At around eight o clock, Cardiff City finally achieved what you sometimes thought was their goal for this season – after months and months of almost managing it, they finally dropped into the bottom three of the Championship.
Watford took eleven minutes to score against us at Vicarage Road and with QPR going an early goal in front against Norwich, City’s future in the Championship looked as bleak as at any time since their return to this level twenty years ago.
The situation seemed all the worse because of the confirmation on Monday that Callum Robinson’s season was over because of the hamstring injury he had picked a couple of months ago in the home win over ReDing and Jaden Philogene had been ruled out of the game with an undisclosed injury. Add on that Rubin Colwill’s depressing campaign saw him missing out with his latest injury and a squad already suffering with a shortage of what is called “difference makers” these days were now in the relegation zone with not one player who could be described in that manner available to them.
There was certainly a functional look to the City team at the start of the game. After the bizarre use of Callum O’Dowda in the back three on Saturday, it was the usual Ng, Kipre, McGuinness trio with Mahlon Romeo and O’Dowda as wing backs. There was no recall for Romaine Sawyers as Ryan Wintle, Joe Ralls and Andy Rinomhota were Sabri Lamouchi’s midfield choices along with a front two of Sory Kaba and Kion Etete.
It looked like City would have to go for an in their faces, hard working approach and hope they could battle their way to a low scoring draw or win, but with recent games showing a tendency to start matches slowly, would City be up for the fight?
Well, what we got was possibly the most passive, low key and dispirited looking start to a match this season as the attitude seemed to be to let Watford have as much of the ball as they wanted and stand off them in all areas of the pitch.
Watford have been one of the division’s real under achievers this season and although I’ve not seen a great deal of them, their results suggest a team that don’t like it up em Captain Mainwaring – give them the time to play and they might take you to the cleaners (as they did at Cardiff City Stadium to a degree), but make it a battle and they might not fancy it.
It was strange then that having picked a team which suggested a battle, Lamouchi’s side were giving the impression that this was the last thing they wanted. At the time Watford scored the possession stats were 88/12 in their favour and the manner in which the goal arrived suggested that this was going to be a long and miserable night for City.
Imran Louza was given all of the time he wanted some thirty five yards from goal to chip in a cross that an unmarked Keinan Davis who nodded into the path of Ismaila Sarr who couldn’t miss from six yards out.
It was a absolutely shocking goal to concede and I doubt it if Watford had scored an easier goal all season. There was a thread on the messageboard I use which said that before this latest set of midweek matches, City had been 15/2 to go down, well, on the evidence of the first quarter of an hour or so15/2 on would have been about right.
I used the word easy and perhaps it all got a bit too easy for Watford. Certainly, the game began to change, amazingly and beautifully from a City perspective, Somehow, Watford ended up being booed off by their fans at half time with one of them unable to contain his fury and frustration as he had ran onto the pitch to stage a one man protest a few minutes earlier!
It was hard not to see comparisons with the win at Blackpool on Good Friday as City ripped a team apart for a golden twenty minutes or so, but that was a team that is, almost certainly, going to be in League One next season, this was a side that was thinking a Play Off place was on for them after they’d comfortably beaten BristolCity 2-0 on Saturday.
Quite how Watford managed that clean sheet is beyond me based on how they defended tonight, but you’ve got to give credit to the front .At Blackpool Kaba and Connor Wickham lorded it over their markers tonight, encouragingly for City, it was Kaba and a young forward who is our player who were causing the damage – when Etete is on his game, he’s already an effective Championship forward and I think he’s come on leaps and bounds under Lamouchi.
As I hinted at, the change in the balance of the game took some time to become fully apparent, but the first hints came as it began to become clearer that Watford were nothing special at all when they didn’t have the ball. Wintle, Ralls and Rinomhota may not be the most creative or skillful of midfield conbinations, but give them time on the ball and they’ll come up with passing which troubles defences and so it proved as the home side gradually crumbled – I should also mention that Sabri Lamouchi said post game that he’d pushed Wintle forward a bit once we’d fallen behind.
The first hint of what was to come arrived when O’Dowda was sent galloping down the left and City asked for a penalty as the home team’s teenage right back Ryan Andrews made contact with him – my view was that O’Dowda had lost control of the ball to an extent and there wasn’t enough in it to merit a penalty.
City were fighting back in the possession stakes and finding room in the middle of the park while the strikers were also winning their share of headers – it was all mildly encouraging, but only that because there was no sign of a goal from a team that, before tonight, had not once come back to win a game from a losing position all season.
The prelude to what was ten minutes of glorious, completely unexpected madness was an incident which saw Etete flick on a long ball. There didn’t seem much need for Watford concern until defender Wesley Hoedt missed his clearance and suddenly Kaba was in the clear. With goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann well off his line and the ball bouncing, a lob was the obvious option for Kaba, but he sent his effort over the keeper and on to the top of the net.
It looked like a big miss for a few minutes, but, in the end it counted for little as City scored twice in four minutes soon afterwards.
The equaliser arrived just past the half an hour mark as two passes opened up the brittle home defence as Ng slid in Rinomhota in plenty of space. The ex Reading man took the ball forward a few yards and then found Etete in an inside right channel just inside the penalty area and he turned past a defender, before cutting in to place a clever shot across Bachmann and beyond a defender into the far corner of the net.
It was only Etete’s second ever goal for City, but given the calmness and quality of this effort you can’t help thinking there’ll be plenty more to come from the youngster.
It really was one of the best goals City had scored this season which is more than I can say for the second one which came from a Ralls free kick that was half cleared to Wintle whose twenty five yard effort was well struck, but unlikely to bother Bachman too much, but the ball ricocheted off a defender into the path of Kipre who smacked in his second City goal from around the same spot Etete had scored from.
Kipre’s other goal came when he put us ahead in the home game with Watford in November only for them to run out deserved winners, but this time, City, rightly, sensed that, with a mutinous crowd on their backs, their opponents were there for the taking and a third goal duly arrived in the forty first minute.
Right from his first game for us, the evidence was there that Sory Kaba likes an overhead kick volley – he’s tried four or five of them before and I can remember him coming pretty close with one of them. This time the execution was perfect as Kaba was given enough room by Ryan Porteous to take a nice ball in by Ng on his chest and then bicycle kick his shot past a helpless Bachmann from about eoight yards out.
If Etete’s effort was a goal of the season candidate, Kaba’s was probably the winner of that award. To score seven goals in so short a time in a team that has had such trouble putting the ball in the back of the net proves that, for all that he can look ordinary outside the penalty area at times, Kaba has the priceless knack of sticking the ball in the net – if we do stay up, he’ll have played a massive part in that achievement.
Kaba would have been celebrating a second soon after were it not for a panicky clearance of Etete’s cross over his own crossbar by Hassane Kamara and then from the corner, McGuinness prodded his close range shot a foot wide after more poor home defending.
Little wonder that Watford sloped off at half time with the crowd venting their frustration at a team that they were beginning to accept they’d be watching in the Championship again next season.
For the second time in seven months, Chris Wilder faced a half time team talk with his side having conceded three first half goals to City and, with an underwhelming start to his Watford career, he could be set for a very short time under the most trigger happy owners in British football.
In his post match interview, Wilder sounded like he was almost expecting the sack, when asked what had gone wrong with his side, he replied simply, and correctly in my view, “there’s no I in team”. Wilder explained that after an encouraging start, it became all about individuals for his side as tricks, flicks and attempted spectacular passes took over with not enough being done to stop the opposition when they had the ball.
Wilder listed the managers who had tried but failed to overcome this trait in his team and accepted that the men in charge might want someone else take charge of what he reckoned needed to be a complete overhaul of the playing staff..
At Middlesbrough in September, Wilder was able to get his team back to 2-3 at full time after it had been 0-3 at half time. Here, he was able to draw the second half 0-0 as City hung on pretty comfortably to their two goal lead.
In their position, it was also going to be about hanging on to what they had and only when substitute Connor Wickham almost turned in Ng’s free kick did City look like reaching four goals scored for the first time this season. Up the other end, Watford put City under a lot of pressure, but only when Allsop comfortably saved Sara’s close range effort and sub Ken Sema put a good chance over did City have any cause for concern as the Blackpool comparison extended to include a similar, but better, second half showing compared to our win by the seaside.
Elsewhere, Norwich were able to come back to get a draw at QPR which allowed us to leapfrog the London club who have also played a game more than us – they go to a Burnley team looking to clinch the title in front of their own fans on Saturday before a trip to Stoke and a home game with Bristol City to finish things off.
Reading also led a promotion chasing side at home as Andy Carroll, who was later sent off, put them ahead against Luton, but Luton levelled things with ten minutes left and now the Royals have a trip to Coventry, a home game with a Wigan team who may be down by then and a potential showdown at Huddersfield in which to save themselves.
City have also moved above Huddersfield who do not play now until they come to Cardiff in ten days time. Their scheduled game this weekend at home to Sheffield United will now be played three days after their game with us at a time when their opponents will probably have already been promoted then there’s the match with Reading to finish – that doesn’t look too bad a run in for a side which picked up a good 1-1 draw at Sunderland on Tuesday.
Huddersfield had come back from 1-0 down to get their point and Rotherham were twice trailing at home to Burnley but fought back to level both times. With forty six points and a game in hand on everyone at the bottom bar us, Rotherham should survive – they go to Bristol City on Saturday before facing us in the game rearranged for next Thursday, they then have another home game with Middlesbrough before finishing at Wigan.
Apart from us, the only winners at the bottom in this latest round of games were Wigan, but such is their plight that they probably need to win their three remaining matches at home to Play Off chasing Millwall before those matches against Reading and Rotherham where a Wigan win would hurt a relegation rival.
Blackpool who gave themselves a slim chance by beating Wigan last weekend, promptly handed it back again when they were beaten 2-0 at home by West Brom. Barring a dramatic change in both clubs goal differences, Blackpool now need to win at Birmingham on Saturday, at home to Millwall in eight days time and at Norwich on the final day to have a chance of overhauling us.
As for us, we’re too deep in the mire for there to be a with one bound they were free type moment that would save us, but, after last night, surely only Rotherham of the seven sides the relegation trio will come from would not want to swap places with us.
I’d be very confident of us staying up were it not for the fact that we’re so bloody awful at home – we’ve got a team who lost at home to the side who are bottom of the table in their last game and another who will be below us in the table to face in our final two matches at Cardiff City Stadium, as Sabri Lamouchi said after the win at Watford, it’s about time City’s long suffering home fans were given something to cheer.