Merthyr Tydfil 1 - 0 Cardiff City

Last updated : 12 July 2006 By Paul Evans
Speaking as someone who has always concentrated on watching the game rather than any crowd disturbance that might be going on, I must admit that last night's “ruck” involving Merthyr's crew of ten year olds was just about the most entertaining event I witnessed at Merthyr last night!

I'm certainly not going to get too bothered by City's defeat, but I am about last night's situation where injuries to our two senior strikers meant that Andrea Ferretti was probably our number one choice up front. Many on here, myself included, have been largely optimistic about our new signings this summer, but the striking options we were left with last night at Merthyr and Carmarthen emphasised that the rebuilding job is just half done - we can forget any thoughts of promotion or play offs with a squad as unbalanced as the one we currently have.

As to last night's Merthyr performance, well I'm afraid the best way I can sum it up is to say that it was like watching England play in the World Cup! Just like England, City played 4-5-1, created very little in the way of chances and largely relied on dead ball situations for any goal threat they posed, but where the teams were different was in the fact that City's lone striker was even less suited to the role than Wayne Rooney is!

Last night represented quite an opportunity for Jamal Easter, but the poor kid never had a chance I'm afraid in a position that I would guess he has never played before in his life. Don't get me wrong, he looked pretty lively, tried really hard and did represent our main goal threat, but with a midfield of Ricky Scimeca, Neal Ardley, Stephen McPhail, Michael Corcoran (who spent most of last season playing at centre back) and Curtis McDonald behind him he was hardly blessed with colleagues who were going to make the forward runs beyond the striker that is a requirement of midfielders in this system. Only McDonald (who, for me, struggled to get into the game) could be called an attacking player out of our five last night and it seemed to me that Kevin McNaughton got forward more than most of our midfield players.

Mention of McNaughton brings me onto to the two new players on show last night - I thought that, although he did get caught out once or twice, he was pretty solid defensively and showed more willingness to get forward than our full backs tended to last season but, on the night, I was a bit more impressed by Stephen McPhail who may well have ended up as our best player. Although I wouldn't say he dominated the midfield by any means, McPhail demonstrated a nice range of passing which became more of a factor as the game went on - in the closing stages he was able to work players into promising positions which were nearly all wasted because of poor crossing (although, to be fair to the players concerned, City's lack of natural attackers meant that they were hardly spoilt for choice when they crossed it).

Of the other players, Alexander had no chance with Merthyr's fine goal and didn't do anything wrong and I thought young Corcoran didn't do badly in midfield or when he reverted to centre back late in the game, but no one else really caught my eye.

All in all a night to forget really, I'm sure the City team will have benefited from ninety minutes of pretty competitive football (which after all was the main object of the exercise I suppose), but I can't help thinking I may have been better off staying at home - what happened in Eastenders last night?

Click here for the report from The Echo