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THE ‘You're The Man' AWARD to:
Not many positives but a hugely satisfying debut for Chris Gunter, McNaughton is back in the groove whilst Purse/loovens continue to look strong overall although both made errors.
THE “You're Not Very Good” BOOT goes to:
Joe Ledley - needs a rest?
McPhail - another not at his best recently
Paul Parry and Thommo - both anonymous not helped by having to play whilst not 100%
ATMOSPHERE:
Good in parts, ghostly quiet at other times on a night when City rarely inspired
THE TEAMS:
CARDIFF- Alexander, Gunter-Loovens-Purse-McNaughton, Parry-Scimeca-McPhail-Ledley, Chopra-Thompson. Subs were Howard-Campbell-Cooper-Johnson-Kamara.
Cardiff's City's favourite maths equation was proven again. Whatever City declare as an absence period, divide it by two and that'll be the answer. After McNaughton (out for 6 to 8 weeks but back in 4), Loovens (out of 6 weeks but back next match) came Thommo who was out of 6 weeks but back in training after 2 and available today. Should City take over the NHS with a cure rate like this?
Paul Parry departed the BBBB's match (Beaten Brutal Bullies of Burnley) with a dead leg that also forced him to miss Wales' midweek mauling of World football power Liechtenstein in but he was available. Ironically, it was his impressive replacement in the BBBB's match, Willo Flood, who was unavailable after the battering he received in that match whilst Thommo was probably brought back early as Kevin Campbell also suffered from that game and dropped to the bench where he was joined by Kevin Cooper back from a loan spell at Yeovil.
RANGERS- Royce, Mancienne-Rehman-Stewart-Bignot, Ainsworth-Bailey-Smith-Cook, Nygaard-Blackstock
The hoops travelled from West London to South Wales in 17th spot - 5 points ahead of the relegation berths and 5 behind the play-off berths. They started averaging a point a game but playing poorly - enough to see off Gary Waddock as manager - and the return of John Gregory from three and a half years hiding in a football wilderness (Saddam Hussein's bunker hole?) and they now average 1.5 points a game since. They arrived unbeaten in 4 with draws against Leicester and at West Brom, a home spanking of Crystal Palace and last weekend's away win at Luton (which prompted Hatters boss Mike Newell to make the headlines for lashing out at the female linesman in that game).
Simon Royce was a small keeper but we never took advantage. It could have been any of the 7 Dwarfs in goals tonight (or even David Blunkett) and they would have kept a clean sheet (more than they manage when Snow White is in bed with them allegedly). Their defence was supposed to be slow and suspect, again it was never exploited. Midfield saw Lee Cook, a quality winger who Terry Burton knows about from Watford and Jimmy Smith, an 18 yr old on loan from Chelsea who has scored 5 plus Wild Thing (Gareth Ainsworth) whilst up front, there was a physical presence with Nygaard (scorer of a winner against us last season) and Blackstock. Their bench included (ex?) Wales keeper and veteran Paul Jones.
Rangers squad has almost 10 more players than Cardiff's and missing injured were Kevin Gallen, Steve Lomas, Marc Bircham and Martin Rowlands. .Goals were to be expected as their previous 7 games had produced a whopping 31 goals (17 scored and 14 conceded) - someone threw away the script tonight!
THE DAY & THE MATCH:
CARDIFF CITY fell to a shock late (and shocking) 1-0 home defeat by QPR and can have few complaints. A poor match, City incredibly failed to produce a single worthwhile effort on goal whilst QPR scored with their only worked attempt. A draw perhaps would have been about right but Rangers played at a tempo that is often our trademark, worked tirelessly and enjoyed that crucial run of the ball to make their luck. For City, a terrible first-half, better afterwards but far from impressive or previous standards. This was a damp squib of a disjointed performance where too many players were out of sorts or not fully fit and our shape was not clever which ultimately told.
Playing on a Friday night makes a pleasant change and it works for me as I'm off to Berlin on Saturday to taking advantage of a rare free weekend during the season. However, for the second time in 6 days, we were head-to-head against the Wales egg chasers playing a meaningless game but it's a social thing that brings out people who never bother watching that sport otherwise, they had a 74,000 sell-out.
City's fixture clashed for the benefit of Sky TV but this was a poor enough game that tv viewers must have been tempted to watch Children In Need. Seeing footage of someone in a tin of baked beans or newsreaders doing a song and dance is car crash television but wasn't worse than this for entertainment.
Considering Rangers fans didn't bother coming, 13,250 may disappoint some but it was a cold, horrible night and perhaps unrealistic to expect more - especially when it involves shelling out hard-earned this time of year to stand on an open terrace when you can have home comforts. It was noticeable that quite a few season ticket holding mates decided not to show up so you can't expect to pack it with less-committeds. However, a year ago, a similar tv clash with Ipswich - whilst City were play-off challenging and no competing sport - brought less than 9,000 to the ground so a 50% improvement on that is not to be sniffed at.
Those of us who made the effort also had to battle through horrendous traffic with 90,000 in town. I left work at Newport at 5. At that time, the M4 was grid-locked long before Cardiff Gate and the A48M was backed up way past St Mellons. It took me an hour to get through at that time, over twice the normal time and that was still 2.5 hours before kick-offs. I can only begin to imagine how it was for those setting off later - then there was the joy of finding somewhere to park.
It was a pathetic show from Rangers fans. So few, it looked like The Lone Ranger. Ok, it's Friday night and it's on telly but barely more than 100 is something that belongs to the Lower Leagues. By a considerable number, the lowest away following this term. For City, there were spaces in all seated areas, the Bob Terrace was sparse and only the Grange End looked close to capacity.
Their low number of their loyal travellers would however have been heartened by their side's start. It was a near replica of Burnley whereby City barely got out of their half in the opening 20 minutes as they started slowly and being outworked. Our cause not helped by losing out on a majority percentage of 50/50 clashes and Rangers seemed to benefit all night from the run of the ball as deflections always seemed to find one of their shirts but you make your luck in this game. Any time a City man was on the ball, they were pounced on, often by 2 or 3 Rangers.
So poor were City in that first half that it was almost 40 minutes before we won a corner kick. There was not a single attempt on goal and only a rousing 5 minute patch not long before the interval to get remotely excited about. Nothing happened or came off for us, the greasy pitch and our first touches and slick passing considerably below standard.
The half was summed up by the game's only chance being City cocking up play. With Steve McPhail 25 yards out finding himself surrounded, he ludicrously hooked a high ball back over other players to Alexander who was casual in chesting down and booting away. Blackstock closed down and blocked, he looked certain to score but Alexander recovered to save his blushes by blocking a shot with his ankles. Blackstock also headed wide and a shot flew across goal but Alexander was never tested.
City produced just one early passing move but had no end product, Chopra's endeavour saw him bring the ball away from a corner flag covered by two men to find McNaughton looking at two men free at the far post but he chipped over both and Chris Gunter, on his debut, produced the only sparkle as he came across and beat two Rangers men to burst into the area, his ball across goal being steered away under pressure. Paul Parry - after a later sweet move - fired a couple of foot over Royce. Too often, we were guilty of overplaying in the wrong places - 30 yards in front of our goal instead of the other one - and were getting into trouble. Nothing we tried came off but the final few minutes were better and offered encouragement.
Rangers lost ex-City loanee Gareth Ainsworth to an early injury when he came off second best in a challenge and went down three times before giving up. Nick Ward replaced him. His ayatollah as we limped away got the biggest cheer of the half. Being honest, it was the only thing to cheer. By some distance, our poorest home first half of the season.
H/T: CITY 0 QPR 0
City were presented with some HD cameras by Sony at half-time, Andrea Ferretti accepted them. His only first-team appearance this season? New Directions presented money for community work to Scott Young and the kids half-time crossbar challenge saw half of them slip onto their arse in the conditions.
City came back and were finally pushing Rangers back and showing promise. However plenty of the ball and possession did not convert into threat or chances. All efforts were from distance and we just could not keep the ball down, everything flew over the bar into the Grange End. That was bad shot selection as the greasy wet top made it the perfect occasion to trying and zip some shots off the surface.
McNaughton was brilliant on one lung-bursting 60 yard charge and shot which looked over all the way but bounced over the static Royce's crossbar. It was as close as we ever came. Others to fire over included Chopra, when he did the hard work and got into good position, Parry, McPhail and Scimeca who was closest with a curling snapshot.
It was only an improvement of sorts. City were unbalanced and one dimensional, it lacked intelligence by playing everything to the left which condensed play and meant we lost width on both sides, precisely the quality that has given us success.
Dave Jones said he had no problem starting with Gunter but he should have told that to his players. Gunter didn't let City down and show take immense pride in his personal performance, he battled well against the admirable and clever Jimmy Cook. He looked the part throughout but understandably tired at the very end.
However we was clearly not being trusted with the ball. Three times, he was the natural option for Purse who consciously turned and went left instead. With no ball on the right, it sucked in Paul Parry who cut an anonymous figure on a night his fitness was questionable anyway. On the other flank, McNaughton was excellent but Joe Ledley has been off the boil for some time and looked poor again, constantly running into Rangers men instead of skipping past them with occasional moments only of flair.
Chopra was being starved of the ball and service, easily his quietest game for us. Partner Thommo looked as if he had returned too early but it has to be said that the game's outstanding performer was QPR's dreadlocked central defender Damion Stewart who was superb winning ball time after time in the air and coming out on top in all challenges on the deck too. At times, he seemed like a one man defence repelling everything we threw at him, a commanding and domineering display but did we play into his hands?.
We had the ball in the net on 55 minutes as a classy move tore open Rangers for the only time all night, Parry drew the keeper and fired home. I was celebrating crazy in relief before the Bloke Next To Me pointed out he was offside. City had another glorious opening as Chopra burst into space and the area, a ball into goal was set to see Thommo sweep home but he didn't get his pass right and it was blocked by the last man when it could have been passed around him.
Rangers made a change with promising 18 year old Ray Jones replacing Blackstock but City's bench presented few options and we seemed content to be patient, wait and hope. There was frustration too at Phil Joslin's poor officiating and love affair with his whistle. A tv ref, there were times he looked as though he was playing up for the cameras. He wasn't as poor as last week's official but certainly could have been far better allowing advantage, showing cards earlier and being less fussy and picky at what he blew for but he seemed to have no problem allowing Rangers' understandable time-wasting antics.
In the final 10 minutes Parry was replaced by Kamara but never saw the ball in space once as City still concentrated on the left. There were a couple of skirmishes as frustration mounted, Purse seemed to fall for a lame penalty attempt but never bothered appealing whilst everyone else did and another effort sent over.
It looked 0-0 until two minutes from time, a goal from nothing as City collectively switched off at the back. There was no danger when Ward got the ball on the right but he got past McNaughton and Scimeca(?) and sent a ball across goal that went between Alexander and Purse to be bundled home from a couple of yards at the far post by JONES. Not dissimilar from our later Willo Flood winner at Leeds but we should never have allowed the danger and certainly should have still got it away.
A poor performance without doubt but to toss away a point in those circumstances is a choker. There was no way back. Three minutes added time when ended a minute early (a that after the ref spent 45 seconds booking a player) but it could have been half-hour added on and made no difference. We weren't good enough tonight, the sparkle and fizz have gone missing from City recently.
It's now 7 points and 3 defeats in 6 games and a series of stuttering, workmanlike performances rather than spectacular. Clearly not promotion form, we are struggling to match standards set early season and need to get over this blip quickly but it increasingly looks like help is needed now.
It is inevitable that squad size and strength will be talked about again, is it really coincidence that we have suffered injuries and suspensions during this run compared to the first dozen games where 8 were ever-present and two more had only missed 1 game?.
It is possible we could be knocked off top on goal difference only after Saturday's games but City are still averaging 2 points per game. The loan transfer deadline expires in the coming week and next up are two tough aways at rejuvenated Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke. The loan transfer deadline closes this coming Thursday, I'm sure Dave Jones will be working overtime but he knows as much as anyone that City need a boost, some help and a bit of freshness.
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Match report from FootyMad
Cardiff City fell to their first home defeat of the season when Ray Jones poked in the winner two minutes from time.
QPR fully deserved their victory after pressing the Bluebirds throughout the 90 minutes.
Cardiff welcomed back Steven Thompson from injury, while Paul Parry passed a late fitness test. Chris Gunter came in at full-back for his league debut.
Former City favourite Gareth Ainsworth was in the Rangers starting line-up but he only lasted 14 minutes before being replaced by Nick Ward after suffering an ankle injury.
Both sides seemed to have difficulty controlling the ball on a greasy surface but Lee Cook worked an opening and Neil Alexander in the Cardiff goal had to palm away for a corner.
A period of Rangers pressure was lifted midway through the half when a long ball from Darren Purse was chased by Michael Chopra but keeper Simon Royce raced smartly out of goal to hack clear.
An error by Alexander from a Stephen McPhail back pass almost gifted Dexter Blackstock the opening goal on the half hour.
The keeper's attempted clearance was blocked by the Rangers striker but Alexander recovered to push the goalbound shot behind for a corner.
It was the 39th minute before City mounted a sustained attack when Gunter appeared on the left wing and his cross brought panic to the QPR defence. When the ball was cleared it gave Parry a chance for a run but his 20-yard shot zipped over the crossbar.
Neither side made changes for the second period but it was Rangers who would have been happier following their gritty first-half performance.
In the 55th minute City's Kevin McNaughton cut in from the left before firing a dipping shot that struck the crossbar with Royce well beaten.
That seemed to galvanise the table-toppers into action and leading scorer Chopra fired over when well placed.
Parry had the ball in the net in the 53rd minute but the flag was up for offside.
The Bluebirds finally paid the penalty for a below par performance in the 88th minute when Ward worked his way down the right before crossing into the danger area and substitute Jones stretched out a leg to divert the ball into the net.
External Reports
Western Mail
The Independent