Season Review. Part 12

Last updated : 01 July 2008 By Paul Evans
During the two day trial the media and supporters present in the court had conveyed the impression that the case was going pretty well for their club and , as it turned out, they were right as the judgment found that the club were able to offer "a realistic prospect of establishing a case" against Langston's case, he also refused Langston leave to appeal against his decision and ordered that the club were paid legal costs by the plaintiff.

The Echo certainly chose to portray the verdict as some sort of triumph for the club as this story shows

http://tinyurl.co.uk/o876

And the contrast between the bad times of October and November (at the time, I called it one of the most miserable periods I could remember in my time supporting the club) and the good ones of spring 2008 was certainly a marked one.

However conclusive proof that this was really a good time to be a Cardiff City fan came the following Saturday with a first league win over Bristol City in thirty seven years! A blustery, bright afternoon saw a crowd of 16,458 giving Lee Trundle fearful stick in his first match in the Welsh capital since he put on someone else's t shirt and decided to show off someone else's flag on that day at the Millennium Stadium nearly two years earlier!

Perhaps the abuse directed at him played a part in making Trundle just about the least effective player on the park as his side, whose promotion bid had been spluttering in recent weeks, succumbed to a defeat that City just about deserved.

Most of the meaningful action occurred after the break with the first period being pretty much a non event that saw the visitors come close to scoring when Orr's cross caught on the wind and bounced back off a post. However, City made sure they went in at the break with the lead when Peter Whittingham's deep free kick on 43 minutes was headed in at the far post by an unmarked Roger Johnson.

The match continued on it's low key path until the seventieth minute when the introduction of substitute Steve Brooker seemed to bring the visitors to life. They were level within three minutes when Adebola's "header" flew past a helpless Enckelman via the striker's shoulder and shortly afterwards Brooker headed in a free kick only for the goal to be ruled out by the closest of offside decisions (television replays later confirmed that the linesman had, just about, got the decision right).

After this razor thin decision went in the team's favour, it was hard to avoid a feeling that this could be City's day and, as if to prove it, there was an element of luck about the winning goal when it arrived on 81 minutes. Although the decision to award a penalty for Elliott's foul on McPhail was undoubtedly the right one, keeper Basso, who had made something of a reputation for himself as a penalty saver, dived to his left to parry Whiitingham's spot kick only for the ball to rebound straight back to the City player who had the simple task of scoring from about five yards.

Incredibly, Whittingham's goal was the first one City had scored in the last twenty minutes of a game since Roger Johnson's injury time equaliser at Hull nineteen matches earlier and you had to go back a further eleven games for the time before that - City were very much a team that tended to start games strongly and finish them less well in 2007/08!

There was time for Basso to make a fantastic save from Thompson's header from Parry's cross after that, but there was no way back into the match for the wurzels who, after decades of winning at Ninian Park, have now lost on their last two visits to the ground!

After the verdict in the court case had been delivered, there had been some talk of the club having the funds available to pay a loan fee to teams for their players. However, to no great surprise, the closing of the final transfer window of the season passed with no new arrivals at Ninian Park and so Dave Jones was left to pursue the Play Offs and FA Cup glory with the same paper thin squad that had served him since January.

Dave Jones' previous two seasons had seen the team finish the campaign miserably as they appeared to run out of steam with the finishing post in sight and the side now entered a period where their performances tended to suggest that sheer will power as much as anything else was getting them through games. Certainly, City looked to be a side running on empty in their next match against a Southampton side in desperate trouble at the wrong end of the table.

The game followed what became a fairly familiar pattern with City scoring early on and then hanging on to their lead as their bright start fizzled out. However, Southampton had already missed a couple of decent chances by the time the decisive goal arrived in the fifth minute as Aaron Ramsey, playing at right back in place of the injured Blake, set Steve Thompson free and he pulled back a cross from the byeline that Paul Parry rifled high up into the net past Wright.

After that, City rarely threatened again - Ledley was foiled by the keeper when one on one with Wright, but that shot and the goal represented City's only two on target efforts of the match. Southampton didn't do much better with only three of their own mind, but, at this stage of the season it was results and not performance levels that counted and City ended March in twelfth spot five points short of that last Play Off position.

In saying that mind, they did have games in hand over most of their rivals as a couple of matches had been postponed as a consequence of the FA Cup run. The first of these came three days later when City played their third consecutive home match when they entertained fellow FA Cup Semi Finalists West Brom. With their big games at Wembley taking place that weekend both managers indulged in a spot of squad rotation for this match - at least Dave Jones did as far as his squad limitations would allow him!

Many expressed the opinion beforehand, that the game was a banker 0-0 draw between two teams with other things on their mind who were not prepared to risk injuries before their big day out at Wembley. As it turned out, those people got the scoreline right, but not the manner of the game which saw two teams prepared to play good football trying their hardest to get the three points.

The match was one of the more entertaining ones played at Ninian Park during the season with the visitors prepared to allow City to play their normal passing game. In the event, I thought West Brom did that slightly better than us and, in doing so, became the only side I saw who "outfootballed" us all season in the League. However, even visiting manager Tony Mowbray conceded that City had the best chance of the game - I presume he meant when Thommo blazed wildly over in the opening minutes after being set up by Parry.

City's prospects weren't helped by a bizarre series of events that left them without a recognised striker for the last thirty five minutes of the match. Thompson's miss was the low point of a miserable first half display from him that saw him being withdrawn at half time (Dave Jones later claimed that this was down to injury, but nobody could have been too surprised if it had been for tactical reasons). The trouble was though that Paul Parry had picked up a hamstring injury which would keep him out of the Semi Final in the last minute of the half and, after trying to run it off for three minutes after the break was replaced himself by Whittingham only for Feeney then to sustain the injury that would end his season early on fifty four minutes!

Ricky Scimeca came on against his former club to replace Feeney, but it was Trevor Sinclair who found himself pushed up front to play a lone striking role. Sinclair's willing running caused Albion a few problems after that and probably earned himself a Semi Final starting place, but, under the circumstances, City were probably pleased to hold on to their point in the end and they were able to achieve this thanks to a fine Enckelman save from sub Bednar late on.


However, whereas I watched the Middlsbrough match fearing the worst, I was far more confident against Barnsley. After all, City had proved over the course of the last nine months that they were the better team out of the two in the League (City stood twelfth in the Championship and Barnsley 21st) - obviously, Barnsley had quality, as evidenced by their victories over Liverpool and Chelsea and the 2008 FA Cup had been all about the romance of the competition being restored as a series of Premiership big guns were beaten by lower league sides, but, I figured that if City played Barnsley over a series of ten matches, they would win a couple more games than their opponents.

For a while, City, with Sinclair alongside Hasselbaink to form what was, maybe, the oldest striking partnership ever to feature in a Semi Final, justified my optimism. They settled the quicker and scored their usual early goal when Capaldi's long throw was scrambled clear to Ledley who showed great technique and nerve to volley the dropping ball into the net with his left foot from around the penalty spot.

I know they had not been using the new Wembley for long, but this had to be up there with the best goals scored at the place and it ensured that, whatever else happened, in the remaining eighty minutes, City fans had at least one fantastic memory to savour from the occasion.

To be honest, I now expected City to put on a bit of a show in demonstrating their superiority, but I had forgotten completely about the nature of Semi Finals which invariably saw some of the most nervy football produced in any given competition. To be fair to Barnsley, their response was impressive and they set about a City team who appeared to have trouble coping with the enormity of the situation they found themselves in.

With Enckelman appearing unsure and the usually reliable defence struggling, the next quarter of an hour saw a series of half chances fall to Barnsley and City certainly had to ride their luck at times to retain their lead. Reassuringly though, the team managed to create just about the best chance of the opening forty five minutes when Whittingham set up Sinclair whose close range effort was saved by Steele.

City settled a little after this and half time arrived with them looking slightly more comfortable than they had been for much of the time, but in saying that, the general consensus was that their lead was an undeserved one and, if they did not improve, their usual record of not losing in games in which they scored first was under serious threat.

In the event, the performance in the second period proved to be a lot better than the first and, apart from one moment. I always felt that we had a control that we had lacked previously. Whereas Barnsley now looked short of ideas going forward, City created a good few opportunities on the break with Gavin Rae not being able to take advantage of the two best ones. Peter Whittingham also hit a long range drive which beat Steele all ends up but landed on top of the net, but all this tended to pale into insignificance alongside the miss by Kayode Odejayi midway through the half as Barnsley's match winner against Chelsea found himself clear through on goal. Peter Enckelman advanced more in hope than anticipation as the Barnsley man bore down on him, but, Odejaye's goal against Chelsea had been his first in nearly six months and he now showed exactly why as his side footed effort flew a yard or so wide,

The affect of that miss on both sides was there for all to see - a lot of the belief drained out of Barnsley and into City to the extent that there was something of an air of inevitability about the rest of the match as City saw it out with a good deal of efficiency. Four minutes of added time prolonged the wait, but, don't ask me why, I just knew we would be alright and at about five to five on a Sunday afternoon in early April 2008, referee Alan Wiley's final whistle confirmed that Cardiff City were off to Wembley again but this time to play in an FA Cup Final!

The next few weeks were strange ones for City fans as they got used to their club occupying a pretty prominent place in the national media. Sometime around late April every year you get to hear Cup Final songs from the participating teams - usually they go in one ear and out of the other as far as I am concerned, but this time it was my team that was singing it (I'm biased, but I didn't think it was too bad compared to most Cup Final songs and it must have been unique in mentioning the Chairman's name before any of the players!)!

City's appearance in the Cup Final also brought the long running issue of them being allowed to compete in Europe to a head because the winners of the FA Cup were entitled to one of the UEFA Cup spots allocated to England. Previously, the FA had been adamant that Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham (who were, sadly, to lose Football League status at the end of the campaign) would not be allowed to enter European competition through routes reserved for English clubs, but, with UEFA president Michel Platini saying this wasn't fair and a groundswell of media opinion on City's side, they relented and announced that City would play in Europe if they beat Portsmouth.

Because every club competing in the FA Cup are entitled to an allocation of tickets for the Final, the two clubs contesting the game only had an allocation of 25,000, some 8,000 down on the Semi Finals. The club decided to offer tickets to existing Ambassadors, new Ambassadors (who had bought tickets for the 08/09 campaign), existing season ticket holders and members in that order. In doing so, they created a situation whereby the demand for Cup Final tickets led to far more season tickets being sold for the last campaign at Ninian Park than they could have expected at, say, the turn of the year. At the time of writing, the previous record for season tickets sold of 10,000 (for the 2003/04 campaign) has been shattered as close to 14,000 have been snapped up - I honestly believe we would have struggled to sell half that many without the FA Cup run.

The Final would be played on 17 May some thirteen days after the League season finished and yet there was still the intriguing prospect of the season perhaps being extended that bit further with an appearance in the Play Off Final!That was certainly the target the team were setting themselves if media reports at the time were to believed - there was plenty of talk about us under achieving in the league and how performance levels would need to maintained to ensure Cup Final places.

With fifty six points from their forty matches, City stood in thirteenth place some six points outside the Play Off positions. As the 2007/08 Championship was such a competitve league, it was generally figured that a lower number of points than normal would get you that sixth and last Play Off spot - in the event, seventy points made it, so, from here on in, four wins and two draws or five wins from their last six matches would have got City into the Play Offs.

In truth, it was a real long shot that we would make it - our tiny squad was almost on it's last legs and, with games in hand on most sides, the games kept on coining thick and fast but, to their great credit, the players kept the dream going for a few more matches yet.

TBC