The word from the Cardiff City camp in recent weeks has been that, with an almost completely new team and style of play to bed in, performances and results are going to be very much up and down through these early months of the season.
The problem has been that the “up” performances tended to come in late July and early August and the last month has seen all downs with only a draw against Preston in a match where we were the better side to break up a run of weak defeats.
Last season was the poorest one we’ve had in terms of league finishing position since we were promoted back to this level nineteen years ago, but we never dropped into the bottom three like we did last week after Middlesbrough beat Sunderland to climb above us. So, for all that talk of ups and downs, there really was a need for some of the former when we travelled to Teesside tonight for the second of what is now three consecutive away matches following the pointless postponement of fixtures last weekend.
Well, tonight we got a performance which had ups and downs alright – the up was as good a first half away showing as we’ve had in ages (I honestly can’t remember when we last played better), but the down came in the form of a second half display that harked back to our last two away games at Bristol City and Millwall where, frankly, we were brushed aside by physically stronger opponents.
The reason why City fans can celebrate tonight is that the team that couldn’t score suddenly rediscovered the knack with a vibrant attacking showing in that first forty five minutes which produced three great goals and there may well have been a couple more to go with them.
Middlesbrough, a team tipped to win the division this season on a Championship podcast I listen to, left the field at half time to a chorus of boos deservedly 3-0 down, but they were always going to come out stronger after the break and City very nearly wilted completely as they conceded twice within just over a minute with about a quarter of an hour left to ensure a nervy ending for both team and supporters – I would like to say that we saw out the last few minutes in an assured manner, but I be lying if I did.
On that podcast I mentioned, a big reason why Middlesbrough were the pre season tip to top the league was their manager Chris Wilder who would be many people’s choice to be the best in the division such is the admiration for the job he did at Sheffield United until it started to go badly wrong for him a couple of seasons ago.
Well, tonight it could be said that City’s manager, who can still be described as a novice I suppose, played a bit of a blinder tactically to get the better of Wilder, only to come close to throwing all of his good work away with some questionable touch line antics and some substitutions which could be called odd.
Steve Morison often matches up opponents’ formations. He did it a lot at the end of last season as we switched from a back four to three centre backs on a game by game basis and each time he said the changes were down to his desire to play the same formation as the other team.
So, the decision to switch from the back four he’s used all season to the three centre backs system he favoured for most of last season may have been as straightforward as a desire to copy the opposing team.
Perhaps however, it was born out of a recognition that drafting in Jack Simpson to play alongside Cedric Kipre and Perry Ng gave his side a little more of the aerial presence it had been lacking, without compromising the desire to play out from the back– in fact, it could be said that we now had three defenders who could do that.
Maybe the switch to wing backs with the fit again Callum O’Dowda coming in for Niels Nkounkou on the left was down to Morison spotting that there were gaps behind Middlesbrough’s wing backs which could be exploited (Isiah Jones and ex City loanee Ryan Giles are very important parts of Boro’s attacking game, but neither of them are great going the other way).
Other changes saw Ryan Wintle, Andy Rinomhota and Joe Ralls in central midfield with Callum Robinson and Mark Harris playing as a front two with Max Watters not even among the substitutes.
Although not on the scoresheet himself, Robinson was so influential in his first start for a City side that largely did away with the short goal kicks, played a bit more direct and pressed their opponents into errors as effectively as they’ve done all season. Robinson came deep in the fourth minute to benefit from a turn over of possession ten yards inside the City half brought about by Ralls getting back from pressing goalkeeper Liam Roberts unsuccessfully to rob Matt Crooks. From there, our new signing from West Brom picked out a lovely pass to O’Dowda who left Jones labouring in his wake as he went through a huge gap down the Middlesbrough right and calmly placed a shot beyond Roberts.
This made in the Republic of Ireland goal was our first one away from home in just over six hours football since O’Dowda had nodded in a free kick at Reading to give us an early lead in a match we eventually lost 2-1.
There was little sign that this one would go the same way though, as, although happy to sit back and soak up pressure for much of the time, City we’re finding plenty of room in attacking areas and remained the more dangerous team.
For example, when Simpson’s deep cross was met by Harris, Roberts did well to keep out his header, but the ball dropped to Robinson who couldn’t quite sort his feet out for what would have been a tap in.
City weren’t denied a second goal for long though as Rinomhota harried Johnny Howson out of possession about twenty five yards out, fed Robinson who teed up Harris who took a touch and then beat Roberts with a right foot shot from twenty yards for the first goal scored by a City striker this season.
Two up after twenty minutes against opponents toiling to put together any sort of threat, City were not inconvenienced too much by the loss of Ralls to another injury around the thirty five minute mark – Simpson had missed a decent chance to make it three just before then when he was completely unmarked to meet a Wintle corner but glanced his header wide.
It was 3-0 on forty five minutes though when a flowing move (of thirteen passes according to Steve Morison) ended down City’s right as Ng exchanged passes with Rinomhota before beating the last defender to cut inside and shoot past Roberts with his left foot from eight yards to score a superb first goal for the club.
More often than not, an away side with such a big half time lead tends to sit back on it after that and City were no different. In this instance though, they handed the initiative to Boro who, although still not playing that well, sensed they could be in business as Morison got involved in an unnecessary touch line spat with Wilder which got the home fans behind their team more than they had been.
Although the substitutions of O’Dowda and Robinson by Nkounkou and Sheri Ojo could be understood to some degree both have had spells out injured recently), Jones on Middlesbrough’s right immediately began to look more of a threat.
Within ten minutes of these changes, the increasingly influential Jones played sub Duncan Watmore through and he nutmegged Ryan Allsop on his near post to make it 3-1 with the keeper and sub Romaine Sawyers probably questioning whether they could have done more to prevent the goal.
A minute later another cross from the right, this time by another sub Anfernee Dijksteel was met by a fierce downward header from centre forward Rodrigo Muniz with Allsop powerless this time to prevent the arrears being reduced further..
The introduction of Rubin Colwill for Harris left City without an attacking base to build on as it became a case of all hands to the pump as Curtis Nelson took over from Ng for the last ten minutes or so,
By hook or by crook, City held on as Muniz should have at least tested Allsop with a late chance and then Simpson, having his best game for us so far, did will to block a Jones effort in the dying seconds.
However, at the end, the two goals Middlesbrough scored were from their only on target goal attempts and the truth was that they weren’t as good as I thought they’d be – it was hard to avoid a feeling that City had made things harder for themselves than they needed to be.
Nevertheless, it has to be seen as an impressive win which confirmed that we’re not as bad as some of our recent performances suggested we were.
The day had got off to a very poor start though as an under 21 side featuring just four Academy products in its starting line up were overwhelmed 5-0 at Bristol City this lunchtime with four of the goals coming before half time.
I should also apologise for the lack of a Middlesbrough seven decade’s quiz,. This was because of the late confirmation that today’s game would go ahead, but there’ll be one as normal for the Huddersfield match this weekend.