Cardiff City found the ideal time to put together what was possibly their most complete home performance of the season as, with nerves beginning to jangle as their home goalless run stretched into an eighth half, they scored twice in the space of three minutes early in the second half. The quick fire one two was enough to secure what was a pretty comprehensive 2-0 win over a Bolton side that had been thought of, in recent months, as the one team that could deny us an automatic promotion place.
I must admit Bolton looked pretty ordinary this lunchtime, but I’d rather say that was down to us rather than carry on about how poor a side our opponents, who’d lost just one of their last sixteen league games, were.
Things have got much tougher for us since our 5-2 loss at Plymouth in February. Since that match, we’d won just two in seven. However, I’d say we’d only played poorly against Lincoln and Blackpool in that stretch of games, while I’d say we were just okay at Barnsley. In the other four matches we were good in gaining big wins at Doncaster and Exeter, we were playing well against Wycombe until Gabriel Osho’s red card and we deserved to beat Peterborough.
However, outside of the two 4-0 away wins, so much of the other five matches was taken up by us labouring to break down a massed defence and the fact that we only scored twice in those five games tells you that our labours were largely in vain.
In the early games, that was primarily down to a lack of creativity, but, more recently I’d say it was more shooting that was more either substandard or over ambitious (or a combination of them both) that was holding us back.
So, we were in an odd situation whereby everyone outside the club was telling us we were going up automatically, but, with wins stubbornly refusing to come, there was a growing feeling, especially among supporters old enough to recall the disaster that was our end to the 08/09 campaign, that we may be beginning to see the onset of a collapse that would make what had happened seventeen years ago look prosaic by comparison.
I can’t verify whether this is true or not, but I read on social media this morning that City had never gone four consecutive home league games without scoring before, yet as we failed to cash in on our dominance in the first half, I was thinking that the team which had been the highest scoring Cardiff side of recent seasons were on their way to creating an unwanted club record.
The main talking point beforehand regarding BBM’s team selection was who was going to play alongside Will Fish at centreback? With Osho suspended and injury doubts concerning Calum Chambers and Dylan Lawlor, we were down to the bare bones.
In the event, Chambers didn’t make the squad, but Lawlor was able to start although the occasional hobble by the young Welsh international gave the clue that his troublesome toe was still bothering him.
Alex Robertson for David Turnbull in midfield was no surprise, while Cian Ashford’s absence from the squad was, seemingly, down to a back issue – Chris Willock was the predictable replacement for him.
All of this meant that Yousef Salech remained on the bench as Omari Kellyman continued as a false number nine with Rubin Colwill tending to operate just behind him.
While Kellyman was praised by some for his work off the ball at Peterborough, he was pretty anonymous in terms of a goal threat. However, here, within ninety seconds or so, he had the best chance to have come his way in the last three or four games as he combined fluently with Willock with the latter’s back heel into the Chelsea loanee’s path putting him on one on one with Jack Bonham, but, from about ten yards out, Kellyman’s angled shot was kept out by keeper.
Willock has been quiet recently, but he was on his game here as he and Joel Bagan combined to give veteran Cyrus Christie a difficult afternoon. Within minutes, Bagan and Willock were involved again as Alex Robertson tried the same type opf shot he scored from at Exeter recently, but, this time, Bonham reacted well to tip the effort from twenty yards over the bar.
However, in spite of City’s left flank operating well, most of the chances we had in the first half came from our right through the Rubin Colwill, Perry Ng, Ollie Tanner trio
When Ng burst infield after more slick passing, his low cross was met on the edge of the six yard box by Robertsonson, but his effort came back off the crossbar. I’d thought Kellyman could have made more of his earlier chance, but Robertson really should have broken the deadlock with this close range miss.
To his credit, Robertson was getting into plenty of advanced positions though as he played more as a second number ten in an attacking 4-1-4-1 formation. Bolton, for their part, appeared to have noted how we’d struggled to break down massed defences in recent weeks and were happy to frequently get eleven men behind the ball – all this in a game which, it seemed to me, they had to win if they wanted to make the top two.
Robertson later headed a Colwill cross not too far wide and Ng then manufactured a shot from the edge of the penalty area which passed a lot closer to the far post than Bonham was expecting it to.
Bolton were somewhat fortunate to be level in a game they had definitely been second best in. Yet, they would have been aware of the sense of anxiety surrounding City and they got a little more ambitious as half time approached with Ng doing well to get his head to a dangerous far post cross with Thierry Gale well placed to score.
City had come out and scored very early in the second half on Monday after a frustrating first period, but they did better than that this time as they found themselves two goals to the good in the fifty second minute.
Any half time debate as to how we could end our barren scoring run at home would surely not have included the sort of header from a corner that Sean Morrison or Aden Flint used to score. Word is that we don’t score such goals any more, but when Bagan swung in a perfect near post corner, Kellyman came off his man to glance in a header across Bonham from six yards. Bolton had defended pretty well up to then, but they would have been fuming to concede such a cheap goal.
Just as on Monday, City breaking the deadlock was quickly followed by another goal, but this time pressure from our opponents saw us breaking at speed to score the latest in the long line of quality goals we’ve got this season. Robertson was the instigator with a strong burst past an opponent as he ran some thirty or forty yards with the ball before finding Willock whose assured finish from fifteen yards across Bonham went in off the post.
Tanner had a shot pushed out by Bonham after very good pressing by Colwill and then the winger’s shot was deflected just wide as City looked to kill the game off, only for the visitors to finally show some attacking teeth as Sam Dalby headed against the outside of the post.
In truth though, Bolton barely threatened again as City saw out the game pretty comfortably with Ryan Wintle coming as close as anyone to the game’s third goal as his effort was deflected wide following the partial clearance of Tanner’s low cross.
Although City’s nineteen goal attempts (five on target) was low by recent standards, this was a more assured and complete performance by them with their forward pressing being especially impressive. Fish and Lawlor ensured that Nathan Trott had little to.do and there was nothing I could be too critical of really, hence my opinion of it being one of our most complete displays of the season.
On second thoughts, there was one thing. Although the grappling matches we get at set pieces remains my biggest on field bugbear in the modern game, catching it up fast is the fairly recent development whereby goalkeepers go down with a non existent injury somewhere around the twentieth minute to bring about a “time out” where instructions can be fed to to the players based on what’s been happening early in the match.
Bolton were at it today, just like Peterborough, Blackpool etc, etc before them, but, in the second half, it was our turn as the largely unemployed Trott somehow needed treatment. To be fair, it’s not a form of cheating we resort to that much, but, let’s not make out we’re somehow more “noble” than our opponents! As I’ve mentioned before on here, you give players, managers and coaches an inch and they’ll take a mile – as soon as they see others, getting away with something, they’ll start doing it.
I’ve virtually given up on the authorities doing anything to stop the alternative “sport” which breaks out every time a ball comes into a penalty area from a set piece, but, surely, ending these tactical injury breaks is something that can be easily done?
Bolton’s defeat means we only need one more point to be sure of finishing above them barring a truly mad change in both sides’ goal differences, while two draws will be enough to ensure the same applies to Bradford following their home defeat to Stevenage (who are making themselves big favourites to capture the fourth Play Off spot). Now it seems like Stockport are the side most likely to pip us for second place – they can finish on eighty five points and their run in doesn’t look too demanding, but, again, our far superior goal difference means that four points from our last five games will be enough to finish above them.
Talking of our next five games, other results at the bottom mean that our penultimate opponents, Northampton, are all but down despite them not playing today – they can only reach the same number of points as Wimbledon and Leyton Orient, the two sides currently just outside the bottom four have, if they win their remaining five matches and, even then, they’re relying on big changes to everyone’s goal difference to be able to scrape clear of the relegation places.
