Besides trying to organise the balloon, some City fans went up to
There were those who were critical of Messrs Ridsdale and Borley's decision to go to Molineux because they believed that the two board members should have shown solidarity with those who were banned, but, at least the club were able to provide a live beam back of the game (which, bizarrely, kicked off at 1 o clock!) to Ninian Park where supporters were able to watch the match on televisions in the bars in the Grandstand and Canton Stand.
I went along to watch the game not expecting much from the team, so it was a very pleasant surprise indeed to see us gain our first win in thirteen games (and seventy days!). I'm sure a siege mentality engendered by the supporters ban had something to do with City's win, but, for me, the main reason for it was that Chopra was back! Wolves manager Mick McCarthy made plenty of "we wuz robbed" type comments to the media after the match and, to be fair to him, you could see where he was coming from - his team dominated for long spells, hit the woodwork a couple of times and Neil Alexander was fortunate when Craig Davies put the ball into the net after robbing our keeper as he went to clear only to pulled back for a foul. However, what was different about this City display was that they carried a genuine threat going forward and this was nearly all down to the fact that, from somewhere, Michael Chopra had rediscovered his form and appetite for the game.
There were signs of what was to come when Chopra fired just wide on three minutes, but twenty minutes or so later he ended the teams goal drought which had stretched to 515 minutes when he raced on to a Ledley pass and sent a lovely lob over
Scoring on his debut was undoubtedly the highlight of Byrne's City career so far because his subsequent performances were very disappointing, but, at least, he did manage to find the net, something that was beyond all of the other back up strikers at the club! Apart from Chopra with twenty two, City "strikers" contributed a mere seven goals all season and when you consider that Steve Thompson got six of those, you can see that, although we had the numbers in forward positions that we didn't in other areas of the pitch, there was no genuine competition for places because, outside of Chopra and Thompson, we didn't have anyone good enough to play up front week in week out at Championship level.
The only disappointment for City was a back injury to Darren Purse that forced him off after forty minutes. For me, Purse had been our best player by far during our poor run, but he now missed the next two months - he did come back in April, playinh a further five matches, but he never looked fully fit and I would say that his season effectively ended that afternoon against Wolves.
Roger Johnson replaced Purse for the last hour at Molineux and kept his place for the game against Leicester at
After a quiet start, City began to get on top around the twenty minute mark and the
An injury to Ricky Scimeca which would keep him out for a month meant that sub Kevin McNaughton slotted straight into central midfield as his replacement. The change didn't seem to affect City too badly and they went in at half time with a deserved lead, however
For a short while, City began to show some of the swagger that marked their early season performances and they looked to have wrapped up the points when Chopra sealed a marvellous hat trick. Much of the credit for the goal though should go to Steve Thompson who forced keeper Henderson into a poor clearance before feeding Chopra twenty yards out - although the keeper was out of position, Chopra still had plenty to do as he turned McAuley inside out before placing a shot beyond the frantically covering Henderson into the top corner of the net.
City now had the chance to really go for a big win, but, almost immediately, they lost concentration at a corner and allowed Kisnorbo to score and they then faced the prospect of a fraught finale to the game when sub
A few weeks after this game former Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell suggested on television that City were more or less a one man team. Dave Jones bridled at these comments and, in a way, I could see where he was coming from because we had a solid defensive base which carried us virtually right through the season. However, when it came to attacking play, it was hard to come up with too much of an argument against the line that said stop Chopra and you stop Cardiff. City's season broke down into four distinct phases (great start, long run without a win, revival in early 2007and woeful finish) which exactly mirrored Chopra's campaign, so it's only fair that people like me who were very critical of his contribution during our winless run also acknowledged how good he was when he was flying and he was certainly was that afternoon against Leicester!
There were still a few days left before the January transfer window closed and in that time three more players arrived. There was still a feeling that City needed more striking options and they responded by bringing in Iwan Redan who was a target man who had played for the Holland Under 21side a few years back on loan for the rest of the season. Redan had been the captain of Willem II of Tilburg who played in the top division of the Dutch league, but had blotted his copy book when he was involved in an altercation with a team mate during a match - it was hard to know quite what to make of this signing, but Redan had interested Championship clubs in the past and it was reported that City had snatched him from under the noses of Barnsley who, coincidentally, were our next opponents.
Another loan signing until the end of the season was Simon Walton a 19 year old midfield player at Charlton. Walton had played at Ipswich on loan for the first few months of the campaign and had generally been reckoned to have done pretty well - we needed more options in central midfield and with Scimeca being out for a while, it looked like Walton was going to go straight into the side.
Somebody in work had tipped me off about our interest in Newport County's teenage striker Matt Green a month or two earlier - he said that Green was very quick and had something, but he was more one for the future than a player who would challenge for a first team place straight away and Dave Jones said much the same sort of thing after we had completed his signing for a reported fee of £5,000. One other arrival was James Simmonds a young midfield player from Chelsea - at the time this was reported as a loan move, but it seems now that the player, who, like Green, was regarded as a promising youngster rather than a first team candidate was here, effectively, on trial as he been told that he wasn't going to have his Chelsea contract renewed.
It had to be admitted that apart from, possibly, Whittingham, the new signings hardly set the pulses racing and many expressed their disappointment as they contrasted what we ended up with (and how much was spent) against the sort of names we were reportedly after (one of whom had been confirmed by the chairman), but it did seem that we had more options than we did and it was only fair that the newcomers were given a fair chance before people started writing them off.
Walton and Whittingham (who had made his first start at Wolves) were the only ones of the newcomers to make the starting line up for the televised home match with Barnsley (Forde, Byrne and Redan were all on the bench) as City looked to improve on an awful record in Sky matches played on a Friday and they were able to do this pretty comfortably against struggling opponents. The only two goals of an ordinary game came in the first half - Whittingham scored his first City goal in the eleventh minute when his close range header was ruled to have crossed the line before being clawed out by keeper Colgan (television pictures proved that to be the right decision) and Chopra kept his hot streak up with another edge of the box free kick goal in the 44th minute which Colgan got hands to but couldn't keep out.
The second half saw the visitors dominate possession without ever looking that dangerous - City seemed happy to sit back and soak up the pressure and this was understandable when you considered the disruption there had been to the side in the closing stages of the first half when Ledley limped off to be replaced by McNaughton. However, he only lasted three minutes before picking up a sickening looking head injury which saw the game delayed for eight minutes while he received treatment. Willo Flood eventually came on as City's second substitute of the first half, but most people's thoughts were with McNaughton who had been carried off on a stretcher and rushed to hospital for scans - there was good news about McNaughton later and, amazingly) he was able to take his place in the sixteen for the visit to Coventry eight days later (Ledley's injury also turned out to be not as bad as had first been feared and he was able to keep up his ever present record for the season by starting at left back at the Ricoh Arena).
Whether Dave Jones was quite as pleased to have Ledley available was a moot point though when you consider that he was beaten twice by Maltese International Michael Mifsud in the seventh minute before he pulled the ball back for Leon McKenzie to score. City were having trouble getting going against opponents who had won just two of their last fifteen minutes and were lucky not to fall further behind when the dangerous Mifsud hit the upright, but, two minutes into first half injury time, they were awarded a penalty when Robert Page baulked Johnson as they went for a corner and Chopra scored easily from the spot.
The penalty had been given by "superstar" ref Graham Poll who then went on to give a second half performance which ensured that most of the post match talk was about him (sure he didn't mind that though!). To be honest, City probably benefited more than Coventry from Poll's decisions - the penalty, while a correct decision, struck me as the type that away teams don't tend to get and he also disallowed two McKenzie headers late on (it was hard to see anything wrong with the second of them). However, Poll's decision to send Glenn Loovens off on the basis of two harsh looking bookings came at the worst possible time for City as they were playing their best football of the game and had gone in front after fifty seven minutes through a great left foot drive by Whittingham from about twenty five yards out. After Loovens' dismissal though it was all hands to the pump as they switched Walton back to centre half and tried to hold on to their lead. A header by Dele Adebola ensured that this wasn't going to happen but a combination of Poll disallowing home goals and some fine saves by Alexander meant that City kept their unbeaten run going.
Having had to suffer one Premiership ref one week, City were given another one the next when Mark Clattenburg took charge of the home match with Leeds - if some of Poll's decisions had been controversial, then many of Clattenburg's were downright bizarre as he gave as incompetent a refereeing performance as Ninian Park had seen in years!
Although Leeds were propping up the Championship, it's still hard to understand why this should be - they had players like David Healy and Richard Cresswell on their bench that afternoon which hinted at a depth in quality in their squad which we could only dream of. With Loovens suspended for the next two matches, City had to move McNaughton (who for reasons best known to Dave Jones had been on the bench in recent games) into central defence alongside Johnson and their defensive resources were further stretched when Kerrea Gilbert had to go off at half time to be replaced by Chris Gunter. By then City were one up - a scrappy opening thirty five minutes had been shaded by the visitors, but the disruption caused by having two of their players floored with head injuries as they jumped for the same ball with no opposing player in sight, gave City a foothold in the game which they exploited when Chopra (already rightly booked along with Simon Walton) scored with a free kick at the Canton Stand end for the third successive game.
The free kick that led to the goal had been given for a bad foul on Walton by Leeds midfield player Ian Westlake but, for some reason, Clattenburg decided to keep his yellow card in his pocket. This policy continued in the second half with some terrible Leeds tackles (by their captain Nicholls in particular) being punished by nothing more than free kicks. Clattenburg reacted properly though when Chopra's elbow made contact with substitute's Foxe's face and a second yellow card was issued. Just like against Coventry, City were faced with the prospect of having to hang on to a lead with just ten men for the last twenty five minutes, but Clattenburg hadn't finished yet and passed up the chance to make it ten against ten when he decided that just the award of a penalty kick was enough punishment for Kandol's blatant handballing of Johnson's header close to the Leeds goal line. Unfortunately City were unable to take advantage of this opportunity to put the game beyond Leeds though. Although Steve Thompson's penalty miss was not of the same awful quality as Andy Campbell's against the same opposition two seasons earlier, it was one that keeper Ankergren was always going to save if he dived the right way and I must admit that my feelings as Thompson stepped up to take the kick were exactly the same as when Campbell was taking his - i.e. he's not going to score!
The definite sense amongst the home fans that the ref was applying different standards to the two teams led to an intensity in the atmosphere which helped spur the City team on and, in truth, they were having few problems in holding out against a toothless Leeds attack, but Clattenburg was still not finished yet! With six minutes left Simon Walton burst forward against his old club and was definitely obstructed about thirty yards from goal by visiting central defender Matt Heath - incredibly, Clattenburg interpreted Walton's fall as a dive and promptly gave the player a second yellow card! Hardly surprisingly Walton's incredulity soon turned to anger and he kicked out and broke the fourth official's board as he left the field (this action got him a further fine). Minutes later the already booked Steve Thompson must have come very close to becoming the third player to be red carded, but Clattenburg had obviously decided two was enough and, apart from a well struck shot by Douglas in stoppage time which Alexander dealt with efficiently, the City held on for a 1-0 win that was much more comfortable than it should have been under the circumstances.
If anything, Dave Jones' post match press conference was more entertaining than the game - this story
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/coca_cola/article228 3935.ece
Shows he had plenty to say about the Leeds fans who taunted him about his years old court case and even more about the inept Clattenburg - hardly surprisingly, our manager picked up the obligatory bringing the game into disrepute charge, but the fact that the Welsh FA later decided that there was no case for him to answer rather says that they perfectly understood why our manager decided to go off on one after that refereeing performance!
Anyway, that win was City's fourth in their last five matches and they were undoing a lot of the harm caused by the long run without a win at the turn for the year - they were now in seventh place, but, with the situation at the top being incredibly tight, they were only four points away from the second automatic promotion spot.
It was at this stage, that the team faced a run of games that looked certain to determine their season with six out of their next seven matches being against the sides above them in the table - if they could come out of these matches with something like nine points, they would surely be in a great position to kick on in their last six matches.
First up in a series of four really demanding away matches was a visit to the Hawthorns to face third placed West Brom. This would have been a real test under any circumstances, but City had to go into this game with just about their weakest looking team of the season as suspension robbed them of Chopra, Walton and Loovens to go alongside the injuries to Purse and Scimeca. The City team that night included Gunter at right back (where he had to mark Jason Koumas), Johnson and McNaughton again at centre back, Darcy Blake alongside McPhail in midfield and Jason Byrne making his first start up front.
In the first half in particular, the patched up City team did their supporters proud and gave, at least, as good as they got in a very open game which somehow remained goalless at half time - City could have scored on several occasions with Thompson heading inches wide as well as hitting the crossbar, Byrne forcing a great save out of keeper Kiely, the dangerous Whittingham shooting narrowly wide and Johnson heading a corner inches over.
Chances were far less frequent for both sides after the interval, but City were beaten by a great strike by sub Nathan Ellington midway through the half. Iwan Redan came off the bench to replace Byrne and he set up Thompson for another chance which drew another good save from Kiely (this was just about Redan's only worthwhile contribution in a City shirt - he had played twenty minutes or so at Coventry without doing much and, Mickey Mouse Welsh Cup matches apart, was never seen again in a City first team shirt), but there was no way back for a brave City team who had given their all.
Three days later City faced fourth placed Preston in what was the first of successive live televised games for them. Their injury/suspension crisis had eased to the extent that they welcomed back Chopra, Loovens and a fit again Scimeca, but they were now missing keeper Neil Alexander who had cried off with tonsillitis which meant that David Forde was called in to make a league debut in what was a vitally important match - there was also a place for young Matt Green (who being scoring goals for the reserve side) on the bench.
Forde was given a pretty gentle introduction into league football as Preston edged the opening stages - he did have to make one decent diving save from a shot by the soon to be full England International David Nugent, but that was about it until Nugent got clear and chased on to a ball around the twenty five minute mark. Forde reacted to this situation by charging from his goal and flattening the Preston player who picked up an injury which would, eventually, force him off at half time in the process. To the naked eye, it was a very difficult to decide whether Forde had just got to the ball before Nugent or vice versa, but, television replays showed that the City keeper made contact with the Preston striker fractionally after Nugent had played the ball - it could so easily have been a penalty and a red card for Forde, but referee Kettle ruled that it had been a genuine challenge for the ball by the City keeper and did not penalise him.
In many ways, this was the turning point of the game. Without Nugent, Preston were very much second best to a City side that, for me, gave their best performance since the heady days of the autumn - their increasing dominance was rewarded just before half time when Whittingham drilled home with his right foot after Chopra had flicked on Parry's cross. The second half then started off fairly quietly until a madcap three minute spell which saw three goals scored - Chopra converted a penalty (and got to twenty goals for the season in the process) after fifty two minutes after he had been brought down in the box by Chilvers only for Johnson to immediately foul substitute Mellor in the penalty area which gave the experienced Graham Alexander the chance to toe poke his penalty past Forde. However, Preston then conceded a free kick straight away and Whittingham's lovely cross was met by an unmarked Johnson who headed his first goal for the club and celebrated with a mad high kicking run along the touchline in front of the Bob Bank!
There was no way back for Preston after that and they conceded a fourth soon after as Whittingham chased down Thompson's fine pass, turned Alexander inside out with a lovely bit of skill and then laid a goal on a plate for Chopra who beat Lonergan from six yards out. There was time after that for Chopra to almost complete his hat trick with a goal from a free kick for the fourth successive home game as his effort bounced back off the crossbar and for Matt Green to get a three minute run out during which he fired narrowly over the bar, but this result and the manner of the team's performance sent out a signal that City were right back in the automatic promotion race again as they rose to fourth place just four points behind leaders Birmingham who also happened to be their next opponents!