One of the narratives that has been tentatively developing in these opening weeks of the season is “we’re a young team, so we’re going to be inconsistent, but every now and then, we’re going to give someone a right hiding “.
Well, I’m not sure 3-0 qualifies as a hiding, but, watching today’s victory over Rotherham at Cardiff City Stadium, it felt at times like a game where if we had to win it 6-0, we could have done so.
All of this with a starting back four that included three teenagers, with Will Fish the veteran of the quartet at 22 I think it is. Against Peterborough on the opening day, Ryan Wintle was the old man of the team – five years senior to anyone else, but still only 28. Today though, he had Nathan Trott and David Turnbull both a lot nearer to his age, to make him feel like he could join in the conversations during a break in play, but this was still a very young team. Back in the days when scouts used to watch games live rather than watch DVDs and videos, City would have had to section off a part of the Grandstand to house all of the people coming to run the rule over our young talent because, even if City do turn out to be as inconsistent as some believe they will, there are some very talented players forcing their way into the team now and something will have to go seriously wrong for them not to end up playing most of their careers at a higher level than League One.
As it is, City are second in the embryonic league table tonight behind surprise early leaders Stevenage. Not that the table means much after just three games played, but this is with a squad about which there’s general agreement regarding the need to bring in a few more signings yet to give us the sort of leadership and strength to make supporters more confident of the team’s ability to maintain a challenge near the top of the table.
However, while too many repeats of what we saw at Port Vale would make second position feel like a very distant dream, coming through what was a pretty traumatic experience without losing has to be beneficial to our youngsters in the long run. Also, seeing the improvement in some of the players already under BBM’s influence, you have to believe that performances will become more consistent as the season goes on.
The fact that there is such a large difference between the quality of performance in the three home matches we’ve played and the one away game means that there will be plenty of scrutiny of the two away games to come. There has to be a chance that this time next week after visits to Wimbledon and Luton there’ll be plenty of berating the Board, and possibly the Head Coach, for the lack of new signings as we struggle to recover from successive defeats.
However, for now, I’m happy to cross those bridges when we come to them because I want to say that watching us play at home is fun for the first time in years. I’ve spent so much time bemoaning our home results during the 2020s, but it wasn’t just results, it was the level of performance as well. Wins have been rare and so many of them have been dull 1-0’s with a set piece goal to decide them.
Strangely, the most entertaining and satisfying trio of consecutive home wins of the decade so far for me came last season where we played really well in beating Plymouth and Portsmouth 5-0 and 2-0 respectively and followed it up with a come from behind 2-1 win over Norwich where two very late goals secured a victory we probably didn’t deserve.
Those wins came in Omer Riza’s early days as caretaker manager and, with us also picking up some useful away draws at the same time, there was a hope that this form could be maintained.
However, the use of the word “hope” there tells the tale that it did not come as a shock when it all fell apart and home performances and results returned to normal. In contrast to that, and while muttering something about famous last words, I’ll say that it will be a surprise if we return to the old days of bad home results and even worse home performances this season.
Of course, the fact that we’re playing in a lower division will help in that regard, but more than that, it feels like we have someone in charge who has a clear plan on how he wants his team to play and, while there is still plenty of fine tuning to be done, the players are enjoying the way we’re trying to play and the freedom it gives them to express themselves.
I never really believed the line that our squad was too good to go down last season, but watching those who are still here playing this time around, I can accept that they had more to offer than I thought at the time.
The one sad note on a very good day was the substitution of Dakarai Mafico just thirty five minutes or so into his league debut. Mafico had been used as a left back in some of our pre season games, but it was really hard to work out why he was named in that position today instead of Joel Bagan who was many people’s Man of the Match against Swindon on Tuesday. BBM provided the explanation for the selection after today’s match when he said that Bagan had been to A and E due to chest pains on Thursday, but, although he was given the all clear, the Head Coach thought it best to leave him out today.
In the event, Mafico did well for half an hour, but then picked up a yellow card for a foul when he was left one on one with Rotherham winger Martha and after another foul well inside the Rotherham half a few minutes later, it was decided that Bagan would have to replace the debutant.
For me, it was clearly the right decision and it was good that BBM acted decisively to address the situation, but Mafico’s afternoon turned out to be nowhere near as pleasant an experience as he had hoped it would – at least the excellent reception he got from the home crowd as he made his way around the pitch to the dug out after he’d been subbed showed Mafico that his efforts had been appreciated.
Mafico for Bagan was one of four changes from the Swindon match as Yousef Salech replaced Callum Robinson and Ollie Tanner came in for Isaak Davies. The other change was a strange combination of shock and predictable as captain Calum Chambers stood down for Dylan Lawlor – a shock because I didn’t think BBM would drop the captain he named only a fortnight ago and predictable because on Chambers’ displays against Port Vale and Swindon it was the right thing to do.
Lawlor came in to play on the left of the centrebacks where he was faced by that canny old warhorse Jordan Hugill who had a loan spell with us back in 2021. While his performances were decent, Lawlor had not really lived up to the hype against Peterborough and Port Vale where he found the physical side of things a bit of a struggle. However, he was faultless today and one of several genuine candidates for man of the match. Ronan Kpakio was another and he was denied what seemed an obvious late penalty by referee Thomas Parsons after he had slalomed past three defenders.
Rubin Colwill was another candidate – he didn’t do much that was spectacular, he was just good at nearly everything he tried as he also scored what I think is his first tap in league goal for us. Cian Ashford scored what was clearly the best goal of the three and looks to be gaining confidence by playing on the right – he has an understated intelligence to his game which makes him one of my favourite players in our squad.
Best player for me though was David Turnbull who provided assists for the first two goals and almost scored himself when Tanner found him with a clever corner – Turnbull was very good in the second half I thought as we got right on top of well organized and competitive, but limited, opponents.
City’s three teenager back line (plus Bagan when he came on) defended so well that it’s still hard to know how good a shot stopper Trott is – a late shot by sub Kaleta was the visitors only one on target and it required the on loan keeper to make the best save of his City career so far, but it pretty routine stuff really which would have gone down as a clear goalkeeping mistake if he had let it in.
Rotherham keeper Cameron Dawson kept out Salech’s early effort and there was Turnbull’s shot just wide from the corner I mentioned as well as what might have been a penalty when Salech appeared to be held back by Zack Jules as he tried to reach a Tanner cross.
However, Rotherham had worked their way into the game from about the half an hour mark on and, while never looking that dangerous, appeared to be well on the way to going in at 0-0 at the break when they conceded what they’ll see as a very soft goal. An unmarked Salech nodded in his first goal of the season from a Turnbull corner (another source of optimism is that we’ve started taking good corners again) as the visitors defence melted in the sun..
City looked on it from the start of the second half and they soon scored a fine second goal. I’ll have to look at the highlights tomorrow to try and find out how many passes we strung together, but it seemed an awful lot as Ashford ended the passage of play with a fine one two with Turnbull to shoot high beyond Dawson with his left foot from fifteen yards.
The third goal soon followed as BBM was left very impressed with the high press which forced Jules into an error before Ashford’s fed Salech who unselfishly picked out captain Colwill who scored from six yards with no defender near him.
Dawson defied Colwill with a diving save and Joel, on as a late sub for his older brother, almost scored a late fourth, but City seemed happy to rest on their laurels for the last half an hour of a game where the BBC’s stats give you a good idea of how one sided it was (when was the last time we had 76% possession in a game? Have we ever had 76% possession in a game before today!)
After their high scoring loss last week, the under 18s secured a 3-2 win at Hull today. All of their goals came in the first half – Leo Papyrnik with two and Ollie Walsh getting them.
