Given their lack of goals in recent home games, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if the score line had been 1-0 if tonight’s game between Cardiff City and Port Vale had taken place on the day it was originally set for – Good Friday.
Vale’s run to the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup meant their game against Chelsea in the last eight of the premier domestic cup competition had to take priority though and so their match at Cardiff became another in their end of season fixture pile up which has made their relegation fight well night impossible to win.
Vale still have three games left to play after tonight, but, to all intents and purposes, their race is run – they are down now, along with Northampton and Rotherham. All of which means that the only relegation question still to be answered is whether Exeter can overhaul one of Wimbledon, Leyton Orient, Peterborough, Burton or Blackpool to escape the bottom four.
I mentioned the 1-0 score line at the start and that’s how it ended this evening in our penultimate home league game of the season, although I’m sure the nature of the match would have been a lot different if it had gone ahead as originally planned.
Three weeks ago, City were coming out of the last international break of the campaign with their automatic promotion challenge faltering and things were in danger of becoming edgy – tonight was a low key affair from a City perspective though and the same was true from a supporter s point of view.
Of course, it was anything but low key for Port Vale – how can it be when you know you’re relegated if you don’t win!
Vale had given themselves some hope with a run of two wins and two draws during which they’d only conceded one goal. Given this, it wasn’t a complete surprise to see them go with most of their more likely scorers and creators on the bench in a bid to keep us at bay for an hour or so and then really have a go in the game’s last quarter.
I say that while noting that with just thirty three goals scored in forty two matches before tonight, Vale are somewhat pop gun when it comes to attacking artillery.
That said, their fifty six conceded was joint best in the lower half of the table with Wigan and it was better than three of the sides in the top half, so you could understand the logic – especially against a City team lacking the intensity which comes when there’s a promotion to be won.
BBM made more changes than I for one was expecting. Out went Perry Ng, Joel Bagan, Ryan Wintle, Ollie Tanner, Chris Willock and Omari Kellyman to be replaced by Ronan Kpakio, Calum Scanlon, David Turnbull, Joel Colwill, Callum Robinson and Yousef Salech.
The question which shouts out from all of those changes has to be “where are the wingers?”. The evidence of the first half was that Kpakio and Scanlon were supposed to provide the attacking width with the four central midfielders utilised in a sort of box formation with Alex Robertson and Turnbull the deeper pairing and the two Colwills being the more attacking duo in what became a 2–2-2-4 formation when we attacked.
There was little of that though in an uninspiring first forty five minutes as Vale, showing little attacking intent, got to the safety of half time with their goal intact, even if they never looked like scoring themselves.
If I was to tell you that City had a shot saved by a diving keeper and hit the post within the space of around thirty seconds in the first half, you could be forgiven for thinking that that I’m being very negative with my talk of low key games.
However, in truth, goalkeeper Joe Gauci could have not bothered to dive to turn Joel Colwill’s bobbling shot from eighteen yards aside because replays suggested it was going just wide anyway and then, when Robertson’s in swinging corner to the near post came in, the ball hit the outside of the frame of the goal before bouncing harmlessly away for a goal kick.
There was little else to set the pulses racing in the first forty five minutes and the stalemate continued into the early stages of the second half. City did create the best chance so far though when Lawlor picked out Kpakio with a lovely long pass and the full back did really well to cross from the bye line to the far post where Salech headed about a foot wide.
Salech was under pressure from a defender, but, in truth, it was a not too difficult chance for the big striker and you couldn’t help thinking he’d have buried it back in December or early January before his concerning neck injury against Stockport.
Port Vale now began to step up the attacking play somewhat as Ben Garrity’s header from a corner forced Nathan Trott to turn the ball around the past. However, City had more firepower on the bench than Vale as could be shown by the introduction of Kellyman and. Willock around the hour mark for Robertson and Robinson (Will Fish also came on for Osho who looked to be struggling with an injury).
Willock immediately made an impact as his low cross led to Salech and Joel Colwull having efforts blocked inside the six yard box.Vale made their attacking substitutions with around twenty minutes to go and the odds had to be on a goal at either end coming eventually given that 0-0 was not going to be enough to keep them up.
Indeed, when the deadlock finally was broken on seventy nine minutes it came from a fluent counter attack by the home side . Kpakio began the move with a pass to the older Colwill who found his brother. I thought Joel had taken too many touches and the move was losing momentum, but he released Willock with enough room for him to angle a cross to the far post where Rubin arrived on cue to head firmly past Gauci from just inside the six yard box. It was a good goal out of keeping with the general quality on offer, but in this season of the great Cardiff City goal, it probably wouldn’t make our top twenty.
For such a low scoring team, Vale probably knew that was the end of their League One life, but, amazingly, they had two very passable opportunities before their relegation was made official.
For the first, sub Oriel Hernandez got to the bye line before putting over a low cross that another dub, Ben Waine jabbed wide from a central position inside the six yard box and then Waine blocked a shot by one of his team mates with the part of his body that he most wouldn’t have wanted to.
That was as close as Vale came to scoring and it was clear throughout that their attackers were low in confidence. In saying that, the older Colwill’s goal was the only one scored in the two meetings between these two teams this season and, more than that, I’d say Vale possess the defensive organisation and work rate to make their latest stay in League Two a short one if they can add a ten or twelve goal a season striker to their ranks, along with adequate replacements for the players they currently have on loan..
