On the Cardiff City phone in that doesn’t receive any phone calls last night one of the four contributors, who I thought talked a lot of sense, said that although he was very happy with how the season was going, he had a slight concern that we’d only scored five times in our last four home matches.
Indeed, since we had a free scoring spell which began with the 3-1 win at Northampton and ended with 4-3 victory over Doncaster, we’d only scored eleven in our previous nine games. While that’s a scoring rate last season’s team would have given a lot for, it’s modest by this season’s standards.
I’ve also heard it said that, for a top of the table side, we don’t blow many teams away. This cannot be denied – in the seventeen league games played since we 2-0 at Wigan in early October we’ve only won by a bigger margin than one goal in that win at Northampton and the 3-0 victory over Mansfield – again, not something to get too concerned about when you consider how many of those seventeen games were won, but a bit surprising for a team with a record like City’s.
Therefore, it could be said that we were overdue a big win and that arrived tonight when we equaled the 4-0 score line against Plymouth to record a joint biggest win of the season so far.
Barnsley manager Conor Hourihane will no doubt point to two decisions which could have made for a completely different game if they’d gone his team’s way and, after all of the complaints and controversy regarding the referee on Saturday, it has to be said that City were lucky that referee Lee Swabey ruled in our favour on both occasions.
The first arrived in the first half with the score 1-0 and City undergoing the first of two sloppy spells either side of half time.
Alex Robertson had already been booked for one of those cynical “professional” fouls that so annoy me as we have clearly decided that no opponent can get on the wrong side of me no matter where it is on the pitch when he held back a Barnsley player on the edge of their penalty area. Predictably, the Barnsley players were annoyed that a second yellow card wasn’t shown, but Mr Swabey appeared to be saying that as the foul was committed so far away from our goal, he wasn’t minded to issue another caution for our midfielder. This seems at odds with Paul Howard’s interpretation on Saturday when Omari Kellyman and Joel Bagan were both cautioned for grabbing hold of an opponent some fifty or sixty yards from our goal – I feel that hopeless Mr Howard who got so little right was correct in his decision making on these occasions and Robertson, who was withdrawn at half time for David Turnbull, should have been sent off.
The second instance of us being lucky was with us 2-0 ahead early in the second half when Chris Willock tangled with Corey O’Keefe I think it was in our penalty area and the Barnsley man went down. My immediate reaction was penalty, but, having seen a replay of it, it wasn’t as clear cut as I first thought- still, it definitely fell into the I’ve seen them given category.
Therefore, City rode their luck somewhat and, as I mentioned earlier, they had their careless periods, but it could not be denied that they were well worth their win by the end as Barnsley became by no means our first opponent to look out on their feet as the effect of having to spend so much time being moved around the pitch chasing the ball took its toll on them.
City brought in Will Fish for Gabriel Osho, Willock for Cian Ashford and, surprisingly, it was Kellyman leading the attack in Yousef Salech’s absence, not Callum Robinson.
Kellyman an began to justify BBM’s decision to start with him up front as early as the third minute though when he found Ollie Tanner who has been something of an assist machine since returning from injury and this time his clever reverse ball found Perry Ng in space. At first it looked like there was too much on Tanner’s pass, but Ng managed to control it and lash an angled shot from twelve yards high into the net although you had to wonder if keeper Owen Goodman should have done better as the ball beat him on his near post.
Tanner should have got his first goal of the season about a quarter of an hour later as Willock’s precise cross found him free of his marker inside the six yard box, but the winger made a mess of his shot and the ball rolled harmlessly wide.
Having gone a goal behind so early, Barnsley had little option but to push forward rather than play with Wigan type caution, but I suspect their approach would have been an adventurous one even without Ng’s goal. – their lots scored, but lots conceded record suggested that.
For a while, Barnsley were very much in the game as they looked to attack quickly and with plenty forward. In Davis Kaillor Dunn they have one of the best forwards in the division and it was the Barnsley top scorer who drew what I would say was a serious contender for Nathan Trott’s best save of his impressive season as he dived to his left to tip over a shot that looked to be arcing its way over him.
Then from the resultant corner,a header flew just wide and Keillor Dunn was soon racing forward to force an easier save this time from Trott.
Unfortunately for Barnsley, their positive intent left them vulnerable to City counter attacks and when Joel Colwill won possession near the halfway line, Kellyman was soon running at an undermanned defence. The Chelsea loaner’s pass sent Willock clear on goal and the winger took his time before stepping inside a covering defender and rolling a shot across goal and into the corner of the net, although there was again the suspicion that Goodman could have done better.
Barnsley started the second half the better of the two teams, but City had regained their poise somewhat by the time Turnbull fed Willock who then found Kellyman in acres of space and the makeshift striker made it 3-0 on sixty three minutes.
Six minutes later, it was four as a misplaced Barnsley pass and a dive into a tackle by Tennal Watson left Willock one on one with Goodman. The winger then clipped an impudent shot beyond the keeper and just inside the upright.
Robinson, Isaak Davies, Cian Ashford and Ronan Kpakio were all given run outs in the dying minutes and it was the first named who came closest to making it five as, first, his low shot from outside the penalty area flashed just wide and then Goodman produced his best save of the night to turn Robinson’s shot from a similar position onto the crossbar.
Still, 4-0 was more than good enough on a night when all of the main top six contenders won apart from Bradford who lost their third straight game to a promotion contender as they were heavily beaten 3-0 at Lincoln and Luton will be kicking themselves for losing 1-0 at Huddersfield who had Alfie May sent off with less than half an hour played.
Finally, the under 21s game with Brentford at Leckwith this afternoon was a bit of a non event really after the Bees had their keeper sent off after just three minutes for a foul on Luke Pearce after he’d lost the ball outside of the penalty area. There was a covering defender behind the keeper, but this did not stop him seeing red and he could have few complaints about the decision. With no substitute keeper, the visitors had to play with an outfield player between the sticks and the first half was one way traffic with City facing opponents who often had all nine outfield players behind the ball.
It took thirty five minutes for City to come up with a goal as new signing from Wolves Caiden Voice swung over a lovely cross which left Pearce with the simple task of heading in from close range. Soon after this, City scored a lucky second when Jake Davies’ long range shot got a big deflection which sent the ball into the air and then into the net via an upright.
Brentford were able to attack more in the second half, but City picked them off to claim further goals from Mannie Barton with a header from ten yards and a ferocious finish by sub Dan Ola after being set up by Barton.
It was not City’s fault that the game had an unsatisfactory feel to it as it was barely competitive at times – they got the job done in a competent and professional manner to record the first of the day’s 4-0 victories.
