Since Paul Wilkinson took charge, City have generally favoured fielding sides full of youngsters in reserve team matches, but I don't think they have ever put out as inexperienced a side as they did today during that time. Whilst there were three players with first team experience in Howard, Glombard and McDonald only Jamal Easter of the others was too old for the Academy Under 18 team and left back Ashley Buswell and centre back Anthony Acheampong had not made very many appearances at even that level - the side also featured Scott McCoubrey who I had confidently forecast this morning was on his way out at Ninian Park after having had a trial with the jacks!
Although City stuck to a 4-4-2 formation, they spent the first half playing a half Dutch type of total football - I say half Dutch because while the continual switching of positions by the front six players put you in mind of Cruyff, Neeskens and co, the quality of the football on offer did not!
In saying that, it would be wrong to be too critical of the team because with the very young back four, understandably, concentrating mainly on getting the basics right, there was little opportunity for controlled football to be played - the young City defenders were certainly competitive and this was emphasised around the half hour mark when Acheampong and right back Lloyd Evans collided in mid air while jumping for a ball with the result that Evans had to be replaced by Anthony Cook who I believe has played for the Under 18s even less times than Buswell and Acheampong had.
As for the football in the first half, Rovers tended to dominate possession and territory, but had little in the way of an end product with only a shot just over from Groves threatening the City goal. By contrast, City looked far more dangerous despite not having too much of the ball - Luigi Glombard has been a disappointment at first team level, but here he was definitely the best attacker on the pitch.
Glombard first made an impact around the quarter of an hour mark when his speed took him clear of the Rovers defence and he calmly rolled the ball beyond keeper Green to put City ahead. Shortly after that, his pace took him clear in the same inside left channel and this time he put a low cross over which beat the keeper but was scrambled out for a corner before it reached the unmarked Kyle Bassett and then he fed Bassett whose shot across goal flew just wide. City also came close when, during the five minutes of added time due to Evans' injury, James Simpson's 30 yard free kick flashed just over with the keeper looking beaten.
Half time brought an influx of people turning up expecting the usual two o clock kick off, one of whom was a Rovers fan who I spent the second half talking to so you will be relieved to know the my second half report should end being much shorter than my first half one!
I mentioned to the Rovers fan that it looked a very inexperienced team they were putting out and told him that I only recognised the names of ex City players Ryan Green and Byron Anthony and, for some reason, the name Sean Rigg appeared familiar to me - he explained to me that Rigg was the player who was fouled so badly during Rovers FA Cup match at Barrow earlier in the season that the culprit was given a jail sentence for, I think, GBH (he also mentioned that Rigg was his seond cousin!).
I also asked him his opinion of Byron Anthony and was told that he rated him Rover's best defender this season and he thought there may be a chance that a bigger club could come in for him during the summer (apparently, Anthony was only playing today because he was coming back from an injury) - he was also pretty complimentary about Lennie Lawrence who watched the match from the Director's Box!
Anyway back to the football, Rovers again had a fair bit of possession but barely looked like scoring - Preece skied a decent chance high and wide and Rigg worked his way into the box to force a corner out of Howard, but that was about it. Up the other hand, City had two very good penalty shouts denied when the ref decided Glombard had been fouled on the edge of the box (I wasn't sure it was a foul, but the incident definitely took place in the box) and then Bassett went down for what looked an obvious spot kick only for a corner to be given. Besides that Glombard wriggled past a defender on the bye line and appeared to hit the post from what seemed an impossible angle, but there were no more real chances besides that.
As I have already mentioned, Luigi Glombard did stand out on the
day that the Echo broke the story that we are, apparently, going to release him at the end of the season, but, besides him, I think the back four of Evans (James Simpson slotted into right back after he went off), Acheampong, captain Bradley Middleton and Buswell deserve some praise - you didn't see much in the way of silky skills or bringing the ball out from the back from them, but they got the job done and, when you consider that their average age was probably something like 17 and a half, they should be given a lot of credit for that.