In my preamble to the seven decades quiz for today’s game with Northampton, I said that a 5-0 City win would mean that, after God knows how many seasons of us struggling to average one goal a game at home, we’d scored half a century of league goals at Cardiff City Stadium in 25/26.
Needless to say, my wish did not come true, but only because I’d discounted the possibility of Northampton scoring – actually, they did manage a goal and it was the best finish of the six in a match we won 5-1!
So, after scoring four in a league game on seven occasions, we exceeded it in our penultimate match of the campaign. Their defeat probably condemns Northampton to a bottom of the table finish and, on this occasion, they looked a side destined to end up twenty fourth out of twenty four – even though they gave us a really tough game at Sixfields back in November when the 3-1 victory margin flattered us somewhat.
Northampton have had a disastrous time of it since Boxing Day – today’s loss was their sixteenth out of their last twenty two League One matches and only one of them has been won.
After a misleadingly positive first five minutes in which Harry Tyrer on his debut for the club was called on to make three saves, two of them good ones, Northampton were like a team looking to be put out of their collective misery for the remaining eighty five minutes..
Our opponents weren’t helped by City being in the mood today after Wednesday’s flat affair with Port Vale – when we went 4-0 up in the fifty fourth minute, I was convinced we were going to get five and a fair few more, but, whereas the substitutions BBM has made around the hour mark have been game changing in a positive way so often, this time our performance declined after them.
That’s not to blame those who came on as the party mood that was present from the start (in contrast to Wednesday) made for an atmosphere which almost demanded self indulgence and, with the match clearly over as a contest, this probably more than any other this season was a time when the players could be self indulgent.
Therefore, there was just a goal from either side in the final thirty five minutes of a match that only had one additional minute tacked on at the end despite there having been eight substitutions made during the second half.
That decision by referee Edward Duckworth was not out of place in a game that was competitive because there were league points at stage, but, for much of the time it had the air of a practice match or a game of attack v defence in training. By ending the match when he did, Mr Duckworth was taking pity on Northampton and I don’t think there were many, if any, City fans who were complaining about his decision.
Yet it didn’t feel like we were heading for such a one sided affair in those opening minutes when Tyrer was given the opportunity to make a good first impression with City fans.
City lined up with Ronan Kpakio, Will Fish, Dylan Lawlor and Joel Bagan in front of Tyrer, with David Turnbull in the number six role and the Colwill brothers in front of him with Rubin almost playing as a striker at times. After Wednesday’s narrow four man midfield, it was back to wingers today with Ollie Tanner and Chis Willock included as Callum Robinson led the line.
Veteran Sam Hoskins ensured that Tyler’s first save came within seconds of kick off with a well struck half volley from distance which was dealt with efficiently by the keeper. Next, Tyrer tipped over Cameron McGeehan’s twenty yarder and then the keeper did well to block Jon Guthrie’s close range header from the resultant corner.
Up the other end, Willock had already been causing problems and on nine minutes he was able to get by his man and cross to the far post where Tanner took a touch before finishing crisply from twelve yards via a post for his second goal of the season.
This early goal set the tone for the game with the likes of Willock and Rubin Colwill given the time and space to show off their talents to best effect.
Referee Duckworth had an easy game and generally did pretty well, but I thought he was wrong to disallow a goal for a foul on Northampton goalkeeper Lee Burge when it seemed like it was one of his own defenders that made him drop a corner.
It mattered little though as another fluent move down the left gave Bagan enough room to cross to Rubin Colwill and he picked out his brother who was left with a simple finish from five yards out to make it 2-0 on nineteen minutes.
City seemed to be disrupted by a collision between Bagan and Lawlor which resulted in the usual halfway through the first half injury break/time out. However, striker, Jack Vale, who once scored a hat trick for Wales Under 21s, provided an assist with an errant back pass to Robinson who was stood yards offside and the striker cashed in on the gift to easily beat Burge.
After the break, another slick passing movement unpicked Northampton down their right and when Burge got a slight touch on Bagan’s low cross from the bye line, the ball fell to Tanner who finished well past the covering defenders on the goal line.
Shortly after this, the Colwill brothers made way for Alex Robertson and Yousef Salech and ten minutes later Tanner and Willock were replaced by Omari Kellyman and Isaak Davies who was returning after more than two months out with various injuries. The final substitution saw Turnbull, who I thought was very good playing in more of a quarterback tole than Ryan Wintle does, taken off to give Robert Tankiewicz a few minutes of league action and the sixteen year old was able to play a few impressive passes in the short time he was on.
It was another teenager who scored the game’s fifth goal, but seventeen year old Jake Evans was wearing a pink Northampton shirt, not a blue City one and the Leicester loanee gave Tyrer no chance with a low shot from twenty odd yards.
City’s final goal,had an element of luck to it as Turnbull’s mishit shot fell into the path of Robinson who unselfishly presented Salech with a tap in.This gave City their sixty third league goal (out of a total of eighty six) scored from open play this season – that’s an amazing nineteen more than the next highest in the division with Lincoln somewhere around mid table. There’s no doubting that Lincoln are worthy Champions, but a stat like that encapsulates why, as a neutral, I’d have enjoyed a season watching the team which finished second a lot more than I would have done watching the one that won the league.
Although I’m fairly sure the 1946/47 side would have ended up with the most points if it had been three points for a win throughout the club’s history, as it is, the current side’s ninety one points is one more than Neil Warnock’s 17/18 team and is a club record with three more points still to play for – I’d be happy enough with a draw next weekend at Mansfield which would mean we’d averaged two points a game throughout.
