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This time last week after the win at Preston I was lauding Neil Harris for his excellent substitutions which had played such a large part in us coming back from the lockdown with a couple of victories that had propelled us into the Play Off positions in the Championship. Well, after seventy five minutes of today’s Severnside derby against Bristol City at Ashton Gate, it’s fair to say I was not being as complimentary about our manager!
Harris’ substitutions during Tuesday’s non event with Charlton improved things slightly, but not to any great extent and today as City, who had looked the better team for much of the time against Lee Johnson’s ailing outfit, descended into error strewn mediocrity as the match headed towards another goalless stalemate, or worse, I could see no reason why we had only made the one substitution – Lee Tomlin for Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
Eventually, with Robert Glatzel missing because of his head injury sustained against Charlton, Danny Ward was given his first football since the resumption of fixtures when he came on for Callum Paterson, but, surely, there would not be enough time for the man who is only on a short term deal since his contract ended on 30 June did not have enough time to make an impact? Not a bit of it!
Ward has a good record of scoring when coming off the bench this season, but it looked something of a forlorn hope this time because his team, while not passing the ball as well as they had done at Preston, had lost that promise of a goal which had given hope if they could just be a bit more precise in their application.
City’s other sub’s most conspicuous moment as the game reached the eighty five minute mark had come when Tomlin showed great commitment to the cause to chase back half the length of the pitch to snuff out a very threatening looking home counter attack, but, important though this contribution was, his value to the team comes in other areas and when he gained possession of the ball some forty yards from the Bristol goal following a poor touch by Benik Afobe, he showed what he is about.
What Tomlin did didn’t look spectacular as he ran some ten yards with the ball before sliding a pass through to Ward, but the timing and weight of his delivery was so perfect as to take any thoughts about breaking stride or a first touch out of the equation for the recipient.
That is not to say that Tomlin had laid a certain goal on a plate for Ward, far from it – he was twenty yards from goal with two centrebacks chasing him down, but the finish was unerring with his left as he drilled a low left footed shot beyond Daniel Bentley.
The scoring pass and the goal’s execution was of a quality which had seldom been seen in an encounter where much of the play to be admired had come in the form of defensive blocks and solid tackling and deserved to win any game. However, with six minutes time added on, there was still ten minutes plus to go before what would be a priceless three points could be confirmed.
If Ward has been something of a forgotten man at Cardiff in recent times, the same applies even more so to the player Neil Harris turned to next to help shore up the defence. Junior Hoilett was one of a few City players who was looking tired by now and he made way for Sol Bamba.
There was some messageboard speculation that Sol could follow Neil Warnock up to Middlesbrough if City were willing to cancel his contract, but he was as committed to the City cause as ever here with three fine bits of defending in the face of desperate Bristol attacking.
The truth was that the wurzels season was on the line today as they really needed the win to maintain their top six challenge following a run of one win in ten and three defeats out of three since fixtures resumed. They threw everything bar the kitchen sink at City as crosses, corners and free kicks rained down on their goal, but protecting a lead was something we were pretty good at even during the inconsistency of autumn under Warnock and, if somewhat frantically at times, City were able to ride things out.
One other thing Ward’s fine goal did was ensure that City did not go through all of this season’s four derbies without finding the net following the single goal losses at Swansea and at home to Bristol before the 0-0 draw with the jacks in January.
Thinking back to that Cardiff City Stadium defeat to Bristol in November, it was, possibly, our most significant match of the season because its aftermath saw the change of manager which has completely transformed our campaign.
Of course, it’s wrong to claim that Neil Harris was a universally popular choice to replace Neil Warnock (I, for one, certainly had misgivings about him) and both Tuesday and today offered further evidence of something that has been apparent in plenty of the home games we’ve played under our manager in that we often lack the creativity and goalscoring potential you’d expect from a top six team.
Too many matches have been drawn at home under Harris, but, there are very few sides that can match or better his record of just four losses in twenty five league games – even allowing for the New Years Day disaster that was QPR 6 Cardiff 1, our away record since the Harris era began with a 2-2 draw at Charlton is outstanding.
It would be overstating things to say that today was a typical Cardiff away win under Neil Harris, but the similarities with, for example, Luton, Barnsley and Preston are clear – in none of those matches could it be claimed that City had played brilliantly, but in the second half of each of them, perhaps aided by the extra room an away side tends to be given when they attack, we managed to find some quality in front of goal which swung tight games in our favour.
Therefore, at a time where the advantages associated with playing at home have largely disappeared as the number of away victories in the leagues in Europe where football is being played mount, it seems to me that City may be better equipped than some to cope with the special challenges set by football COVID 19 style – especially Play Off football.
It’s too early to count chickens of course, but today’s win really was huge for us. Looking at the table tonight, two more wins for us would leave teams like Millwall, Preston and Blackburn needing to win all of their remaining games to get above us. Victory for the jacks against Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow would mean they and Derby would still be genuine rivals for sixth place, but I think it’s fair to say now that we’ve got ourselves into a position whereby failure to prolong our season even further would be viewed as a great disappointment, whereas it would only have been a mild one, at most, given our form and position pre lockdown.
I think we have to accept that we are probably only chasing the one Play Off place though.. Brentford’s great form continued with a 3-0 win over Wigan who now look set for the drop after their probable 12 point deduction for going into administration and can still put the top two under real pressure for an automatic promotion place, Fulham were unconvincing against Birmingham at home and needed a ninety fifth minute winner, but have probably done enough already to ensure they make it, while Forest look to have the momentum to come up with the win and a draw which would make their place virtually secure.
Unfortunately, Forest, having looked comfortable throughout at a goal up in their game at bitter rivals Derby then committed a kind of hari kari with a needless foul and a goalkeeping blunder to gift Derby an equaliser in the ninety sixth minute which they didn’t deserve and so they had moved level with us by the time we kicked off today.
Going back to the Bristol game, I’m sure that, just as in all of our televised matches this season, neutrals would find little to be impressed with about Cardiff City, but I’d like to think they would note that we are passing the ball a bit better lately than we normally do. You always get the pundits talking about what to expect from a Cardiff team and, to a large extent, it still rings true, but I thought we looked a better footballing side than our opponents today.
Bristol City under Lee Johnson really are an odd side+. For three or four seasons now, they have gone on runs when they look unstoppable, but you know full well that they’ll then mess up spectacularly with a sequence of results to undoing most of their previous good work.
They’ve done it again this season after looking one of the favourites to finish in the top six early in the year and they looked devoid of belief this afternoon in the first half especially as City moved the ball around to good effect only to lack the finishing quality or killer instinct to cash in on their superiority.
When they came to Cardiff and won, Bristol rode their luck to some extent as we hit the woodwork three times, but they also had a solidity and a poise in possession which compared favourably to us. Today however, even in a better second half for them, it was just blood and guts stuff and virtually non existent self belief.
A fine save by Bentley to deny Will Vaulks after City’s best move of the game with Joe Ralls and Hoilett prominent was the closest either side came to scoring in the first hour, but an equally good stop by Alex Smithies to deny Nakhi Wells and a free header from a corner glanced wide by towering substitute Filip Benkovic more than redressed that balance until Ward intervened.
After that Ward was foiled by Bentley as the home side left gaps at the back and Smithies was relieved to see nothing came of him missing a late corner which the massed ranks of City defenders managed to nullify. So in terms of near misses, the teams were pretty equal – the obvious difference being one of them came up with a quality goal with the other, not so straightforward reason, why we won being that we were just a little bit better at most aspects of the game than our opponents.
As for individuals, I thought Joe Bennett looked confident and untroubled throughout the ninety minutes, our centrebacks won their individual battles while also impressing as a unit and, once again, I was impressed by Leandro Bacuna who combined strength, tackling, stamina, pace, composure and a great team ethic to turn in what I rated as a Man of the Match display let down only by some errant passing and shooting.
Finally, I mentioned earlier that Junior Hoilett was one of a few City players who looked to be struggling for fitness towards the end of the match. This was in contrast to our first two games back when we looked fitter than many of the teams in both the Premier League and the Championship.
Whether this tiredness was a one off or not I don’t know, but it seems to me that, more than in the regular season, it’s going to be a squad game to an increasing degree in the coming weeks. Today it was Ward and Bamba, but I think the likes of Gavin Whyte and Brad Smith will also get their chances before the season is out.
+ it was announced a few hours after the match that Lee Johnson had been relieved of his position as Bristol City manager.