So, another season starts and this one appears to have the pundits predicting their lowest finish for City in ages. Last season, so many, generously as it turned out, were predicting an eighteenth placed finish for us, this time around, the most popular finishing position the “experts” are coming up with seems to be where we ended up in 22/23, twenty first.
City have no wriggle room left after last season – the slightest decline will see us relegated. The fixture computer has come up with two very testing away games against relegated teams to start off with – Leeds on Sunday and Leicester, who are a popular choice to win the division, a fortnight later. Anything but two defeats from them will be viewed as a very promising sign by yours truly, although I do believe that travelling to these two clubs so early in the season could be a good thing in terms of our opponents’ familiarity with the Championship.
By complete contrast, our first two home matches are against sides who are being widely tipped to be among the very few to finish below us -QPR in eight days time are going to be followed by Sheffield Wednesday a fortnight later. If any points from our opening two away matches will be treated as a huge bonus by me, I must also say that a couple of losses in our opening pair of home matches would have me fearing the worst. Although we’ve had three seasons now of proving that awful home results, and performances, do not necessarilly condemn you to the drop, surely we cannot afford a fourth campaign where the good things happening in home games can be counted on the fingers of one hand?
What I will say is that this week’s signing of Nottingham Forest winger Josh Bowler offers more proof that City are “going for it” in terms of the reputation of the players they’re signing more than they have done for a couple of summers. Bowler might not have not pulled up any trees on loan at Blackpool last season, but they were the worst team I saw us play in 22/23 and he could hardly have had a manager less enamoured with his type of play than Mick “five centrebacks” McCarthy who was in charge at Bloomfield Road for most of Bowler’s second spell with the club – in 21/22, Bowler was Blackpool’s main man and was among the better wingers seen in the second tier.
So, although six in is quite a few, with the promise of two or three more to come, there is a bit of a feeling around that we’re going for quality over quantity compared to a year ago. Although we’re light at centreback and Erol Bulut clearly believes we need another central midfielder, I look at the squad we have now and think there must be three, at least, that are worse than us – I can see us making a fairly modest improvement to possibly sneak into the middle third of the division, but I’ll qualify that by saying that all bets are off if the dross we’ve grown used to watching at Cardiff City Stadium continues to be the norm.
Anyway, here’s an old favourite (well, I like setting the seven decades quiz anyway!) making a return for another season – questions on our next opponents dating back to the sixties with the answers to be posted on here on Monday.
60.s Veteran fans in particular may well think that there has never been a more appropriate Leeds player than this England international who represented them for three years during this decade – who is he and why do I say he is so appropriate for Leeds?
70s. City, as a struggling Second Division side, met Leeds in the FA Cup at Ninian Park during this decade at a time when the Yorkshiremen were probably the best team in the country. Something happened in that game which I reckon only occurred on one other occasion in a home City game in my first forty nine years of supporting the club (I saw my match in 1963), what was it? I should add that this is probably the most nerdish question asked in the history of this quiz!
80s. What’s the connection between a 2-0 win for Ipswich on 1 December 1962, a Sunday People exclusive, four months in Lincoln gaol and a Leeds player from this decade who was sent off ten times during a career which saw him play, with some success, at both ends of the pitch?
90’s More oral banter in order when this European represented Leeds (6,8)?
00s. Healthy herb up front?
10s. A match against Liechtenstein a dozen years ago represented his sole experience of full international football for this defender who holds a Leeds club record. He was helped towards this by what happened to him during a Leeds defeat by City at Elland Road during this decade – ironically, City were also partially responsible for the previous record having been set. Who is the player and what is the record I’m referring to?
20s. Six of the players who saw action for City on the last occasion we played Leeds will not be playing their home football at Cardiff City Stadium this season, who are they and what are the grounds called of the sides they’ll be representing?
Answers
60s. Alan Peacock is a centre forward who won six England caps and played for Leeds between 1964 and 1967. The Peacocks is a nickname for the club which is not as common these days as it once was – I always thought the name stemmed from the old blue and yellow kit Leeds wore up until the early sixties, but, in fact, it’s derived from a pub close to Elland Road called the Old Peacock.
70s. I’m 99 per cent sure that recent opponents Porto wore their usual blue and white striped kit when we played them at Ninian Park in 1968 in the Cup Winner’s Cup. This black and white photo from the game (sorry it’s small, it’s not a great quality photo)
suggests that they did, so what colours did City wear? I’m sure it was red and white with red socks. City and Leeds both wore white socks as part of their “first kit” in 71/72, but when the sides met in a Fifth Round FA Cup tie at Ninian Park, they both changed to second choice sock colours as can be seen in this video.
Those games against Porto and Leeds were the only examples of City wearing red socks in a home match that I can recall seeing before the notorious change to red in 2012.
80s. In December 1962, Ipswich beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 at Portman Road. In the Wednesday team that day was England international Peter Swan who, with two team mates, had bet on his side losing the match. This breach of the rules was uncovered by the Sunday People and Swan was subsequently sentenced to four months imprisonment and given a life ban from the game (this was later lifted and Swan was allowed to resume his playing career at Wednesday in the mid seventies).
Peter Swan was also the name of a centre half/centre forward who played nearly fifty times for Leeds between 1984 and 1989 before going on to have more success with teams like Hull and Port Vale.
90s. Robert Molenaar.
00s. Richard Cresswell.
10s. Swiss international defender Gaetano Berardi holds the record for the most sending’s off by a Leeds United player. Berardi was shown a red card in Leeds’ 4=1 home loss to City in 17/18 and his eight dismissals is one more than Alan Smith who went for an early bath in the (in)famous FA Cup tie at Ninian Park in 2002. Actually, to be strictly accurate, Berardi and Smith share the record because the former’s eight and final Leeds red card, at Millwall, was later rescinded.
20s. Tom Sang (Vale Park), Cedric Kipre (the Hawthorns), Curtis Nelson (Pride Park), Mark Harris (Kassam Stadium), Gavin Whyte (Fratton Park) and Isaak Davies (Guldensporen Stadion, Kortrijk) were all involved in City’s 5-2 FA Cup defeat at Elland Road in January and have now left the club, although it’s only on loan in Davies’ case.