City's 2nd consecutive clean sheet is one of the very few positives to be taken from another poor display. I should be grateful for decent results but I don't think I have ever been so bored in my life watching City collect 4 points from 2 games.
Make no mistake, Luton are very average at best, poor at worst and may well be set for a season long relegation battle. They arrived at Ninian Park having lost their 4 opening matches with 13 goals conceded. They departed with possibly the most comfortable away point they will collect all season but are now bottom of the table. What does that tell you about City's display and efforts?
Lennie and The Bluebirds may point to more justifiable penalty decisions being declined and a little bad luck but they had some major let offs too. Overall, City never deserved to win and never looked like winning.
There are a few reasons but few will disagree with an assertion that Lennie Lawrence
is paying the price for continued home use of some wrong tactics, definitely some bad selections and undoubtedly the wrong formation. He openly admits to being worried about home form and use of 4-3-3 at Ninian but seems to be relying on hoping fortunes will change rather than making it happen.
He makes all the right noises to the media about changing the system, getting midfielders to advance, changing some key personnel but then does nothing. 4-3-3 is perfect for City away but we have been truly sussed with it at Ninian Park.
Teams visit The Theatre of Sleep with no ambition to win these days. They are happy to pack the defence and midfield to take a draw. City, with no width and a man less in midfield, play into their hands. Home performances often descend into tedious, poor Route One style play. Unless a set piece (only 1 of our 7 league goals have been from open play) or moment of quality unsettles visitors, nothing happens. We know it, the manager surely knows it too so why doing nothing about it?
The stats speak for themselves. In the last 9 away games, City have won 8 and drawn 1 but the last 9 home games with the same players have brought 4 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats - more than half the visitors have gone home with a result. This season's home form is worrying already, 5 points dropped in our opening 3 Ninian clashes to teams who currently stand 17th, 22nd and 24th. The only side beaten at home had 10 men for an hour and still threatened to snatch a result until late on. It is clearly not good enough and has to be corrected or a promotion campaign will become a promotion struggle.
Just as importantly, City want big crowds and whilst results are all important, fans have a right to be entertained for the money that the club now expect us to pay. All home crowds so far have exceeded 13,000 but it is easy to imagine crowds are on the verge of dropping. The only controlled football this season was the opening 20 minutes against Port Vale, it is been pretty awful otherwise.
Lennie proclaimed before the holiday weekend that he use his huge squad to the full with 2 games in 3 days. He spoke of his joy of 2 players in every position. Before kick-off today, he praised Earnie for coming back to form and gave heavy hints that he would start. He had Willie Boland available too and some players who have not really produced in the side for some time - Kavanagh and Campbell the most obvious. Yet, he made no changes at all to his starting line up or the system, he must be regretting it now.
The first half ranks amongst the poorest 45 minutes of football I have seen at any level for a long time. City fans were patient but when they resort to providing their own entertainment by trying to get various parts of the ground and Sam to Do The Ayatollah, Do The David Seaman and Do The Bounce within 20 minutes of kick-off, it says more about the lack of quality and thrills on the pitch than I can.
Lennie reminded everyone that Ninian was a funeral atmosphere last time they visited Ninian Park. He was their manager, the crowd was 3,500 and Frank Burrows was sacked by City after the game. Today, he discovered that unless the fans get some football to watch, it's still a funeral with 10,000 more inside. Luton fans reminded him of his spell in charge there by singing "Lennie is a w*nker", he waved back to them.
The first-half can be covered in 1 paragraph. City created a couple of half chances. Weston shot over from distance, Leo brought a save with a shot on the turn. Campbell's only notable action of the match was a harsh booking after some Luton play-acting, he is totally lost lately. Thorne brought a good save out of Roberts with a rasping 30 yard drive. Captain Fantastic (Kav) wasn't wearing his captain armband, maybe he was embarrassed. Luton nearly got through twice after City pushed too many forward or made a blunder. It was mostly awful, no imagination Route One football, easy for Luton's big defenders. City started poorly and managed to succeed in getting worse. Good business for the bars though, it was enough to send a teetotaller looking for solace in drink.
Half-time: CITY 0 LUTON 0
Has anyone else noticed that you can almost set your watch to Lennie's 2nd half substitutions? Whether we're chasing the game or preserving what we have, change usually arrives on the hour and then during 75-80 minutes.
It was so bad today that Lennie couldn't wait that long as City showed no signs of waking up, Kav dropped deeper and parked himself in front of our back four, that'll hurt Luton. It just couldn't continue so on 55 minutes, on came Willie Boland for Leo. The decision wasn't popular but Leo, visibly unhappy with the decision, wasn't in the game today, ex-City player Russ Perrett played him well. City went 3-4-3 with Gabby-Prior-Weston across the back, Croft pushed right, Kav playing behind the strikers and Thorne made a centre forward but still City couldn't break them down.
Five minutes later, on the hour, Eranie replaced the despondent Campbell. It is a total mystery to everyone except Lennie why Campbell starts every game whilst Eranie sits on the bench until the final 20-30 minutes especially when Earnie, while maybe not at his best, continually outshines him and make 3 times as much happen in his cameo appearances.
City now had all the possession and territory but remained unable to do anything too threatening. Desperation had set in, mostly long Route One ball or crosses from deep. The closest was Thorne nearly beating Roberts with a well placed looping header. There were a few corners and Legg throws but Luton stood firm. City's tactics suited them.
There were two of three appeals for penalties, a couple were definitely handball but they were waved aside. After Barry Knight at the weekend, we had to endure Paul Damson today, who have we annoyed at the FA to get both of these officials within 48 hours?
As City pushed forward more, they became vulnerable at the back. They were starting to feel the pressure and show anxiety but it was all self-inflicted. Alexander saved a routine Howard effort, the same player header inches over the bar although it was covered but then he had Alexander sprawling to save his 20 yard volley presented to him by a terrible misplaced Gabbidon pass across the penalty area.
The closing stages were tense, the need for midfield inspiration and a genuine wide player more obvious than ever. Regular stoppages followed as City's no brain aerial assault of Luton's penalty area caused injuries to players of both sides, Luton's Hughes limped out, Peter Thorne patched up after a head cut.
With 7 minutes to go, history was made (I think) as Graham Kavanagh was subbed for the first time in his City career. Most of us have accepted some time ago that he has a lot of quiet games but it has been several months since he was a force for Cardiff, another problem that needs to be remedied.
Whilst some continually talk up Kav's superb 15 goal return in a 38 game run last season, he has been living on this past glory and form for too long. Being Captain and a big money signing seems to make him the first name on the team sheet, a lesser "name" would have been dropped long ago.
Kav has not produced since returning from a suspension and trying to avoid another during the play-off run in last term, he went badly missing during both of the Stoke play-off clashes and he has been an anonymous figure this season too. Just 1 goal in his last 14 appearances during this spell underlines it all. The wild cheers which greeted his substitution were perhaps cruel but understandable to many.
The closing moments brought the best chances of the match for both teams. The first fell to Luton who broke quickly. A through ball saw sub Robinson race unopposed into City's area and looking certain to score. Nothing wrong with his shot but Alexander produced a fantastic point blank reaction save to save the day and more embarrassment.
Then, with the final kick in the four minutes of added time, an edge of area scramble resulted in the ball breaking to Earnie who broke clear of defenders for City's best (only?) opening. It was heart breaking agony to see his low shot across goal smack the inside of the far post, bounce out, the rebound hit Whalley and go behind. It would have been celebrated wildly and gladly taken but it would have been more than we deserved it on the day.
10 points and 5th place after 5 games remains a good start to the season but it could and should have been so much better. We cannot afford to keep dropping home points in this style. With a transfer deadline window looming this Friday, how can City claim to have 2 players in every position when we don't have a single wide man at the club? It stifles our play in so many ways, midfielders have their passing options reduced, forwards are starved of decent service and play is often reduced to a Route One slog.
I hope it's not too late for the collective brains at Ninian to have a deep think otherwise we are in grave danger of making this campaign unnecessarily hard on ourselves.
Report by FootyMad.
Cardiff City dropped more home points after they were held to a scoreless draw by a Luton side that had leaked 14 goals in their previous four games.
City boss Lenny Lawrence kept faith with his 4-3-3 formation following the Bluebirds success at Swindon on Saturday but he was foreced to switch to a five-man midfield for the second half as the Luton defence stood firm.
City were far from fluent in the opening period with only a crisp 20-yard shot from Peter Thorne troubling Hatters on-loan keeper Ben Roberts.
Former Bluebird Russell Perrett won most of his aerial battles with City's leading scorer Leo Fortune-West but the match was dominated throughout both halves by the whistle of fussy referee Paul Danson who blue with monotonous regularity.
Goalmouth incidents were few and far between though City keeper Neil Alexander had to be alert to turn a 55th minute shot from Steve Howard and then he did even better to keep out a point blank shot from late substitute Steve Robinson.
In the final minute, Robert Earnshaw who had come on for the ineffective Andy Campell on the hour struck the post with Roberts beaten.
"I think a draw was a fair result," said Bluebirds boss Lennie Lawrence.
"We could well have lost a match if Alexander had not made a save in the game but then there again if Earnie's shot had won it for us it would have been most unfair for Luton."
Luton manager Joe Kinnear was very pleased to gain a point at Ninian Park: "It was very nice to stop the goals going in. We played well and even had the best chance of the game.
"We expected a lot of aerial passes and that is what we got in the second half but we have practised them all week and my centre-backs defended very well."
External reports
www.bbc.co.uk (inc audio)
The Western Mail