Let’s pull no punches - City were absolutely crap, simple as that.
The fans turned up and tuned in with the hope and expectation of watching The Bluebirds top the table at this level for the first time in almost 35 years and give early season passion, pride and excitement to the club. Instead, we endured yet another horror home show. It was awful under-performance, an unacceptable display and more inept defensive demons. I defy anyone to find positives from the game ... other than final whistle blowing to put us out of our agonies.
It was awful viewing for the 12,600 crowd. The attendance down with the game being live on Sky and City’s unwise decision to label this as our first ever Category A match and raising prices by £2 making television even more appealing than usual. I would have thought most watching at home turned off or over long before the finish.
Cardiff had chances. Alan Lee twice failed to make the most of guilt-edged chances, Danny Gabbidon was a fraction over the bar from close range and Robert Earnshaw was inexplicably denied a blatant penalty but have to reflect on the fact that the visiting keeper had only one save to make in the entire 90 minutes.
City continued with the same starting eleven who drew at Crewe last weekend and stirringly overcame Coventry in midweek and the same substitute’s bench too. In truth, our limited sized squad combined injuries plus start of season form and results dictates all selections.
There was talk that fit again Willie Boland may feature on the bench, he didn’t. Jobi McAnuff, newly arrived from West Ham for £250,000 or £300,000 or £350,000 (depending on which newspaper you read and who you believe), was not signed in time to feature and had to sit alongside Sam Hammam in the director’s box probably wondering if he had made the right choice watching events on the pitch.
So once again it was Margetson, Weston-Page-Gabbidon-Vidmar, Langley-Kavanagh-Bullock-Robinson, Lee and Earnie. The bench were Campbell, Collins, Croft, Parry, Warner.
Plymouth fans and their team are on the same high that we were 12 months ago. A thoroughly deserved promotion returning them to this level for the first time in a while, their second promotion in three years, 10,000 season tickets sold, a great start to the season with a home draw with Millwall followed by a midweek victory at Brighton and they started the evening in 2nd spot above City on goal difference.
They work hard but the key differences are good luck and strong defence. Whilst City can get nothing right at the back, Plymouth can do no wrong. They are yet to conceded a goal this season. They also went top this evening courtesy of two own goals and a penalty. No wonder their 1,000 green shirted, scarved and teethed fans journeyed up the M5 were seen and heard, they are in dreamland.
With Paul Sturrock leading their charge until jilting them for Southampton late last season and Bobby Williamson arriving after spells at Kilmarnock and Motherwell, it was no surprise to see a team with a heavy Scottish contingent.
Luke McCormick was in goals, signed from Coventry (must be Scottish with that name!), Worral-Coughlan-Wotton-Gilbert were their back four. Wotton is Captain and always weighs in with goals and set pieces Midfield were Hodges-Lasley-Adams-Capaldi with Stevie Crawford and Micky Evans in attack. Lasley and Crawford were linked with City during last season.
The first half was as bad as they come, the second half better but only marginally so, the game overall was a stinker.
City’s football was a disgrace. Everyone knows City’s best football and the only way to get the best out of Lee and Earnie is to keep the ball down and play it along the ground yet, for 45 minutes, all they did was whack high and hopeful balls which were high and hopeless. Worse, City were slow and lethargic, Plymouth were first to every ball all over the pitch. They were keen, we looked dull and uninterested.
Too many players looked poor. If I had to single them out, Vidmar, Page, Kav and Langley were especially poor. Langley is perpetually inconsistent, you should expect better from the other three. Only John Robinson looked committed, as always.
Cardiff created two excellent chances in the opening quarter before falling behind, they were the only moments to admire in the half. The first came from a Kav corner, which were improved for a rare change. He sent it to the far post, Page headed back across goal and Gabbidon nodded inches over from close range, just failing to get above the ball. Gabbidon lit the game with a sparkling 70 yard burst and one-two which took him the to Grandstand/Canton Stand corner where he sent over a superb far post ball that Alan Lee met and headed down but just wide. He should have hit the target, Peter Thorne definitely would have.
There was another brief moment when Vidmar almost sent Earnie clear but the keeper hoofed the ball away and Bullock nearly bust in but the ball was scrambled for a corner. The rest of the half was awful and nothing, pathetic.
The Plymouth goal came on 21 minutes, immediately after Lee headed wide from that Gabbs run and cross. The goal kick went left, moved ahead and a quick left wing cross was booted for a corner by Gabbidon still racing back. Wooton took it, Stevie Crawford was inexcusably allowed a free back post header (unsure who should have marked him) and BULLOCK coming out after covering the far post knew little as the ball struck his head and flew in for an own goal. Bullock tried to make amends with a rising shot within seconds of the restart but it flew over.
Every goal City have conceded this season has been a gift and three of the four conceded to date have come from balls swung to the far post on Tony Vidmar’s side where forwards have been allowed unchallenged headers back across goal. What exactly do Lennie, his coaching team and the players do between matches?
Half-time: CITY 0 PLYMOUTH 1
City finally got out of their coasting first gear, they had to, but they barely got better than third gear, the effort was still just not good enough.
Plymouth deserve some credit too. I can’t imagine we would want to swap any or many of their players for ours but they were undoubtedly a better team. They were organised, disciplined, streetwise and everything that we weren’t. City were an absolute shambles by comparison with no pattern, no shape and no ideas.
Richard Langley disappeared on the hour, most of us wondered why they bothered sending him out for the second half at all. Paul Parry replaced him but such was City’s ineptitude that they final had some natural width, they hardly found him or gave him the ball anyway. Kav, supposedly directing operations in his role, was totally ineffective.
On one occasion, Parry was given a ball to chase, he beat two defenders and sent over a great cross for Alan Lee but he only succeeded in nodding it weakly and straight at McCormick. The penalty was blatant, Earnie got behind defenders, burst into the area and was clumsily brought down by Coughlan. Unbelievably, the ref waved play on.
What have City got to do to earn a penalty? That’s a stonewall penalty denied in every league game so far. Earnie had other opportunities as Kav hit a low shot, McCormick pushed it out but Earnie couldn’t turn and spin quickly enough in shooting high into the Grange End from an angle.
From City’s only decent piece of football all night, a superb quick passing 6 man move from goal to goal, Parry’s cross was met by Earnie whose header crashed home off the underneath of the bar. Celebration quickly turned to frustration as it was ruled out for offside, Earnie apparently one of three in that position..
Andy Campbell and James Collins were thrown on late and both thrown into a 4 man attack replacing Bullock and Weston. Collins was interesting as he took his usual place in central defence before noticing Lennie screaming at him for over a minute to get forward. Shouldn’t Lennie have instructed him before he went on? The game was going through the motions and Plymouth won no friends for their cynical play that some call professionalism.
Endless injuries, time wasting, goal kicks taken from the other side, debating with the linesman for several seconds where throw ins and free kicks should be positioned. Great if you’re winning as they were but grating when you’re on the receiving end. Five minutes added time was nothing more than added torture. Final whistle was a blessed relief.
As Bart Simpson would say, “what a load of crappy, crap, crap”. So much anticipation at the start of the night, so much despair at the end of it.
Instead of being top, if only for 24 hours, City will probably find themselves in mid-table after the rest of the weekend games are played. If we’re honest and realistic about the three games played this week, that’s probably all we deserve too. More than that, that’s still as good as I think we are. It’s a huge job to make us genuine promotion and play-off challengers. The dreaming has stopped.
External reports
Western Mail
Independent