It sounds daft when you consider that we’re talking about a team that were bottom of the table with five points from nine games, with four scored and eighteen conceded as they created records for the club’s worst ever start, but anyone who witnessed their twenty minute purple patch in their last game against Bristol City at Ashton Gate would not have been totally surprised by Cardiff City’s 5-0 home win over Plymouth Argyle today.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying such a victory had been coming, more that, unlike anything I’d seen since they went in 3-0 up at half time at a dreadful Blackpool in what was a crucial relegation showdown late in the 22/23 campaign, I thought this was a side that could put an opponent to the sword given a strong following wind and a plentiful supply of rabbit’s paws.
Yes, there was that 4-0 win at Huddersfield this time last year, but there was something a bit freakish about that game, the home team had more of the ball and had more shots, while the on target efforts figure was 6-6 – we deserved to win, but it wasn’t really a 4-0 type of game.
As for our last really big win at home, that was the 4-0 against Peterborough in February 2022 and the fact that after Joe Ralls had scored the first goal, our next three were scored by Aden Flint, Jordan Hugill and Uche Ikpeazu tells the story of the type of victory it was – again, we were worthy winners, but it was very much Cardiff City of the past ten years sort of stuff in that we overpowered them.
That short spell at Bristol a fortnight ago hinted at something else though. For a while, the wurzels were chasing shadows as they hung on to our coat tails and our dominance had little to do with strength and/or power, we were out footballing them.
Could we have maintained that form if caretaker manager Omer Riza had not changed things by opting to go defensive? It’s a question which cannot be answered for sure, but today suggests we could have done.
I made it clear that I felt Riza cost us two points at Bristol and, at the time, I was sure that if he was still in the dug out when fixtures restarted after the international break, it would be back doing his old coaching job under a new manager.
Well, that’s not what happened, Riza is still interim manager as the Cardiff hierarchy ummed and arred about and nothing happened of any significance in the extended period between games.
Now, it might be that Messrs Tan, Dalman and Choo have struck it lucky with their inaction over the past fortnight (their record when it comes to selecting new managers over a very long period means I can’t give them any credit for their apparent show of faith in Riza).
This was the most enjoyable and entertaining football I’ve seen from a Cardiff team since the early days of our 17/18 promotion season and, having been critical of Omer Riza after the Bristol game, I have to say that if he could consistently produce a Cardiff City side that played in the manner we did today, my thinking would be give him the manager’s job tomorrow!
Clearly, we’re not going to make a habit of winning 5-0 and playing so well, but we’ll be climbing the table if we can maintain the average level of performance seen in the four games under Riza (even in the heavy defeat at Hull, there were positives to be taken from attacking play that was a definite upgrade on what was seen under the totally unlamented Erol Bulut).
Of course, City’s cause today got a lot of help from their opponents having one of those days when absolutely nothing goes right for them and, to their great credit, the sizeable Plymouth contingent made the best of what was a thoroughly miserable ninety minutes.
Plymouth have beaten Sunderland, Luton and Blackburn in their last three home games, scoring eight goals in the process and, even though their away record is poor, their previous three matches had seen them draw 1-1 at QPR in a match where they finished with nine men and there were narrow 1-0 losses at high riding West Brom and Burnley.
So, Argyle are no mugs, but with manager Wayne Rooney banished to the stands following his red card in their last game, they were second best here to a City side playing with a verve and confidence that has only been seen very rarely on their own patch in recent seasons.
However, even then, it was Plymouth who should have scored first as they played through us with a worrying ease and Michael Obafemi, who was instrumental in Swansea’s 4-0 win here a few weeks after that win over Peterborough I mentioned earlier, really should have put his effort on target at the very least, rather than guide his shot from ten yards wide.
Within about fifteen minutes of Plymouth’s best chance of the afternoon, they were facing a huge challenge for a team with only one league away goal so far as, very unusually, City cashed in while playing well at home to score, while adding a second soon after was, in all likelihood, unheard of before today during this decade!
Plymouth looked to be reaching the haven of the half time dressing room at least thinking they’d could come out and have a real good go at overturning their two goal deficit, but then they found themselves reduced to ten men in the forty first minute.
Rooney, while conceding that his team had been well beaten, was not happy with the part Perry Ng played in getting Ibrahim Cissoko dismissed. Cissoko had been fouled by Ollie Tanner and Ng’s subsequent forceful clearance struck the Plymouth man as he lay on the floor. Cissoko then sprang to his feet, grabbed Ng by the throat with both hands and pushed him away – it was clearly violent conduct and referee Andrew Kitchen had no option but to show the red card.
However, the fact that Kitchen also yellow carded Ng rather suggests that he thought the City man had hit the ball at Cissoko deliberately and so Rooney may have had a point when he suggested Ng should have been shown a red card as well.
Did Ng aim at Cissoko? All I’ll say is that he’s the City player most would think of when asked who would be most likely to do that.
So, the visitors found themselves two down at the break having to face the next forty five minutes with ten men – that’s a recipe for potential disaster that can lead to a final outcome like today’s- it wouldn’t have done under the previous City manager and, after the Bristol game, I would have doubted it would have under Riza, but, fair play to him, he recognised an opportunity to partially improve our awful goal difference and made attacking substitutions this time.
I thought Joel Bagan was hard done by when he was left out for Callum O’Dowda and, in the other change from the Bristol starting eleven, injuries to Joe Ralls and Manolis Siopis meant that, surprisingly to me, it was David Turnbull and not Andy Rinomhota who came in to replace the captain.
In the event, O’Dowda justified his selection and Turnbull had his best game yet for City as he did an unobtrusively effective job, while almost netting his first competitive goal for the club when his well struck shot deflected on to the crossbar via a defender’s head.
Nevertheless, Rubin Colwill and Alex Robertson were better than Turnbull. Colwill has been given a ten out of ten marking by Wales Online. I’ll just say that, with a goal and two assists, this has to be his best game yet for City as, this time, there was an end product to all of the skills and touches that make him more appreciated by supporters than he has been by most of his managers.
That said, until he got a little careless in the closing stages, Robertson was running Colwill close, he’s turning out to be exactly the sort of player I hoped he would be – one piece of play in the firs5 half when he took a short goal kick by Jac Alnwick, burst past an opponent and pinged a perfect fifty yard pass out to O’Dowda, I think it was, was bloody world class!
Under Bulut, I got used to being able to describe any chances we had in some detail because we’d have so few of them, but I won’t be doing that here because we had twenty five shots, eleven of them on target, and an incredible forty three touches in the Plymouth penalty area!
Therefore, I’ll just be describing the goals here. The first arrived on sixteen minutes when Colwill picked up the ball on the corner of the penalty area, drifted inside an opponent and laid back a pass that Robertson did not have to break stride for as his sweetly struck effort from twenty yards found the corner of the net for his first league goal for the club.
Goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw made a smart near post save to deny Tanner shortly afterwards , but he got nowhere near the second goal on twenty four minutes when Colwill, fastened on to a headed clearance, beat an opponent and then calmly placed a left foot shot in from around the penalty spot – it was his first league goal for nearly a year and was taken so deftly that it only served to emphasise that it was ridiculous that he has had to wait so long for a goal since his beauty against the wurzels last season.
Colwill only lasted a quarter of an hour into the second half as he was withdrawn with Tuesday’s game with Portsmouth in mind, but that was enough for him to kill off any Argyle hopes of a far fetched comeback. Colwill was found by Tanner in the fifty second minute and he knocked Dario Gyabi aside before rolling over a low cross which Anwar El Ghazi swept into the roof of the net from a couple of yards out.
Chris Willock was brought on to replace Colwill and, playing more centrally than normal, he influenced the game more than he has done up to now. Willock’s good pass released the in form Callum Robinson who never looked like missing really as he ran into the area to shoot wide of Grimshaw on seventy five minutes – an emotional Robinson then pulled his shirt up to reveal a t shirt with a tribute to his ex Sheffield United team mate George Baldock who died at the age of only 31 about ten days ago.
Five minutes later, City scored their second league set piece goal of the season and their only one here as Robertson’s delivery found its way to Willock who became the third City player on the day to score a league goal for the club when volleyed from eighteen yards and his shot bounced into the corner to complete the scoring and record City’s first five goal haul since beating Rotherham by the same score in 2017.
There was still time for Grimshaw to make his best save of the afternoon to deny Robinson cementing his position as top scorer this season, but it had still been the most entertaining and enjoyable performance I’d seen from a City side since their wins over the likes of Villa, Sheffield United, Wolves and Leeds early in the 17/18 promotion season.
Meanwhile, it was a stalemate for the under 18s at Leckwith this lunchtime as they fought out a 0-0 draw with Charlton and the under 21s were in action on Thursday with a 2-0 win at Watford in the League Cup – Dakarai Mafico scored a rare goal to give us the lead and Isaac Jeffries got the second one.