City travelled to Falkirk for their third and final match of their Scottish Tour, taking on last season’s First Division Champions who are now looking forward to taking on the likes of Celtic and Rangers in the coming season. Falkirk is situated a few miles north east of Glasgow and the club have recently moved to a new stadium, in fact today’s game against City may well have been the first match to be played at the ground. The stadium was easy to find – in fact it was the first thing we saw as we left the dual carriageway after travelling in from Edinburgh. Falkirk’s old ground is situated in the town centre and so is the club shop, supporters bar, etc, so when we got to the new ground, facilities were sparse to say the least! Nowhere to buy a badge and nowhere to enjoy a drink. We did though encounter a jobsworth steward who insisted we had to pay £2 to park our car in the away section car park, even though the home supporters could park for free!
Like Hamilton’s stadium, Falkirk’s new stadium has only two sides, although there are plans to build the two missing stands, providing they can sustain their Premiership status for the next two years. Inside, City fans were situated in a single tier all seater stand behind the goal, to our right another stand ran the length of the pitch which housed the home supporters. The capacity must be somewhere around 10k, which considering Falkirk’s average attendance of 3.900 last season, should prove adequate except when they play hosts to their more illustrious Glasgow neighbours.
This afternoon’s game was Falkirk’s first pre-season game, so I expected City to be sharper and fitter than their opponents, however, for the first 20 minutes, the Bluebirds struggled to get out of their own half as Falkirk dominated possession. Despite this, the home side failed to give City any real problems at the back and the only real chance fell to a Cardiff player, Neil Cox putting a powerful header towards goal which was well saved
With just 22 mins gone, Loovens was replaced by Parslow, although it was unclear if this was due to injury or not. Loovens was roundly jeered by the home fans, as apparently his agent had stated he was going to join Falkirk on loan, just before the player then decided to join us. It seems we’re not the only team who gets the run around from agents!
Midway through the half City slowly began to find their way into the game, Ferratti and Jerome linking well on a couple of occasions with both players having half chances. At the other end, Alexander dealt comfortably with everything that came his way, with Falkirk seemingly lacking a real cutting edge. However, the City keeper was forced into a superb diving save on the stroke of half time following a free kick. Alexander appeared to be wrong footed but recovered well to dive to his left and pick the goal bound shot out of the air. Half time: Falkirk 0 Cardiff City 0
Despite his heroic efforts, Alexander was replaced for Warner at the start of the second half, Dave Jones giving both keepers a chance to impress in the pre-season games. City made two more changes just before the hour mark, Boland replacing Ardley on the right side of midfield and Parry replacing Mulryne on the left. A minute later a powerful shot by Paul Parry was well saved by the Falkirk keeper, who was being called upon more and more often as the game wore on and was dealing with everything very confidently. On 70 minutes, Ferratti rose well to meet the ball, his header beating the keeper but not the crossbar and Cox also went close with another good header. City were having the better of the game now and were creating good chances, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when they took the lead with 15 minutes to go. Good work down the right by Willie Boland, who put in an excellent cross which evaded the keeper, leaving Jerome to turn the ball home from a few yards out. 1-0 to City.
Unfortunately, City couldn’t hold onto the lead as just two minutes later, the home side equalised from a corner, the Falkirk goalscorer putting in a diving header completely unchallenged, giving Warner no chance. Apart from a goal mouth scramble earlier in the half, Warner had little to do, so it was disappointing to see City’s defence go to sleep and cost them a goal.
In the final ten minutes, City really should have regained the lead. Neil Cox turned defence into attack, making a surging run through the middle, laying on Paul Parry, who with only the keeper to beat disappointingly put his shot close enough to the keeper, allowing him to make the save. Alan Lee replaced Jerome in the dying minutes, but neither side were able to carve out another clear chance, with the game ending in a 1-1 draw.
It would have been great to see City make it 4 wins out of 4 but once again there were encouraging signs, especially as the game wore on. The coming week will see the Bluebirds make a step up in class as they take on Serie A and Premiership opponents. Hopefully we will see enough promise to give us encouragement for the season ahead.
As the Scottish tour draws to a close, I feel there are more positives than negatives to come out of it. We have added some bodies to the squad and the triallists, Mulryne, McCunnie and Ferratti all look accomplished players who will improve our squad – sign them up Sam.
My concerns are the centre half and centre forward positions – where we still lack a little quality and strength in depth. Hopefully Purse will join the squad next week and I am sure Dave Jones is well aware of our need to bring in an extra forward.
External reports
Wales On Sunday
Falkirk FC
Western Mail