City fans were, of course, pleased with what they had seen and should be rightly proud too. On a day when Cardiff City’s numbered ball didn’t feature in the F.A. Cup First Round draw for the first time in 19 years, we can take immense pleasure that we instead now live very comfortably in the company of teams like Sunderland and West Ham. That’s major progress when you think it was only just over 3 years ago, City had to fightback to grab a draw at Carlisle!!
On the night however, if I had a criticism, I honestly felt West Ham were there to be beaten but Lennie and City showed them far too much respect and were not positive enough. A little more belief and adventure and I believe we would have celebrated victory instead of a noble draw.
Sky tv meant that last weekend’s away clash at Coventry kicked-off at 12:30 and they were back, this time the game started at 5:35pm. Great exposure for the club but it does feel strange sitting in the pub beforehand watching all the other score updates, results and that F.A. Cup draw take place on a Saturday afternoon before our game even starts.
There was a buzz about the place for a game we were looking forward to. The big crowd attracted vendors from everywhere. Apart from the merchandise sellers, there were an incredible number of burger vans dotted around whilst one psycho parked up his ice cream van by the railway bridges. Anyone want to confess to buying a “99” after their pre-match bevies on a Saturday night when it was almost freezing?
City still had injury and suspension problems denying them Weston, Boland, Lee, Thorne and Campbell in particular and, effectively, only had 17 players to select from but that was one more than last week with Captain Kav back after a 1 game ban.
Kav resumed his place in midfield at the expense of Gareth Whalley who was apparently carrying a slight foot injury anyway so City lined up (4-4-2) with Alexander – Croft, Gabbidon, Vidmar, Barker – Langley, Kavanagh, Boland, Robinson – Earnie and Gavin Gordon.
West Ham had Alan Pardew taking full charge for the first time following his “one month’s gardening leave” after walking out on Reading and allowing Trevor Brooking to look after the team in midweek. They were in 5th place at the start of the day, 7 points above City having played 1 game more, 2 points off West Brom in 2nd and 4 points off leaders Wigan with a game in hand. They were unbeaten in 6 league games but the previous three all been draws. It has seen them lose a little ground in their quest for an immediate Premiership return.
Pardew wasted no time in changing things by introducing two new defensive loan signings in Robbie Stockdale form Middlesborough and Crystal Palace’s Haydn Mullins who marked Earnie just three weeks beforehand and making other changes.
Their line up was England’s basketball-sized David James in goals behind a back four of Stockdale, Tomas Repke, Christian Dailly and Mullins. A strong midfield of Matthew Etherington, Don Hutchinson, Michael Carrick and Wayne Quinn supported an excellent twin strike threat in Jermaine Defoe and David Connolly with 17 goals between them already.
Conditions - a clear Autumn evening with no breeze after a sunny day – were perfect and a packed, boisterous Ninian Park looked as grand as it can in its old age except … where the hell were West Ham? Their 2,000 allocation was reduced to 1,500 due to problems they caused amongst themselves in last month’s Carling Cup tie but that proved to be way too many anyway as a club with great status and who attract over 30,000 to home games could only muster less than 900 tonight. Even if it was just for bravado, I thought they would have had no problems selling their allocation.
Cardiff fans mocked their support – “10 boys, you’ve only got 10 boys” and plenty more I won’t go into here. Those present were quiet anyway apart from one rendition of “I’m forever blowing bubbles”, maybe the rest of them were home doing that. There will be inevitable chants of “Where were you at Ninian Park?” when we visit Upton Park in February, the Hammers will full deserve it too.
On the pitch, City started nervously, slowly and poorly allowing West Ham six pot shots at Neil Alexander in the opening quarter of an hour. Every chance was the direct result of a Cardiff City basic error. The Hammers enjoyed so much possession with City unable to get into the game at all that the guy next to me checked a couple of times to see if each side did indeed have 11 players.
Defoe, looking lively at the start, came closest with a shot on the turn that Alexander saved smartly. That came from Mark Bonner carelessly losing the ball in midfield but others were guilty of basic mistakes too. City were failing to close down players, too tight and played football in the wrong places, usually deep in their own half making those mistakes inevitable. Passes were either given 4 feet to the nearest man or smacked 40 yards downfield.
Some relief came on 13 minutes when David Connolly limped off after a shot to be replaced by Neil Mellor, on a season’s loan from Liverpool, but almost immediately they made another problem as Richard Langley needlessly tripped him just outside the area in prime shooting position. Don Hutchinson stood over the ball ominously but his curling ineffective effort was easily smothered by Alexander.
Having survived the opening blitz, City hit back gradually taking over the game and creating all the best chances of the night.
Tony Vidmar, the best performer on the pitch from both sides, turned the tide with a searing 60 yard charge out of the defence and through West Ham’s left side, his cross cut out with Gordon and Eranie waiting to pounce. Minutes later, Danny Gabbidon almost emulated him but in-between, City built patiently, Chris Barker getting over his uneasy start fired a far post cross which Gordon nodded across goal text-book style to Mark Bonner who stretched and fired well over from 12 yards. An excellent chance which, sadly, fell to the wrong player.
It was hotting up nicely despite a pedantic, whistle happy ref affecting the natural flow of the game. At one stage, ref Ryan ruled a foul when West Ham took a throw 15 yards further upfield. He gave Barker no guidance so when he took it from the same spot, he ruled foul throw again and gave it back to West Ham. The linesman made a worse gaffe as Danny Gabbidon burst on and laid the ball to Earnie breaking clear only for the lino to flag offside against Gordon not interfering and running back. It infuriated the ground.
John Robinson had become hugely influential on the game, his passion transferring to other players and the crowd from the opening seconds when he made a crunching challenge on Stockdale. He even seemed to be taking on ref duties as he chatted the official at every opportunity. Robbo came closest to opening the account as his low edge of area drive deflected by Repke was just stopped by James’ sprawling legs as he had dived in the opposite direction.
The ground noise was making up for Concorde’s retirement as City were now on top, another Gabbidon surge saw Richard Langley’s best piece of football in a while as he broke past two defenders and got beyond the West Ham defence in the area, his ball across goal was cut out as Earnie was ready to pounce at the far post.
West Ham were still getting forward, Defoe tried jinking runs but with Gabbidon mastering him and Vidmar dealing with the rest, City’s central defence were enjoying total control limiting the Hammers to nothing more than average distance efforts. City’s and the game’s best chance of the night came on 35 minutes.
Tony Vidmar advanced again sending over a classic curling ball which caught out West Ham and found Gavin Gordon racing in unmarked at the far post who instinctively launched into a diving header across goal that had James beaten but also his far post by about a foot. It was an excellent effort but agonising too. Gordon was unlucky but, at this level, the target must be hit with opportunities like that. He had time to control the ball first and shoot instead of heading.
Half-Time: CITY 0 WHU 0
After a thrilling, better by the minute, first period, there was massive anticipation of what was to come but City, and the game, never quite reached the same heights. West Ham had a lot of the ball and stats show they had more efforts at goal but it was always Cardiff who carried the threat, looked the likelier to score and they hit more efforts on target.
The Hammers made a change at the start of the 2nd period, ex-England international Robert Lee now 37 years old replaced the injured Haydn Mullings. Lee’s been around so long that I saw him play against City when we won last ever away match at this level before this season – a 4-1 at Charlton in 1985 (So long ago that our scorers – Joe Dwyer, Jimmy Mullen and Graham Withey (2) probably visit the Post Office every Thursday morning!!) Ah memories!
The game got tighter as Lee settled the visitors and City, although trying for the win, became more cautious in their approach. Notably, in shades of last season, Graham Kavanagh sat very deep in front of the back four. It made Bonner, Langley and Robinson work harder and kept them deeper leaving Earnie and Gordon to search for scraps.
They were obviously acting under orders but City’s cautious ways made the 0-0 look inevitable. It was obvious to anybody that goals would only come from a mistake or a moment of magic.
City’s defence were totally bossing West Ham. Barker looked great, Vidmar was imperious and Danny Gabbidon totally swamped Defoe winning the ball time after time or ushering him wide or away or the rare occasions he took it. The only threat came from Matthew Etherington who twice comprehensively beat Gary Croft but his crosses were just about cut out although Defoe met one with a header that Vidmar chested behind. Alexander’s only save needed was a good one to meet a Lee 25 yard volley.
Cardiff had more chances as David James had plenty of work to do. He saved from Robinson, watched Earnie fire just wide then react smartly to touch a Gordon 30 yard howitzer over the bar. Earnie was back for more as he cut inside and fired a vicious rising drive across James that he was relieved to see pass his far post then he got down well to save as Earnie showed exemplary technique to volley from the edge of the area a ball dropping from high.
With just over 20 minutes left came the moment that confirmed it wasn’t to be City’s night. Dailly’s weak headed clearance was smashed back low and with interest by Robinson, James was well beaten but the ball smacked back off his post and luckily, missed Cardiff players as it came away.
The final 20 minutes petered out with little to be excited about as both sides settled for the point. Gabbidon fired wide and Croft made James save low with a weak effort when space opened before him. City warmed up subs and you really felt Lennie should have used Julian Gray, particularly if he wanted to win the game but he carried on with the same eleven until Gavin Gordon cramped up just before injury time to be replaced by James Collins acting as an emergency forward.
The biggest cheer was the crowd announcement of 19,202, Ninian Park’s largest league crowd since John Buchanan’s 35 yarder (or was it 45?!!) to get the last gasp 3-3 against John Toshack’s Jacks then on their rise to the top back at Christmas 1980. It says everything about City’s decline since that a club as big as we know City are have failed to attract 20,000 since.
Cardiff came out of the game with immense credit. They gave West Ham a torrid time and on any other night, would probably have won. Only bad luck and not quite so bad finishing denied us. I can’t however get rid of the nagging feeling that we should and would have won if only we had shown more belief and positiveness in our tactics. At times, we seemed to be more conscious that we were playing the name West Ham instead of 11 players who were struggling to deal with us.
Our defence look as good as any in Division One at present. It was their 4th successive league clean sheet at home (Derby were the last visitors to score and that was back in August when they were hammered) and it’s 4 clean sheets in their last 6 Division One matches, that is excellence. I haven’t seen a centre-half pairing as good as Gabbidon and Vidmar in particular, Barker is improving and Croft has done well.
Robbo worked his nuts off in midfield and deserved more fortune than he had, Kav didn’t dictate the game as much as usual but tactics seemed to be responsible for that. I can’t believe he was have been used the same way against any other side and I don’t understand why we changed for West Ham.
Mark Bonner works hard and gives everything, he got better the longer the game went on. If City are to push onwards and upwards, we need better in central midfield. Richard Langley is an enigma at the moment. Nobody can criticise his work-rate and team contribution but it’s just not happening for him lately. He is a talent who will surely come good though.
Earnie was well marshalled by the Hammers, not helped by lack of service but still showed his improved game and remained unlucky with a couple of efforts. West Ham – you can keep your Defoe, we’ve got much better than him! Gordon did well again winning a lot of ball, good distribution and he works the channels well but we’ve always know about those qualities of his. He did win a couple of great knockdowns in the area and I hope he doesn’t dwell on his miss.
For all their excellent play and performances this season, now the table is genuinely taking shape, it remains that we are getting caught up in mid-table and need a couple of back-to-back wins if we’re to push on. The Bluebirds are 7 points from the play-off places in 12th and even if they a game in hand against Watford on Tuesday, they will rise just 1 place.
We would have all taken that in August but we should be higher. I’ve still not seen any team better than Cardiff City when we’ve gone head-to-head. Mid-table doesn’t do us justice at all, a bit like the West Ham result and performance when you really think hard about it.
News agency report
The first league clash between Cardiff and West Ham at Ninian Park for 22 years was not one that will live long in the memory.
The first half promised much as both sides went at each other with energy and destructive intent, but as the game wore on, both seemed to despair of finding a way through.
It was a bright start for the visitors and Jermain Defoe forced a save out of Cardiff goalkeeper Neil Alexander with a left-foot shot.
But West Ham manager Alan Pardew saw his pre-match planning undermined in the 13th minute when he had to withdraw David Connolly, who injured his thigh shooting at goal and was replaced with Neil Mellor.
Soon afterwards the Bluebirds had their first real opening when Gavin Gordon nodded down to Mark Bonner in the box, but the midfielder lashed his shot well over the crossbar.
In the 23rd minute David James came to the visitors' rescue, saving well with his legs to keep out John Robinson's fierce deflected shot.
Cardiff striker Gordon missed a golden headed chance in the 33rd minute after a swift break.
Robert Earnshaw broke into the West Ham half with pace and menace before finding Tony Vidmar in an on the right. Vidmar flighted in a good cross with his left foot but the stooping Gordon directed his header just wide of the right-hand post.
Cardiff came out and dominated possession at the start of the second period. In the 52nd minute Gordon tried an audacious floating long-range shot but James was able to touch it over the crossbar.
Good work on the left from Matthew Etherington opened up Cardiff and, after he crossed, shooting chances opened up for both half-time substitute Robert Lee and Defoe but both saw their attempts cannon off defenders.
Cardiff were unlucky not to take the lead in the 66th minute with a John Robinson shot from the edge of the box that skidded along the turf before bouncing away off a post.
Lee cut inside in the 76th minute and put in a swerving left-foot effort, but Alexander read the danger well and comfortably pushed the ball over.
With five minutes to go, Defoe had the ball in the net, but he was adjudged offside and his neat finish counted for nothing.