Given all of the defensive pre season problems, it was no great surprise that City ended up conceding one of the quickest goals of the season as Dean Ashton put Crewe ahead from the penalty spot after five minutes. Obviously, not the greatest of starts, but, actually, City got lucky because the player who blocked the ball on the line with his hand after Margetson had failed to reach a cross got away without even being yellow carded when a red card would have been the normal punishment. I think what saved the player was that (just like everyone else apparently!) the referee didn’t know who he was - I can remember at the time no one seemed able to identify the culprit and, having seen the incident a few times since, I’m still not sure who it was, although if forced to make a decision, I would say it was Tony Vidmar.
City were hanging on after that for most of the first half, but seemed set to get to the break only one down, when out of the blue, John Robinson poked home a close range equaliser in the 44th minute and, buoyed by this, the team went on to control the second period with their dominance rewarded around the hour mark by a tremendous 20 yard effort by Alan Lee which was a real contender for our goal of the season . By rights City should have gone further in front after that, but, when Crewe boss Dario Gradi threw on an extra striker in a late bid to earn a point, Lennie Lawrence responded with a move which, as it turned out, only gave those already calling for his head further ammunition to fire at him. John Robinson was pulled off and replaced by James Collins as City adopted a policy of what we have we hold, but, given the way we had been defending, it was no great surprise that the home side levelled with five minutes to go to ensure the game finished at 2-2.
A point away from home wasn’t a bad start, but it really should have been three and the way the second goal was conceded only emphasised how vulnerable we were defensively at that time - City defended too deep with five players in and around the six yard box, yet still managed to get Tony Vidmar isolated on the far post against two Crewe players, one of whom (Ashton) nodded the ball across to substitute Higdon who smashed it in with four City players stood within three yards of him!
The team made their Ninian Park bow the following Tuesday when Coventry City who had beaten Sunderland 2-0 at home (a result that was to look more and more impressive as the season went on) on the opening day. Despite this win, Coventry were very negative and, to be honest, I think this played right into our hands. Mind you, their tactics looked right when the City defence again crumbled at the first sign of pressure - a mix up between Margetson and Gabbidon ended with the latter heading inches wide of his own post, but from the resultant corner, Barrett was allowed to get free and nod in a routine near post delivery.
A goal down at half time, City responded well after the break and two goals in a seven minute spell saw them run out deserved 2-1 winners - Earnie got the equaliser when a clever pass by Kav released Robbo and his low cross was knocked in from close range and then Lee Bullock’s fine header from a Kav free kick won the game.
I can remember proclaiming on here after the match that by coming from a goal down to win (something they were not good at in 2003/04), City had shown why they could look forward to a better season this time around - not one of my better predictions that because it proved to be the only time in 2004/05 that we managed to win a game we had fallen behind in! In fact, the Coventry game was an oddity in a season where home matches were so easy to predict once a goal had been scored - apart from a couple of games where Wolves and Crewe managed to get 1-1 draws after going a goal down, the team who scored first at Ninian Park always won the game!
On the same night we were beating Coventry, Chris Barker made his debut for Stoke in a 0-0 draw at Sheffield United Barker had finished the previous season poorly, looking overweight and struggling for fitness and it seemed no one really disagreed with Lennie Lawrence’s decision to start the campaign with Tony Vidmar at left back in front of him. Barker didn’t seem to have a future at Cardiff, a fact confirmed by our willingness to loan him out to Stoke. That said, the decision to let him go when our squad was looking paper thin was a strange one and, to my mind, could only be justified on the grounds of finance - were we really that skint that we had to loan out players to get them off the wage bill for a while?
Lennie Lawrence had maintained all summer that he had did have some money to spend in the transfer market, but with the Sean Gregan saga dragging on with no sign of a resolution, loaning Barker to Stoke seemingly only served to confirm that there was no money for new players at Ninian Park. By this time, expectations that Gregan would be coming here had almost dried up and yet, on the night we beat Coventry, news began to emerge that we would be signing West Ham’s Jobi McAnuff for around £250,000! I must admit to being gob smacked by this news firstly because by then I thought we didn’t have a tenth of the McAnuff fee in our transfer kitty, secondly the talented McAnuff (who Premiership side Portsmouth had tried to sign a year earlier) had only been with the Hammers for six months and, finally, because, after chasing a midfield enforcer in Gregan all summer, we ended up signing a ball playing, crowd pleasing winger!
A new signing, four points from two games (not a bad return at all considering what had happened pre-season) and a televised game the following Friday against Plymouth in front of a bumper crowd which would see the winners got to the top of the table - the feelgood factor had returned to Ninian Park! Actually, the reality was different, McAnuff didn’t play against Plymouth because his deal wasn’t completed in time - whereas other clubs have arranged temporary loan deals which enable new permanent signings to play in games they would otherwise miss, we didn’t, Lennie Lawrence gave his reasons for not doing this, but, frankly, to me they sounded like “it’s too much like hard work!”.
Also, in their wisdom, the club had decided to categorise home games with those ranked as Category “A” (seemingly the most attractive visitors who would bring the biggest support, hence the need for more police) being more expensive than others, so, having already done much to discourage any walk up crowd by charging those who didn’t buy tickets a couple of days beforehand more, they also decided to add on another couple of quid for certain matches!
Plymouth were rated as Category A opposition (I suppose it’s a kind of local derby - Bobby Williamson their manager said that games against us were the closest thing that they had to a derby game this season!) and so it was that just 12,697 (nearly 1,500 down from the Coventry match) turned up to watch a game that could have seen us go top of the league, but, in truth, the absentees didn’t miss much! City showing the alarming vulnerability from corners that plagued them early on in the campaign, fell behind to the first one they conceded when Crawford got free beyond the far post to head back across goal where the ball was diverted into his own net by the unknowing Lee Bullock. It was certainly a lucky goal, but Plymouth had deserved it, their urgency and enthusiasm contrasted sharply with a strangely flat City team that didn’t seem to realise that top spot in the division was at stake. To be fair, the City did get better after the break and did everything but score as they piled on the pressure, but it wasn‘t to be and it was Plymouth who went top having kept up their record of not conceding a goal so far.
Probably a draw would have been the fairest result, but the game served as a template for so many seen at Ninian Park during the season as a series of pretty ordinary looking visiting sides got a goal in front and then held on to their lead with varying degrees of difficulty. Sometimes, these sides would be able to add to their lead, but, it didn’t matter really whether they did or not because, by scoring first, they had made certain of all three points - the chronic lack of goals which would blight the team at home throughout the season had begun and it would be a long, long time before the Ninian Park faithful would have another one to cheer!