Any team that has a “clear the air” meeting three games after their last one can be said to have serious problems. After their debacle against Preston which could well have been the worst performance of a season full of candidates for nomination for such a brickbat, we were told that harsh words had been exchanged between some of the players in the dressing room afterwards. That frank exchange of views worked to the extent that the team played a lot better at Stoke a few days later and deserved to win, but a loss of nerve in added time contributed to the home team equalising in the ninety fifth minute to claim a point.
The 2-0 home loss to league leaders Sheffield United which followed was to be expected really, but a Boxing Day 3-2 loss at fellow strugglers in a game that was not as close as the score line suggested was not. It was a shocker of a performance which saw the travelling support turn on the team and there was a social media backlash against the players, in particular some of the ones signed during last summer.
Once again, it seems a few home truths were told in the dressing room post game at Oxford, but with Cardiff, at first team level anyway, the very epitome of a club in crisis currently, it seemed that it would have needed to have been a barnstormer of a healing session for it to result in anything positive today as City, without an away win all season, travelled to Vicarage Road, Watford to face a home team mounting a surprise Play Off challenge on the back of an almost perfect home record which has seen them drop only four points out of a possible thirty three.
Yes, Watford had nine wins and two draws from their first eleven home games before today, but now they’ve dropped seven points out of a possible thirty six because, in an outcome which, yet again, proves what a mad game football is City only went there and won 2-1!
How can anyone explain how a group of players that looked so abject in what amounted to a surrender at Oxford were so much more motivated and effective against the team with the best home record in the division, a team that, clearly, are a lot better than Oxford?
Actually, three things became apparent within a minute of the game starting which certainly pointed to the possibility of a big improvement from Thursday. First, it appeared that the team had been stung by the criticism they’d taken in the past few days, we saw much more attacking intent from the start as Callum O’Dowda drove forward and played an incisive forward pass (we saw so few of them at Oxford). This leads me on to the second thing – this was not one of those days when Callum Robinson seems weighed down by what we’re told is the chronic injury which troubles him from time to time.
Today, Robinson lasted the whole ninety nine minutes and gave Ryan Portious in particular such an uncomfortable opening forty five minutes that the Scottish international defender didn’t come back out after half time. Robinson’s movement and, surprising physicality caused problems and, of course, he was helped along the way to producing such an effective performance by the way he took O’Dowda’s pass in his stride, pushed the ball to his left and then shot low beyond Daniel Bachmann from fifteen yards with just fifty five seconds played.
The third pointer came in Robinson’s reaction to City’s perfect start as he raced towards the dug out to hug Omer Riza. Yes, public shows of support for an under fire manager can be cosmetic and crass as it can fall into the sort of kiss the badge crap that you get from some players who had probably never even heard of the place they’re representing until they signed for them, but this felt genuine – a sign that the players, or at least some of them, still do back the manager even if recent team performances don’t suggest it.
For ten minutes after the goal City continued to press forward against a home team that were definitely struggling to come to terms with their struggling opponents. This leads me on to the fourth and final pointer when it came to a difference from Boxing Day as Omer Riza proves he reads the Feedbank section of this blog!
One of the regular correspondents on here called Callum Chambers a false number five after another dodgy defensive showing on Thursday and our manager clearly agreed as he deployed Chambers in that self same false number five role from the off today. Actually, what Riza did was use Chambers as a defensive midfielder alongside Manolis Siopis with Alex Robertson pushed further forward into the most forward thinking of a midfield three in front of what was now a back four with Andy Rinomhota and O’Dowda orthodox full backs with Jesper Daland recalled to partner Dimi Goutas.
Moving Chambers forward worked, he’s always been able to pass the ball, but at times it’s seemed like it was all that was keeping him in the team whereas here he was seen to better effect defensively and with Siopis having a good day, Watford, despite dominating possession, were largely kept at arm’s length.
If it became harder to play through City’s middle, the same could be said about our right where Rinomhota had, perhaps, his best game in City’s colours. Giorgi Chakvetadze has been Watford’s outstanding player this season as he has been very influential coming in off the left, but although he scored their equaliser, he lost his personal dual with Rinomhota who did an old fashioned man to man marking type job on him. Rinomhota was helped by a very effective defensive contribution by Cian Ashford who won tackles galore as he defended excellently to the extent that his more natural attacking game perhaps suffered to some extent. Ashford did have a dodgy five minutes around the time Watford equalised, but recovered superbly after that and gave what was definitely his best first team showing so far, while showing a football intelligence and discipline that most of the more senior players thought to be ahead of him in the wide player/winger pecking order lack.
Gradually, Watford began to recover their normal attitude at home and City were pushed further back as it began to feel like an equaliser was coming. Before it did though, City broke effectively again and Robinson beat his marker down our left before crossing to Ashford who was unmarked some ten yards out – it was a difficult ball to get in a telling shot from, but Ashford has the ability to have got away a good strike so it was disappointing to see his effort fly well wide.
A few minutes later Rocco Vata got to the bye line on the City left and crossed. With the centrebacks drawn to the near post, Rinomhota was forced infield and Chakvetadze was left unmarked beyond the far post. I suppose Ashford should have been out there marking the Georgian, but he realised the danger too late and a second or two later, the ball was in our net.
Watford had come from behind to beat Portsmouth on Boxing Day and so it felt like service as normal would now resume for both teams. However, oddly for a team that struggles to score at home so much, City are fairly free scoring on their travels at the moment and they came up with their eighth goal in three and a half away games within four minutes of losing their lead.
Chris Willock was to blame for the so important first goal on Thursday, but here he maintained the improved form he’s shown in recent matches and his lovely pass inside a defender for Ashford to run on to split the home defence. The youngster then showed that maturity I talked about earlier as, rather than shoot, he rolled over the perfect cross to leave Robinson with a tap in on the far post.
It’s worth noting that this was Robinson’s eighth goal of the season and so, you’d think that, unless he gets a bad injury, we should end this season with a forward in double figures in the goal scoring stakes.
The second half saw home players and supporters getting more and more frustrat3d with their opponents and the referee Sam Allison who I thought got most things right, but I suppose I would say that wouldn’t I.
Apparently, Watford have been very much a second half team this season, but, if anything, City were more comfortable after the break as they had chances to make it 3-1, especially when Siopis moved on to a Robinson cross and came as close as he’s done yet to scoring for us with a shot that was deflected narrowly wide by a defender.
Robinson and O’Dowda were both off target with headers from reasonable opportunities and Ollie Tanner, on as a sub following his recent injury, had a shot tipped over by Bachmann.
Watford exerted more and more pressure as time went on, but it was never that effective or incisive and their best chance came from a long thrown where the ball bobbled about before sub Daniel Jebbison did not get a proper contact on his header from within the six yard box.
Last season when we were used to winning away from home, the closing minutes would have seemed fairly comfortable, but, after what happened at Coventry and Stoke, it was always going to be nervy today.
However, after a marathon, but probably justified, spell of added time the whistle finally blew to stop our winless run going into double figures. Having dished out what I thought was justified stick to some of our players after our last game, it’s only right that I credit them for a display that I feel deserved the three points. The problem is though that after half a season, I can only think of about six games where I can truthfully say we deserved to win.
However, I maintain that the nature of some of our victories means that we have it within us to survive fairly comfortably this season and so I still am wary about some of the senior players who have shown too little sign so far that they can play as selflessly as Cian Ashford did today.
Finally, I’d like to wish all readers a Happy 2025.