Cardiff 1 Town 0
Picture from Mark’s Mobile Phone
Mark Harrison, Writer.
Twitter: @MarkHarrison15
Buoyed by recent performances under the new brooms of caretaker Worthington and new boss Breitenreiter, the unofficial “Devon Terriers” arrived at the Principality with our tyres pumped! But a ninety-minute reality check, meant we left Cardiff behind with those tyres deflated and a journey home made worse by the closure of the M4 east bound. It never rains……
Was the flat performance down to tired bodies and minds (fitness?), Cardiff’s tactics or the limitations in the squad in terms of quality incisive passing? Probably a combination of all three. All of this was played out in an arena that had less atmosphere than the moon.
Town’s recent upturn has been on the back of high energy, front foot positive football. On the night, this was seriously missing and reminds us not to get too giddy about the team. For all the good elements, we are lacking against teams who are happy for us to control possession. There’s the ball Town, what ya gonna do with it? The answer on the night was not right much.
Cardiff was content to let Town have the ball, probe slowly and ultimately surrender it and then they’d get it out to Bowler and as he always does against us, show he has some quality. On the goal this was exactly what he did. Instant control to take out Spencer and a pinpoint cross to Diedhiou who outmuscled Helik to score his 4th career goal against Town. He loves a bit of Town does Famara!
It was a quiet night for Cardiff’s keeper who was well protected by his back four. They are a functional team with a coach who know’s what they can and can’t do. AB is still in the learning phase, and I think that showed on the night. Cardiff are not a team I’d want to watch week in week out, but they are pragmatic and you can see why they are in a safe position.
If Jack Rudoni could head the ball in front of goal, Town would be safe by now! Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but he missed one of two decent openings in the game. Losing his bearings and heading over when close in. Then Ward just failed to get on the end of a knock back by Headley late on and that was it really. A couple of bursts forward by Headley aside, we were clueless in that final third throughout.
Did we leave too much behind at the Leeds match? The answer to this is probably yes. But we are going to have to find perhaps 4 more wins to stay up and our best hope is to play to our strengths and counter press. That requires fuel in the tank and preferably an opposition who wants to come at us.
Under Moore we had the fleeting bright moment of a positive, pressing performance against Ipswich. The following defeat at Birmingham led to a team retreating into it’s shell to never fully re appear. We rarely played to our strengths thereafter. AB will need to ensure that the players remain mentally strong and view the Cardiff game as a setback and nothing more.
In summary I understand a certain journalist, known well in these parts, compared the performance to a horror movie. One of my fellow Devonian terriers viewed it as “more of a melancholic melodrama really, no horror, just an overwhelming ennui” Beautifully summed up there, if I knew what it meant, but I have pretended to none the less.
Relegation? I think we will get over the line and stay up (maybe not in the comfort I thought we would pre match admittedly). There will be some bumps on the way. Buckle up!
Matt’s ratings
In this section Matt will rate the players on a scale of 1-10 with 6 being used as an average to passable performance. TRIGGER WARNING! half marks will also be used if a player is between scores.
Lee Nicholls -6- Quiet day for Nicholls and at no fault for the goal.
Matty Pearson -5- When teams sit off and let him have the ball is when he’s at his weakest.
Michal Helik -6- Steady away. Standard Helik.
Tom Lees -5.5- Similar to Pearson.
Brodie Spencer -4- A tough opponent for Brodie and a tired performance after his exceptional outing against The Chesty’s.
Jack Rudoni -5- Things just didn’t click in the final third for Rudoni.
David Kasumu -5- A leggy performance from Kasumu.
Ben Wiles -4- Seemed to be unsure positionally and struggled to get into the game.
Delano Burgzorg -3- You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth with The Dr. A true maverick.
Danny Ward -4.5- Nothing came off and missed a very presentable chance to get Town a deserved point.
Sorba Thomas -5.5- Another leggy performance and it’s hard to blame them.
Bojan Radulovic -5- One or two nice touches but he needs to be more physical if he is to succeed at this level.
Jaheim Headley -7-Nice cameo from Jaheim with a few good runs. Needs to use the ball better in good areas to move to the next level.
Alex Matos -6- Missed his energy early on and not the incisive passer Town needed to break down a stubbirn Cardiff defence.
Tom Edwards -3- Seemed to dwell on the ball too often, give it away and then get outpaced chasing back. Not the same effect he had at Watford.
