If Vincent Tan and his Board of Directors stay true to form, Mark Hudson may have got himself a Steve Morison style extension to his period of caretaker management of Cardiff City following tonight’s dramatic 1-0 home win over Blackburn Rovers.
Although City were well worth their win, Hudson may have reason to thank referee John Brooks for getting more than a week’s worth of competitive football as City manager because, deep into added time, the official blew for a penalty to the visitors seconds before Blackburn sub Bradley Dack turned the ball into an empty net for what would have been an equaliser.
Goalkeeper Ryan Allsop was the villain of the piece initially after the excellent Cedric Kipre was beaten to a header after Blackburn had pumped a free kick up to edge of the penalty area and centreback Dominic Hyam got to the ball just before the keeper who brought him down – it was a definite penalty, but if Mr Brooks had waited a second or two before blowing, the game would have ended in a draw.
Another Blackburn sub, George Hirst, took the penalty after a long delay which saw Allsop receive treatment for an injury sustained in the collision with Hyam and the pressure told on the young striker as he hit a weak effort quite similar to Callum Robinson’s at Huddersfield and, just as it was with Lee Nicholls in Steve Morison’s last game in charge, Allsop was always going to save it once he dived the right way.
It was a fitting reward for what has been a good start for our new keeper and he also excelled tonight with a good save from Sammie Szmodics early in the second half in what was his only real anxious moment besides the penalty.
In truth, if Szmodics’ shot had gone in, it should have been a case of him reducing the deficit for his team after a first half City dominated as they showed again that, in my opinion at least, they’re better than those City fans who have been talking about relegation struggles for the last few weeks would have us believe..
If we do end up being dragged into a fight to stay in the division though, then it will surely be because of our lack of firepower. The first half epitomised this, City were good at the back, despite losing the in form Mahlon Romeo early on with an injury which saw Jack Simpson come on with Perry Ng moving over to right back, dominant in midfield and they made life awkward for the fifth placed visitors who were harried into errors in their attempts to play out from the back by an effective high press by the home team.
It wasn’t that City missed sitters in the first half, but goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski was never really extended by the larger than usual number of goal attempts from us. Callum Robinson was unlucky when his early shot looked to have the beating of Kaminski, but a block by Hyam sent the ball wide. Robinson had so many attempts to score his second City goal – he shot across the face of goal twice, saw a close range effort blocked by Kaminski, another shot saved and then his free kick from the edge of the penalty area flashed a yard wide.
Ng tried his luck from a free kick as well, but Kaminski saved comfortably and there was a header not far wide by Callum O’Dowda. All Blackburn had in response was a forty five yard effort by Tyrhys Dolan with Allsop off his line, but it drifted high and wide.
Blackburn had their best spell of the game just after half time when it looked like City may be made to pay for their failure to cash in during the first forty five minutes, but the introduction of Mark Harris and Joe Ralls for Sheyi Ojo and Romaine Sawyers restored City’s momentum and they spent the game’s final quarter on the front foot.
City may have had the edge again, but, it looked as if they were going to complete their first dozen matches with just eight goals scored -Ralls hit a good right foot shot from distance that Kaminski plunged to his left to hold and a desperate, but legal, challenge by Daniel Ayala robbed Robinson just as he was about to shoot after the visitors had got into trouble once more trying to pass out from the back.
Sam Gallagher was involved in penalty claims at either end which Mr Brooks was probably right to deny and it looked for all the world as if we were going to see a repeat of another home match against a Lancashire side when an outplayed Preston left with a 0-0 draw.
However, having equalised in the ninetieth minute on Saturday, City came up with a fine goal on eighty three minutes which this time was worth three points not one. Unable to get the goal that had looked inevitable for him at times in the first half, Robinson had to be content with an assist as, after good work by Niels Nkounkou (having his best game for us so far) and another sub Jaden Philogene, he rolled a pass to Harris who let the ball run across him before whacking a rising right foot shot beyond Kaminski from twenty yards.
It was a goal which deserved to win a game that was always watchable and offered more evidence that Harris may not be a great goal scorer, but when he does score, they tend to be great, or very good, goals.
Apart from a fleeting opportunity that a match sharp Dack might have taken, City held on to their lead quite comfortably until the late penalty drama to record their third home win, all by 1-0.
I always rate 1-0 wins highly because they often come when a team is not at their best. However, although this was a good night for City, they are only winning 1-0 when playing well at home and the next step will need to be to get the rewards in the future that their efforts against Birmingham and Blackburn deserved.
Yesterday afternoon saw an entertaining under 21 game with Reading at Leckwith. Reading had been a category One Academy club, but, probably due to their financial problems, they’re back at category Two this season and so competing in the same league as City for the first time in about a dozen years.
With a justified reputation for producing good quality young players, Reading should be a strong side at this level and, having already beaten us 1-0 a few weeks ago to record one of the four wins in their first five matches, they were living up to such a billing.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve not been too impressed by our under 21s in the three matches I’d watched before yesterday and with five conceded each time in their last two games, they were in need of a good performance.
Therefore, it was good to see the team turn in the best display I’ve seen from them so far – whether it was good enough to merit their 2-1 win is definitely arguable based on what I saw of a one sided second half where the visitors put us under a lot of pressure (the stream went down for the last quarter of an hour mind).
City did well in an open first half where I thought they just about deserved the lead gained at its mid point when Tom Davies got forward from left back to touch in a clever cross to the near post by James Crole.
There were times in the second half when it seemed certain that Reading would equalise, but, just before the stream went down there was a superb counter attacking goal from City to double their lead. Crole, better known for his goalscoring, was again an impressive provider with a through ball which put sub Morgan Wigley in the clear. Two defenders got back to make life difficult for the player who scored for Wales under 19s last week, but he kept his head really well to step inside them and find Jack Leahy who swept the ball in from eight yards.
Reading soon got a goal back through sub Adrian Akinde, but life was made much harder for them when Jahmari Clarke was shown a straight red card for kicking out at City’s Cameron Antwi in the closing minutes.