I can’t speak for others, but if you wanted proof of my changed attitude towards Cardiff City’s season since our 5-0 hiding at Sheffield Wednesday, then you would only need to see my reaction to Reading’s equaliser tonight deep into added time to secure a 1-1 draw which will enable them to go into their next match with a bit of positivity. However, it’s a result which ultimately leaves both teams disappointed.
In Reading’s case, the odds on them making the Play Offs have to have lengthened because, put simply, they did not win a game that was referred to throughout by the Sky commentators and analysts as a must win for them.
For City, the frustration is that, for the second consecutive match, we have conceded a goal past the ninety minute mark to turn a win into a draw. So, it’s now one win in seven and those of us who were predicting that the Swansea win would be just the boost to propel us into the final stages of the season very much in the hunt for a top six finish have been made to look pretty foolish, because two points in the four matches since then looks like the return of a side that has run out of steam.
The above explains why my reaction as the ball hit the net so late on to deny us the win was akin to a shrug. That’s one of the very few positives you can draw when your faint chance of prolonging your season beyond forty six matches disappears with about a month to go – an equaliser conceded in the ninety fifth minute is like a dagger through the heart from August to March, but in mid April with nothing really to play for, it’s a mild irritation.
That’s not to say that I don’t feel for City, because they didn’t look like a team going through the motions tonight. Sides like Swansea, Brentford, Barnsley and Bournemouth could have no complaints about City’s level of commitment, and, although it’s not really much of a compliment given the competition, I’d say this was probably our best display since the 4-0 stroll against Derby last month.
My initial reaction on hearing Mick McCarthy’s selection for the game was annoyance at its boring predictably as it came straight out of the Russell Slade lets ignore the youngsters handbook, but there is that argument about maintaining the integrity of the competition you’re in I suppose.
Wholesale changes for a game against a team still in the promotion race would be seized upon by others, but, for example, the signal sent out by the continued non use of Junior Hoilett from the bench is that he’s not going to be signing a new contract before his current one runs out in the summer, so, why not have, say Keiron Evans or Isaak Davies there instead of him?
The trouble with the integrity of the competition argument is that it has to apply equally to both the top and the bottom of the table and, so, assuming we don’t ring the changes for the midweek trip to Brentford, you can see the same logic applying to our last three matches unless one or both of Wycombe and Rotherham are already down when we play them.
Anyway, the only change from last weekend’s game with Blackburn saw Joe Ralls come in for Josh Murphy. I wondered if Ralls might be deployed as the most attacking member of what was definitely a central midfield three, but, instead, he was deployed in an advanced position on the left – he wasn’t playing on the wing, more like an old fashioned inside left.
Therefore, Marlon Pack and Will Vaulks were left to fend for themselves, as they have been for much of Mick McCarthy’s time here. They coped more than adequately in a first period that I thought we definitely had the better of though, as we went about our task with a fair degree of that very un Cardiff City like quality, composure. Not only that, where possible, we looked to build through the middle of the pitch rather than knock it long all of the time.
Unfortunately, the improvements did not extend into Reading’s defensive third and so for three quarters of the game, our sole worthwhile goal attempt was a Harry Wilson shot as he burst on to a poor clearance which drew a good save low to his right by home keeper Rafael.
In truth, I suspect our better than usual showing in the first half was as much down to Reading nerves as it was our good play. Certainly, they came out after the break like a team that had been given a collective flea in their ear by their manager and the third quarter of the game was played almost exclusively in our half of the pitch.
The complete inability to ease the pressure we were under for a minute or two was reminiscent of the second half of the Swansea match as Pack and Vaulks disappeared from the game and the ball stopped sticking with an isolated Keiffer Moore. There were also good blocks by all three centre backs to evoke comparisons with the derby game, but,it was never desperate backs to the wall stuff like so much of the Swansea game looked to be.
Indeed, apart from a Yakou Meite effort fired hurriedly over from around the penalty spot, City had few real alarms, but I still had the feeling that the sheer weight of Reading pressure would eventually wear us down and we’d concede a winning goal.
City had to find a way to get up the pitch and this brings me onto the vexed question of Mick McCarthy and substitutions. For the second successive match, our opponents make five of them while we made two and, again, we concede late on to lose two points.
This time, McCarthy’s subs changed the game from our perspective – Josh Murphy, so innocuous when in from the start against Blackburn, worried the Reading defence every time he ran at them and Sheyi Ojo was involved in the creation of the goal.
So, this time, our manager’s substitutions worked. Therefore, you might think this would encourage him to make one or two more, but, no, just like with Neil Harris before him, you can’t help thinking that, while Barnsley’s very likely top six finish owes much to their continuous use of their full quota of substitutes, there seems to be a reluctance by City managers to take advantage of the five subs rule.
Murphy created a chance for Moore which the striker wasted with a tame shot which was easily saved that ignored the fact that both Murphy and Wilson were well placed to his left and right respectively. Then the sub was involved again as Wilson was set free to lift the ball over the diving Rafael, but not with enough force to prevent home full back Andy Yiadom getting back to clear off the line.
These incidents showed that Reading were leaving themselves more open at the back in their pursuit of the win they needed and when Ojo was allowed to advance twenty yards with the ball to let fly with a well struck effort from around twenty five yards that Rafael could only beat out, Moore was quickly on to it and was kicked by home left back Omar Richards for a clear penalty.
Despite Ralls still being on the pitch, Moore is the man in possession so to speak when it comes to penalties and he was always going to take it. After lining up in exactly the same way as he had done with his previous two spot kicks in a manner which looked like he could only shoot to the goalie’s left, Moore proved that this wasn’t the case as he went high to Rafael’s right for his third nerveless penalty conversion out of three for City.
Moore then produced a lovely cross from the right aimed for Murphy that hone centre back Tom Holmes came close to turning into his own net as Rafael dived to his left to save and, despite the introduction of three subs all in one go, City were holding on pretty comfortably until Perry Ng was left to fend for himself out by the corner flag on City’s left for a throw in and one of the subs, Sam Baldock, got to the bye line to deliver a fine cross that was met by Meite (who always seems to score against us!) and the covering Aden Flint could only divert the ball into the roof of the net to ensure that our run of games without a win over Reading in all competitions stretches to eleven.
Mick McCarthy said he was “raging” after the match because of his teams’ habit of conceding just before half time and full time, but you have to wonder whether, in terms of the goals after the ninety minute mark at least, this may have something to do with the fact that our opponents tend to have five pairs of fresh legs on the pitch to our two – we switched off for their goal and Ng, although beaten too easily, was given no support, we defended the situation like a tired side.
Finally, an observation that, as we get progressively less subtle in our football, does the same apply to our fouling? If I could typify our record when it comes to fouling in most of our recent Championship seasons, the stats said we tended to give away more free kicks than most, but that did not translate itself into yellow and red cards, because we’d be among the best behaved sides in terms of cards. Is it me or do we regularly end up with three or more yellow cards in our games and we’ve definitely had more reds than normal this season – the three we had today all seemed clear yellows to me and how Vaulks wasn’t booked I’ll never know – we now foul in a way that leaves officials with no alternative but to issue a card, whereas, for example, under Neil Warnock, we made sure we stopped the opponent, but in a way that would often see the ref giving the offender a final warning.