The first game against a Bath City team that had not played a game in months (it may even be years!) apart, Cardiff City’s pre season programme consisted of one match against a Premier League side, three against teams that are in League 2 (Division Four in old money) and two against a side that were promoted from that section last season (both of them lasted an hour against Cambridge United)..
Looking at it now from a distance of nearly four days, the 4-0 loss to top flight outfit Southampton does not seem as bad as it did at the time. It was some way short of a full strength City side that night and our opponents started out with a strong looking team and, arguably, had an even more powerful one at the final whistle.
No, the reason why I’ve been finding our warm up matches a cause for concern is that in our two games against Cambridge and in the ones against Forest Green and Exeter, a football fan who knew nothing about any of the sides involved would never have believed you if you had told them that in all four matches there was a side who were two leagues higher than the others back in May involved.
It wasn’t just City’s failure to make their alleged superiority count, it was that as each game went by, there was no sign of the gradual improvement in fitness, understanding and performance you would expect to see as a pre season schedule progresses.
So, there was just one game left to go, against our nearest neighbours Newport County at Cardiff City Stadium this afternoon, for City to allay those doubts – if it was possible to do so in just ninety minutes.
Well, I think City went some way to doing that with a 2-0 victory that could, and probably should, have been a bigger one. Newport passed the ball neatly at times and Alex Smithies, surprisingly picked in front of Dillon Phillips, was forced to make a fine first half save from a Matt Upson header, but this was what you would expect to get when a top half Championship side takes on a strong League Two team at home.
Unlike on Tuesday, City’s side looked very like the one you’d expect to see line up against Barnsley in seven days time for the first competitive game of the season. In my last article on here, I outlined the various injury/Covid concerns we had at that time, but things have improved on that score to the extent that Sean Morrison and Leandro Bacuna were able to see their first pre season action as they both played the first hour, Ryan Wintle came on as one of a raft of changes we made on the sixty minute mark and Curtis Nelson was on for the whole game.
Both of the goals were beauties in their different ways and exemplified an approach which was somewhat at odds with the crash, bang wallop stuff I spent so much time moaning about on here.
For the first one, which arrived around the twenty minute mark, City played up to their image at first with a Marlon Pack long throw that was half cleared by County back to the midfielder who, instead of lumping it straight back in, exchanged short passes with Perry Ng before picking out Joe Ralls some twenty five yards out who arrowed a left footed shot high up into the net beyond keeper Townsend.
The second one was scored late on and owed so much to a lovely bit of play by Ryan Giles out on the left as he faced up his marker and then jinked past him on the outside before delivering a perfect low ball into that really dangerous area between goalkeeper and central defenders which was touched in from six yards by the lively Mark Harris who made a good impression as one of the subs who came on for that final half an hour.
It really was a piece of play by Giles which promises much for the months ahead, because, it’s hard to imagine how it could be bettered when it comes to wide attacking play.
Giles was close to getting his first City goal when he shot just wide in the first half and then became one of quite a few of our players to be denied in the second half by fine saves by our former keeper Joe Day who was on as a half time sub.
Off the top of my head, Ralls, and subs Lee Tomlin and Will Vaulks were among those who were foiled by Day while James Collins also had a header cleared off the line. Also, in the dying seconds of the first period, Bacuna was guilty of missing a simple chance from about eight yards out with no outfield opponent within yards of him after Giles had picked him out.
Although we’ve still got Keiffer Moore and Josh Murphy to come back and I’m more optimistic about Giles as he offers that very rare commodity by Cardiff City’s standards, a combination of creativity and pace, I still can see us struggling to open sides up and I’m not just referring to his miss here when I say employing Bacuna in a front three only tends to suggest my doubts are not misplaced..
Nevertheless, this was more encouraging overall from City – hardly beating Newcastle 4-1 stuff as we did in our final pre season match in our Championship winning 12/13 campaign, but evidence that the next nine months might not be as bad as the seventeenth and twentieth placed finishes I’ve seen predicted for us in the last twenty four hours.
Whenever I’m asked to predict at the start of any season where we will finish, I tend to reply that I might give an answer after the transfer window closes. However, with the transfer market having been very quiet throughout the summer, I’d say this, more than any other season, is probably one where I might be tempted into an opinion on the grounds that the various squads probably won’t look too much different in early September than they do now.
So, here’s a prediction of sorts for 21/22 – if there are no more new players to come in before the window closes, I will be very, very pleasantly surprised if we improve on last year’s eighth place finish.
However, with Gavin Whyte’s return to Oxford United on a season long loan deal confirmed today, we may see another newcomer if we’re operating on a one out, one in recruitment basis. Therefore, maybe we will see a Welsh international signing on the dotted line for us in the coming days, but will it be Marley Watkins or Gareth Bale?