been broken and I find now that, after all that has happened in the past eighteen months, things like making sure I get to every single game City play at home does not seem as important as it once did.
So, I was never going to go to tonight’s First Round League Cup tie with Sutton even though it would have been nice to add another name to the list of sides I’ve seen us play. City have taken me and other supporters who have attended cup games in recent years for mugs with a series of couldn’t care less performances from teams picked by couldn’t care less managers and so, probably not for the last time this season, I decided to give it a miss.
Of course, after all of those losses I’ve seen in this competition since we reached the Final in 2012 and the FA Cup during the same period, it turns out that we actually go and win the one I miss and, judging by Radio Wales’ commentary, it was quite lively and entertaining fare as we came out on top 3-2.
So, there’ll be none of the usual moaning from me about our style of play tonight (thank God I hear you say!) because I wasn’t there to see how well or badly we passed it or how long or far we booted it up the pitch.
However, based on what I heard in the opening forty five minutes, it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that we were very fortunate to be on level terms at 1-1 after forty minutes because, after taking a very early lead, it seemed like Sutton had all of the worthwhile scoring opportunities until the final few seconds of the half.
The second period sounded more comfortable, but, even then, Sutton were still carrying a threat which saw them come very close in the final stages to taking the game to penalties- a shots on target count of 6-3 in Sutton’s favour tends to confirm that this was no routine victory for the “giants” in the tie.
Still City won on a night when, as usual, a fair few Championship teams came a cropper against lower ranked outfits and they did so with a team which showed nine changes from the one which got the league campaign under way against Barnsley on Saturday.
Alex Smithies, Sean Morrison, Tom Sang and Will Vaulks, back from suspension, all saw their first competitive action of the campaign, but it was the two players making their debuts which attracted most comment.
Teenage left back/wing back Tom Davies was an unexpected first young debutant in a season where the impression being given is that there will be a fair number of them. I wish I could give you an opinion on Davies based on how often I’ve seen him performing in age group football, but I can’t because I didn’t see any live Under 18 football at all last season and he was barely involved with the Under 23s.
Nearly all I’d seen of Davies prior to tonight was in pre season friendlies and I thought he formed an impressive partnership down the left with Lee Tomlin in the 2-2 draw with Exeter. Tonight, it sounded like he struggled early on, but grew into the game – he came as close to scoring as anyone in the first until our very late equaliser and Danny Gabbidon was purring on Radio Wales about the assist he provided for our third goal.
The other debut was given to someone who was at the opposite end of the spectrum to Davies as Marley Watkins, who had been training with the club for a few weeks and had featured in at least two of our pre season matches started after signing a short term contract until the end of the month.
When the side was announced, I was among quite a few on the messageboards who were critical of both the decision to give Watkins a contract and to include him in the team. Now, as this piece goes on, it will become clear that those of us who voiced our reservations about Watkins have been left with egg on our faces somewhat tonight. However, I maintain that giving a contract, even one lasting a month, to a thirty year old who has just been released by the team who were the worst in the Championship through the second half of last season is typical of the short termism that has got the club into the position where we have too many very well paid veterans or near veterans that nobody is interested in buying because they couldn’t match the wages we pay.
Anyway, on to the game and City, who seemed to have played about a quarter of the teams in League Two this season in the last few weeks, once again conceded early to a side from two divisions below them and it sounded like the goal had some similarities with the one Barnsley scored against us three days ago. I say that because one moment Vaulks was hurling in his first long throw into an opposition penalty area of the season and the next keeper Dean Bouzanis was launching a long clearance for lively winger Dave Ajiboye to run on to and he got the better of Davies to lay on a cross for Donovan Wilson that enabled him to score easily from close range.
City had nothing to offer in response as a rusty looking Morrison endured a difficult half an hour or so and Smithies did well to deny Wilson a second, while Harry Beautyman was inches away from doubling the EFL new boys’ lead.
Watkins had done nothing noteworthy as half time approached, but when he hit a volley from eighteen yards which provided no more than a moderate challenge to Bouzanis, the Australian let the ball slip through his hands and into the net for a very soft equaliser.
Smithies again had to save well at the start of the second half, but, shortly afterwards, City were in front when Watkins scored a fine goal from more than twenty yards out with a shot placed out of Bouzanis’ reach.
After that, City seemed fairly comfortable even though it didn’t sound like they were doing much that would extend their lead, but the introduction of Rubin Colwill and Josh Murphy on seventy five minutes livened our attacking play up and the latter doubled the lead with ten minutes left when he raced down the left on to Davies’ pass and then cut inside to hit a shot which beat Bouzanis with the aid of a slight deflection.
3-1 would have been very harsh on Sutton and it was in keeping with their performance when Coby Rowe scrambled in a goal on ninety minutes after City failed to deal with a corner and missed two or three chances to clear the ball.
Smithies had to save his side again when he blocked a shot from around ten yards and then A far post header just wide with seconds left from the resultant corner had the visitors cursing their luck and City relieved, but we held on to go into the draw for the Second Round which takes place after Wednesday’s matches in the competition.
Just one other thing about the match, it was mentioned in the commentary that Sutton manager Matt Gray had been a youth player at City in the early noughties at the time Danny Gabbidon was playing for us. Danny was asked about the man in charge of City’s opponents, but said that, despite researching him, Gray’s name meant nothing to him and he couldn’t recall him from his time with City. I can only echo what Danny says, it would have been a little before I became a regular at home Under 18 matches, but I can’t remember someone called Matt Gray ever being associated with the club.
It’s the time of year again when I ask readers of Mauve and Yellow Army to make a contribution towards its running costs. Before I go into detail about this, I should, once again, offer my sincere thanks to all of you who have helped ensure the future of the blog over the past three years through a mixture of monthly payments via Patreon, monthly Standing Orders into my bank account and once a year payments via bank transfer, PayPal, cheque and cash.
The first time I made this request for assistance, it was prompted by a need for funds to pay for three yearly web hosting costs which, frankly, I was in no position to meet following my move of house a few months earlier. However, I’m pleased to say that, this time around, the web hosting bill was settled back in June with none of the problems there were back in 2018.
Therefore, any monies received this year will go towards other running costs and, although it’s too early yet to make any formal commitments despite so many of the pandemic restrictions in Wales being lifted yesterday, I am minded to do another review of a season from the past book to follow on from “Real Madrid and all that” which looked back on the 1970/71 campaign. At the moment 1975/76, the first promotion season I experienced, looks to be favourite for the book treatment, which would mean a lot more trips back and forth to Cardiff than my finances have become used to over the past year and a half – hopefully, the majority of them will not have to be made via Radyr Cheyne!
As always, the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation towards its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site because there will never be any.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, donations can be made through Patreon, PayPal, by bank transfer, cheque, Standing Order/Direct Debit and cash, e-mail me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com for further payment details.