I must admit I didn't pay as much attention as normal to the game today because I was talking to an old school friend throughout the match. However, it was another very disappointing result for our under achieving reserves.
To be fair to them though, this was a much improved performance from last week and, frankly, the City were robbed. Swansea were under pressure throughout and only a combination of desperate defending, poor finishing and bad luck stopped the City getting a deserved win.
Once again though, City's defensive work left a lot ot be desired and after an encouraging start they fell behind to Swansea's first real attack when a cross from the left was taken down and lashed in by Corbislero with no City defender within yards of him.
After that, the match continued as before with City having nearly all of the chances and they came closest to equalising when Nicky Fish hit the post with a header, Stuart Fleetwood and Layton Maxwell also went close, but it was Swansea who were to score next as Pritchard headed in unchallenged from close range.
There was less action in the second half and although Gavin Gordon scored easilly with a header from a Maxwell corner, apart from the occasional goalmouth scramble, Swansea looked far more comfortable at the back than they had done in the first forty five minutes.
The game ended with sdomething of a whimper and although the City were very unlucky today, the fact is that they were playing a Third Division outfits reserve team (and a pretty young and inexperienced one at that) and, again, you came away thinking that, while the first team is prospering at the moment, there isn't a great deal to get excited about below them.
A few other thoughts, Layton Maxwell didn't play that badly today and I was again impressed by Nicky Fish. Spencer Prior left the field after about twenty minutes because he had been called up to the England squad as Rio Ferdinand's replacement (oh hang on, apparently he was injured!). However I doubt if it was anything that serious because he walked off the field with no problems, unlike the Swansea player Jack King who was carried off on a stretcher in the first half with a nasty looking injury. Gary Croft made a quiet comeback and looks like he will need a few more games before he is ready for first team action.
One last thing, there were four of us sat together watching the game and we seemed to surrounded on all sides by jacks supporters, there must have been at least twenty of them there, by far the biggest away "firm" to attend a reserve game in the last few years!
Cardiff City
Barrett, Croft, Huggins, Prior, Anthony, Maxwell, Fish, Taylor, Hayward, Fleetwood, Gordon. Subs. Thomas, Cronin, Ingram, Parkins, Brible.