The number and range of post game statistics you get these days makes it impossible to say for certain that today’s game with Wigan at Cardiff City Stadium was the most one sided statically in our favour we’ve played in the sixteen and a half year existence of this blog, because you didn’t get the volume of stats you get now back in 2009.
However, it’s hard to believe there has been one that was more one sided – I struggle to come up with any realistic candidates.
Here’s the BBC’s stats for the game
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/ce3k1030dqpt#MatchStats
Those are remarkable figures, I know I say that possession statistics are not as important as I once thought they were, but when you consider that for about ninety per cent of Mauve and Yellow Army’s existence, we never placed that high a priority on possession, 82 per cent possession is something I never thought I’d see from a Cardiff City team – even one which wants to be on the ball as much as this one does.
There’s been a claim on the message board I use that Calum Chambers played more passes today than the whole of the Wigan side did. I’m not sure about that because the figure given for Wigan passes in the message making this claim was lower than the one on the BBC site, but the fact such claims are being made and are not being dismissed as rubbish tells its own story.
Whether Wigan set out to be so passive and defensively minded is a matter for debate. For the first quarter of the game they were like recent visitors Exeter and Stevenage but even more defensive in their attitude. For a while, it seemed that away sides came to Cardiff with the attitude that as they always gave you a chance because of the way they play at home, we may as well have a go at them. Hence we had two 4-3s, a 3-2 and a 2-1 where Reading the visitors had 26 goal attempts in quick succession. Now we’ve had three sides come here with a plan to stifle us – it’s not made a different to the outcome of games (we’re still winning them), but the consequence of restricting our attacking intentions by almost doing away with any of their own is that Exeter, Stevenage and Wigan have scored once between them.
Wigan were like Exeter and Stevenage times five though. Even after going behind in the twenty fourth minute, nothing changed with their approach – it was still like one of those games of attack v defence you played as a kid.
The thought occurred to me that Wigan were playing like they were because they were knackered after a taxing holiday period that always gets managers complaining about too many fixtures. However, if that was the case, you have to praise City because they were always relentlessly pressing their opponents on the rare occasions they had any worthwhile possession.
I also wondered whether Wigan’s plan was to keep the score down until the last ten or twenty minutes and then give it a right go, but, if it was, it was foiled to a large extent by us just keeping possession comfortably for most of that time, so, again, you have to praise City’s fitness levels for being able to do that after four games in nine days.
City therefore go past the fifty point mark with just over half the season played – if they were to keep that rate of progress up for the next twenty two matches they’d probably end up a point or two short of the century mark.
Lincoln won impressively by 5-2 against an in form Peterborough and Bradford recovered from their mauling at Mansfield by winning 2-1 at Blackpool, so they can both still think realistically of a top two finish at our expense, but below that, the gap we have on the teams in fourth place downwards is big and got bigger today as Huddersfield dropped home points in a 2-2 draw with Exeter, Bolton played out a goalless draw against visitors Northampton and Stockport were beaten by a late goal at Reading.
I said today’s game was one of the most one sided statistically I’d seen, but it wasn’t just one way traffic according to the stats, it was possibly the most one sided one we’ve had this season, so the obvious question arises, why did we only win 1-0?
Others may disagree, but I thought that after letting our standards drop somewhat on New Years Day, we were spot on today and I also didn’t see too many easy chances being missed by us.
I reckon it was one of those days when the ball just wouldn’t go in for us apart from the superb twenty five yarder rifled in by Calum Chambers after he’d come close with an effort from a similar distance inside the opening two minutes. Chambers reminded the media after the match that it was a year to the day since his goal gave us a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough and the captain was probably City’s man of the match on a day when many in the side played well.
Another reason we were restricted to one was Wigan goalkeeper Sam Tickle who has his admirers in the Championship and maybe even higher. He made a string of saves to deny us the second goal including an amazing one to keep out a deflection off Wigan captain James Carragher during a period when opposition defenders looked like they were trying to show us how to put the ball in their net!
I could try to catalogue all of our close misses, but I wouldn’t do us justice because there were so many of them – it was a frustrating afternoon in many ways, but I think we played well and I’m confident about how the season will end if we can maintain the standard we showed today.
An apology next as I barely ever mention City’s women’s team these days. It doesn’t justify my failure to do so, but the fact that virtually all of their games are played on a Sunday means that I’ve posted my piece on the weekend’s senior men’s team game a few hours before the women kick off and, especially when we don’t have. a midweek match, it seems a bit pointless posting something about a game that had been played seven days earlier.
No such problems this week though with City playing on a Sunday, so a few words to finish about the women’s game at Leckwith this evening against a Wrexham team that went into the match with a five point lead at the top of the table (although they had played a gamer more than City).
Wrexham were unbeaten in the last four matches between the teams and looked good to extend that run as the game went into added time with the score 1-1, only for City to get a winner well past the ninety minute mark which puts them in charge of their own destiny again – win all of their remaining games and they’ll be Champions for the fourth successive time.
City, who hit the woodwork three times in the first half, led at the break through an own goal by Wrexham’s Erin Lovett but they equalised early in a more even second half through Faye Hillier-Knox only for sub Fiona Barry to win it for City at the death.
