It was great while it lasted, but Cardiff City’s six game unbeaten run came to an end tonight and, in truth, they could have no complaints about the outcome in what was something of a mirror image of so many matches we‘ve played in the last decade or so.
Luton Town, struggling to live up to their billing as a promotion favourite following their relegation from the Premier League last season, bullied us to defeat really and, in Cardiff City 23/24 style, came up with a goal from a set piece to eke out a 1-0 win.
If you’ve been reading thjese ramblings for a while, you’ll know that I’m certainly no fan of the physical and direct stuff that City played for so much of the time before Omer Rica came on the scene so, in no way am I saying that I wanted us to fight fire with fire and take Luton on in a physical battle (we probably would have lost it anyway because we’re not as well equipped to play that way now). However, it says it all really about the type of game it was that Yakou Meite, a half time sub for the ineffective Ollie Tanner, was, as someone better equipped physically to counter Luton’s aggression, probably our most effective forward player on the night.
Frankly, we looked a little too “nice” as we tried unconvincingly to get on terms in the last few minutes as we stuck to our new found principles and patiently kept on trying to create an opening, but all we ended up with was a Cian Ashford effort that was closer to the corner flag than the goal and a Callum Chambers shot that flew out of the ground.
In fact, City, with Perry Ng and Callum Robinson returning in place of Andy Rinomhota and Chris Willock, never came closer to scoring than they did inside two minutes of playing time when Anwar El Ghazi headed a David Turnbull corner a foot or so wide when he, maybe, should have done better – I’ll return to the theme of El Ghazi and corners later.
City looked the more poised of the two teams during the first half, but they gained little from it as a very even forty five minutes ended goalless, but with Luton feeling like they’d been robbed when inconsistent referee Matt Donahue (Riza was not overly impressed with him) failed to award a penalty after the ball struck Chambers on the arm – all I’ll say is I would have been calling the ref everything if City had not been given a penalty for it!
That apart, Luton created little with a Carlton Morris header over the bar from a good position and a Jacob Brown shot that drew a routine save from Jak Alnwick being the best they could offer, while City had an Al Ghazi free kick hit straight at home keeper Thomas Kaminski and two Robinson efforts over the bar to add to that early headed chance.
Despite the very similar stats for the teams, it seemed like Luton were warming to their task in the ten minutes before the interval and they carried their superiority into the second half. However, the closest either came to scoring before the game’s decisive moment on fifty six minutes was when Meite looped a header towards goal that Kaminski had to touch over.
Soon after that, Alfie Doughty (I thought the ex City loanee was the best player on the pitch) delivered a corner to the near post and Brown lost his marker El Ghazi to head home powerfully from six yards.
The restart brought some drama as Rubin Colwill tapped the ball to David Turnbull who shot from the half way line and had Kaminski worried as he touched the ball away for another unproductive City corner.
That was the end of the meaningful action from a City perspective and, although they didn’t have any great chances to score themselves, it was the home team that always looked the more likely to score the game’s second goal.
A few thoughts on selection of the team. First, we’re now virtually a third of the way through the season and, although I sympathise with Anwar El Ghazi as to the circumstances behind his long absence from the game last season, we’re still not seeing a player who is “too good for the Championship” (as some were telling us pre season). Three months down the line, it seems to me that questions have to be asked as to whether we’ll ever see that player during the course of what, let’s not forget, is only a twelve month contract?
This is going to sound like I have some sort of agenda against the players from mainland Europe at the club given what I’ve just said about Al Ghazi, but, despite two steady performances from Manolis Siopis against Norwich and Luton, we haven’t half missed Alex Robertson playing like he was doing before his injury – the good news is that Omer Riza confirmed that Robertson will be available for selection for Saturday’s game with Blackburn.
One further thing, regarding our midfield, David Turnbull has shown in the two games that Robertson was absent in that he’s worth his place in the team and, for me, he gives us something of an added dimension, but, on last night’s evidence, I’d rather see someone else taking our corners.
That’s all I have to say really, except that City, who have been pretty good away from home in recent seasons are having a bit of a mare this time around with just three points from three draws and just three scored in the seven games played so far. Furthermore, just this one defeat has sent us back to a position where only goal difference is keeping us out of the relegation places.