That said, we played well in the first half last night and I would say that the first forty five minutes offered up some of the most entertaining football seen at Ninian Park all season as City put together some high quality stuff which should really have seen them ahead at the break.
To be fair to our visitors though, Watford contributed fully to the entertainment in the first period. After the QPR game I wrote on here about an opposing team who used the 4-5-1 system in a purely negative way, well Watford showed the opposite side of things last night as they came with a lone striker system which was geared to attack.
Listening to the radio at half time, I couldn't help agreeing with Ian Walsh who admitted to being pleasantly surprised by Watford. Down the years they have been a team that was associated with a certain way of playing the game, but there was none of that from them last night as they pinged the ball around in midfield and broke at speed. Mind you, Watford won on their three previous visits to Ninian Park playing hoofball and this time they leave with no points but with the compliments of the opposing manager ringing in their ears - once again, it comes down to what do you want, nice football that draws plenty of praise or the three points no matter how they are gained?
If there was a team playing hoofball last night then it was City in the second half. After the good stuff of the first forty five minutes, it all got a bit ugly after the break. However, when you consider the way the opposition was set up and what is at stake, is it really that surprising that the tension of the situation was reflected in the quality of our football?
We have been good at getting wins over visiting sides that play 4-5-1 this season, but, when you consider that most players in this league are of a good quality, then it has to follow that we are not going to get the result through playing fluent passing football through the middle of the park if the opposing midfield has five players of typical Championship quality against our four.
Having compared Watford's fluency with our laboured efforts after the break, I left the ground last night thinking, like many others I would guess, that we were lucky to win the game. However a total of 15 efforts on goal (12 on target) compared to six by Watford (two on target) argues otherwise. In this respect last night was a bit like Sunday in that, for all the wurzel's domination of possesion through their five in midfield, it was us with our headers off the woodwork and cleared off the line that actually threatened the goal more - maybe this is where the plus side of having the extra attacker is seen?
As for the main decisions in the game, I had no doubt at the time that Steve McPhail had fouled Jobi McAnuff (who I thought had an excellent game), but the television pictures suggest that it wasn't quite as clear cut as that. Having given a penalty to the away side, there was always the suspicion that referee Hall might even things up and, although it took him a very long time, that's exactly what he did.
Apparently, the decision to award us a penalty was entirely the referee's and, that being the case, you have to have some sympathy with Brendon Rogers the Watford manager when he said there were so many bodies in his line of sight that the ref couldn't have had a clear view of the incident. However, although I wouldn't say that they are 100% conclusive, the television pictures appear to show that Mr Hall got the decision right and you just have to admire Ross McCormack (who would have been my City man of the match even without his winning goal) for keeping his nerve given the long delay between the awarding of the penalty and him actually taking it.
Finally, a few words about the support the team got last night. About a week ago Steve Coppell said it was easier for his Reading team to play away from home now because they are being affected by the tension created by the home crowd at the Madjeski Stadium. This does not just apply to Reading, there are plenty of other sides at the top who are getting better results on their travels than at home (we are playing one of them on Sunday).
Up to now at least, the opposite applies at Cardiff as we have now taken twenty two points from our last eight games at Ninian Park - I reckon the nature of the support the team have been getting has been a big factor in that fine return. Last night, as we struggled in the second half, there was a spell where each misplaced pass was greeted by an audible groan from the crowd. Now I am not blaming anyone for that - it's only human nature and I was as guilty of it as anyone. However, it was as if the crowd realised that the team needed it's support more than ever and the last fifteen minutes or so were played in a great atmosphere which must have given the team a lift as we ended up chiselling out would could be a very important three points.
It's going to be hard over the next few weeks, but the last three months have shown what this team can achieve if the home support stays fully behind them - unlike many of our rivals we are benefiting from playing at home and, if we stay positive and fully behind the team, this situation can, hopefully, continue right up until Ninian Park's last game - whenever that may be!