On 5 Live this morning, one of the BBC’s radio commentators, think it was John Murray, was asked the following question in all seriousness – “was Tuesday’s First Leg Champions League Semi Final between Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich the best football match you’ve seen in your life?”.
I can’t believe there’s anyone reading this who doesn’t know that PSG edged a classic game by 5-4. As for what I thought of it, anyone who is a regular reader of the blog’s Feedback section will know that, with me being no fan of the Champions League, I opted for the National League Play Off game between Scunthorpe and Southend over the game in Paris for my Tuesday night viewing. It was only at half time in the Scunthorpe game that I realised the thriller being played out on the continent may be offering better fare than the ordinary stuff I’d been watching at Glanford Park!
Therefore, I only saw the last hour or so of PSG v Bayern and so I’m not really in a position to comment on best game ever questions, but what I will say is that it was the most I’ve enjoyed a game this season that didn’t involve Cardiff City!
However, even allowing for my rather biased viewpoint, I have to report that Mansfield Town 5 Cardiff City 4 this afternoon was not the equal of the match with the same scoreline from four days ago!
City gave what is becoming a traditionally shambolic last day of the campaign defensive performance as they made it fourteen goals conceded in their last three season enders following 5-2 and 4-2 losses at Rotherham and Norwich respectively.
Let’s be clear, I’m not going to read too much into today’s game, but we conceded a goal inside two minutes today after Harry Tyrer had been forced into a fine reflex save to give away the corner Mansfield took the lead from.
We went 1-0 down so early because we failed to deal with the first two high balls into our box, while the four goals which followed all came through a combination of our very high defensive line, shoddy passing and an unwillingness on the part of some to track back. However, that’s not not typical of how we’ve defended this season (apart from at Blackpool), whereas our failure to get first contact on crosses into our penalty area has pretty much been standard fare over the past nine months.
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Tyrer who was faced pretty much with players racing clear of our defence charging in on him for the last four goals – he made some good saves in other situations, but had no chance of saving any of the goals, apart from, perhaps, the one which turned out to be the match winner.
Yousef Salech for Callum Robinson was the one change from the team that thrashed Northampton seven days ago, but, players like Dylan Lawlor, Will Fish, David Turnbull and Chris Willock were well short of their best. As for Salech, he looked like a player that needs a break from the game and a fresh start in a few months time after what has been a traumatic period for him.
City conceded with about a hundred seconds played as Ryan Sweeney found it much too easy to head in on the far post. Willock soon had the sort of chance he buries more often than not, but ended up putting his shot out for a throw in and within a few more minutes, we were 3-0 down.
On twenty three minutes Lawlor carelessly gave the ball away about forty yards from the Mansfield goal, but it was still a shock to see how easy it was for Lewis Akins to be put through on goal with just one pass. The 37 year old Akins easily beat Tyrer after running with the ball from inside his own half and three minutes later we were undone by a long ball over Ronan Kpakio which resulted in a cross to Akins. Lawlor got back to clear the resultant shot off the line, but the ball found its way back to Akins who this time blasted high into the net.
Turnbull had been excellent in the number six role against Rotherham where he had a lot of possession and was given an opportunity to show the full range of his passing. Here though, his limitations when not in possession were exposed and it just looked like we were really missing Ryan Wintle who, once again, was not in the match day squad (it cannot just be a coincidence that, on the three occasions in all competitions this season in which we have conceded five in a game, Wintle has spent no time at all on the pitch)
You can’t help thinking that there would have been wholesale changes at half time if there was anything riding on the game, but the eleven starters were given the ten minutes after the interval to offer more than they had done. There was no noticeable improvement though and so Willock, Joel Colwill and Turnbull were replaced by Isaak Davies, Alex Robertson and Omari Kellyman as we went with a blast from the past 4-2-4 with Rubin Colwill dropping back alongside Robertson and Davies playing through the middle alongside Salech.
Robertson definitely improved us in the middle of the park and Colwill became more influential. Also, within five minutes of coming on, Davies added more evidence to my contention that he’s the best finisher at the club by finding the net from twenty yards with an unerring accuracy that so many of his team mates struggle to match.
This signalled the start of a period where three goals were scored in five minutes. Ollie Tanner smacked a superb left footed volley onto the crossbar and was to hit the woodwork again with another fine effort later on, but he showed the other side of his game with a lazy, misplaced pass which gave Mansfield another chance to slice us open with a single ball. This time Rhys Oates was left in the clear and he lobbed neatly over Tyrer to restore the home team’s three goal lead.
However, within another two minutes, Rubin Colwill and Kellyman combined well for the latter to hit a weak shot which Liam Roberts (who was so good in the first game between the teams) somehow let slip under his body and over the line with Davies poised close by to add a finishing touch if one was needed.
City replaced Joel Bagan with teenage debutant Noah Williams who I thought was quietly impressive at left back while sixteen year old Paul Moreno came on for the older Colwill to become our youngest ever league debutant.
Before Moreno made his entrance though, Mansfield made it 5-2 as City couldn’t cope with another quick break and substitute Ollie Irow found the net from eighteen yards with a low shot that eluded Tyrer.
Kpakio had begun the season with a goal to beat Peterborough on the opening day and ended it with his second senior goal as, playing more like a winger as the game went on, he tapped in after Tanner’s second effort against the woodwork.
There was still time for a quality finish by Kellyman and this goal ensured that, as League One’s best attacking team (as opposed to best team) we were able to pip Lincoln as the division’s top scorer. However, there’s no way Lincoln, or one or two others, would have defended like we did today.
Still, as I said earlier, that performance was hardly typical of us this season and I’m not going to be too critical about a game which counted for nothing on an afternoon where the real drama occurred elsewhere.
At the bottom, it wasn’t that dramatic truth be told as Exeter never threatened to get the win they needed with Bradford sealing their Play Off place with a 2-1 win in Devon and Stockport secured their Play Off spot by winning at Barnsley. Bolton, already there as top six finishers, were beaten 3-2 by Luton who were thinking they may have beaten Plymouth, 3-2 winners at Northampton after being 2-0 down, to the last Play Off place after their 93rd minute winner when news came through that Stevenage had scored a controversial ninety second minute winner over Wigan to hang on to sixth place.
One thing I learned today is that the wristwatch device which almost instantly tells the ref whether the ball has crossed the line for a goal or not is only used in the Championship by the EFL. Why this should be is hard to understand, as you would have thought the system would not be financially prohibitive for the EFL.
Having seen the Stevenage “goal” a few times now, I’d say the ball just about crossed the line if I had a gun held to my head, but it’s got to be wrong that a club’s whole season gets to be decided by what is, effectively, guesswork. Given the circumstances behind their Virtu Trophy win and the fact that they were still receiving parachute payments following their relegation from the Premier League, I’ve no great sympathy for Luton Town, but the technology is available to let them know for sure whether they’ve been robbed of the chance of a promotion or not and it’s a mystery as to why it’s not being used.
For bottom of the table drama, League Two was the place to go. Newport County spent most of the afternoon in the bottom two after falling an early goal behind at Barrow who were all but down. With all the other candidates to go down drawing, it looked like all of last weekend’s dramatics in the late, late, late win over Oldham were to count for nothing for County.
Goalkeeper Jordan Wright kept County’s hopes alive with a second half penalty save, but it was looking like they would need a result to go their way elsewhere if they were to survive. However, they roused themselves for a late effort and it was the unlikely figure of ex City left back Tom Davies who equalised in the seventy sixth minute before last week’s winner Bobby Kamwa won it with a trademark curler inside the far post.
As it turned out, County’s equaliser dropped Harrogate into the last relegation place and, forced into having to go for a winner, they conceded a second to lose 2-1 to Barnet and so it might be said County would have stayed up even if they had lost, but I’m not so sure about that one myself.
There will be three Welsh teams in the Championship next season because Wrexham, sixth going into their last game, were replaced in the Play Off places by Hull as a result of their 2-2 draw against Middlesbrough whilst the out of form Tigers were 2-1 winners over in form Norwich. Ipswich scored twice in the opening eight minutes to make their promotion in second place virtually certain – they added one more to comfortably beat QPR 3-0 and go up behind Champions Coventry.
City’s under 18s won their final match by 2-0 at Sheffield United, but their midweek defeat by the same score at Millwall meant that they had missed out to the Lions in the race for a second placed finish and a spot in the Play Offs.
