There’s been so many Cup games involving City at this time of year that have seen sides containing a mixture of seniors who couldn’t give a toss and juniors who’d never make the step up to our league team bow out of the League Cup in humiliating fashion that they all tend to merge into one grey mess of nothingness.
Tonight’s Second Round tie with a much changed Southampton side from the one beaten in the Premier League on the weekend will not be one of them though – it was a burst of vibrant colour, full of marvellous goals and attacking intent. The outcome may have been the same as in most of those drab League Cup ties over the past dozen years, but more games like Cardiff 3 Southampton 5 and they will need to open more than three blocks of the Ninian Stand for future ties in the early rounds of the League and FA Cups to house the home support!
Yet it felt like it was going to be a long and, possibly, embarrassing night for City when I saw the two teams. Southampton may have made eleven changes, but they had an experienced goalkeeper and back four and it wouldn’t surprise me if they had over a thousand EFL appearances between them. In midfield, there was less experience, but there was a player signed from Sporting Lisbon this summer for £15 million and youngsters with Premier League games behind them. Cameron Archer led the attack and they had Adam Lallana on the bench.
By contrast, City rested all of those who played a part on Sunday at Swansea apart from Alex Robertson who came on for the second half and Rubin Colwill who played for the first hour or so. With most of the youngsters who featured against Bristol Rovers in the First Round included, Adeteye Ghabadian making his debut and a bench which featured six players who would be making a senior team debut if they had come on, City looked to be there for the taking, but, especially in a stirring second half, it didn’t work out that way.
With a schedule reading Sunday afternoon game, Wednesday night game and then one at lunchtime on Saturday, you could understand why Erol Bulut decided not to involve thirteen of the fifteen who featured in the south Wales derby, but why was Colwill, one of the three City players that changed the course of the Swansea match, not only included, but also in from the start?
With Colwill left out of Craig Bellamy’s first Wales squad and the way he was singled out for different treatment by Erol Bulut to so many other first teamers, it was no wonder that he started the game a bit skittishly with a ridiculous shot from a free kick about thirty five yards out from almost on the touch line and shortly afterwards he was booked for slamming the ball to the ground in frustration at a refereeing decision. It was a most unColwill like reaction, but, in between times he scored the best goal of a game full of great goals and made a compelling case for inclusion from the start against Middlesbrough with what I see is being called by some his best performance so far for City. However, I doubt it if it has done the trick for Rubin because our manager is a stubborn man who I think would have been thinking that there was no way he was going to pick any player as a starter against Middlesbrough who started tonight.
For the third straight game, City conceded in the ninth minute when the £15 million one time Sporting Lisbon player, Mateus Fernandes stepped neatly inside a challenge to net from the edge of the penalty area.
The feeling that it was the first of many goals we’d concede increased over the next ten minutes or so until Michael Reindorf ran down something of a blind alley of defenders only for the former Norwich man then to roll the ball into the path of Colwill who produced an amazing shot from twenty five yards out that had the visiting goalkeeper taking a few steps in the wrong direction because of the tremendous swerve he got on the ball – the shot then bounced down and over the line from the under side of the crossbar to add further dramatic effect to the situation.
Remarkably, City then conceded again within another nine minutes -if Colwill’s was the best goal of the lot, then the best team goal was Southampton’s second one which featured a couple of nifty back heals before the ball was laid into the path of Sam Amo Ameyaw who cooly placed his shot beyond Jak Alnwick from twenty yards.
There was a flurry of further goals at the start of the second period as Raheem Conte got to the bye line on the right and put over a cross which keeper Joe Lumley weakly punched on to his team mate Joe Edwards and the ball rolled into the net off the unfortunate defender.
This time it was only seven minutes before City conceded again as Archer was left with too much room by Dimi Goutas and he hammered home from twelve yards. Within what seemed just seconds though, Colwill’s fine left to right cross found the head of Conte who directed the ball back perfectly for Robertson, a half time sub for Ghabadean to volley in from twelve yards out.
City had tended to stand off Southampton through the first half, but now they pressed the Saints into mistakes and I think it’s fair to say that we had the better of the game during the remainder of it played in regulation time despite the fact that the influential Colwill had been replaced by another debutant in Cody Twose with half an hour le (Isaac Jefferies was the only other sub to come on as he also made a first senior appearance when he replaced Ronan Kpakio as Conte switched back to right back)..
With Robertson having by far his best game so far for City driving them forward, they could easily have hit the front for the first time when Cian Ashford raced through on goal after a good advantage played by ref Tom Nield, only for Lumley to make up to some degree for his blunder with City’s second goal by turning the shot away for a corner. Shortly after that, Twose almost made himself a hero with a fierce twenty yarder that had Lumley very worried as the ball flashed about a foot wide of his goal. There were also decent headed opportunities for Goutas and Reindorf that cleared the bar as many of the youngsters involved gave the distinct impression they were enjoying the occasion.
The match went into added time with a penalty shoot out looking a certainty as James Bree’s tremendous twenty five yarder following a half cleared corner flew over Alnwick and into the net with Twose regretting his decision to try and play a short pass rather than looking for Row Z as Bree nipped in to get his shot away.
There was still time for Archer to fire low past Alnwick, who was blameless with all five goals he conceded, to wrap the game up as City had to settle for just complimentary words from the media relating to how they’d given Southampton a real tough game.
I’d back that up because we really did have a go in the second half especially- Southampton probably deserved their win on the overall balance of play, but City’s youngsters showed that they have attacking flair (besides Colwill, Ashford, Conte and Robertson could all be pleased with their performances, while I thought Joel Bagan did well at left back), albeit in an encounter where both defences didn’t seem to place that much of a priority on keeping the ball out of their net.
With so many younger players involved tonight, it was a really inexperienced under 21 team that took on Fleetwood at Cardiff City Stadium yesterday afternoon. City, a lot smaller in stature than their opponents were made to work hard for what was a notable win considering it was more like an under 18 side they were fielding.
Morgan Wigley is a name I’ve not mentioned much lately because he was out for a long spell last season with injury, but he was the difference between the teams here as he scored the first goal and then laid one on for Baylin Johnson to record a second straight win to follow on from their defeat against Sheffield Wednesday