City-City gifted main match status on an English football highlights show! Shame it isn’t MOTD… yet.

By: Martyn | September 14th, 2008

Strange things, statistics. Perhaps not the things themselves, but the way they can be manipulated or interpreted in several ways. Take Notts County’s start to life in League Two this season. 6 games played, and they’ve lost just once. Great you’d think, yes? Well, less so when you note that they’re yet to win a game, instead drawing the other 5. Cardiff City may be unbeaten in the league this season, but we haven’t won since the opening day. Yesterday’s 0-0 draw with Bristol City came on a day when 4 former City strikers found the net - Leo Fortune-West, Peter Thorne, Cameron Jerome and Robert Earnshaw - but the current crop failed to emulate the potency of those 4. It’s hardly a cue for the alarm bells to start sounding, but the realisation that draws don’t win you prizes can’t help but consume me. Regardless, it’s hard to complain when stalemates are as entertaining as the one Ninian Park witnessed yesterday; an honest, open encounter played with the backdrop of a cracking atmosphere. The casual fan will inevitably merely dismiss such a no-score draw as drab should his eyes encounter the result in his Sunday paper. Such reflections fail to reflect a wholly meritorious match that shed the myth that English football outside the top division is characterised by physicality and balls that share the skies with planes and birds.

Bristol City were and are an exceptionally well disciplined and marshaled side and every team in this division will find them a tough nut to crack. Correspondingly, they combine this with the odd moment of brilliance that conjures a chance out of nothing, Nicky Maynard and Steve Brooker coming close on separate occasions in either half. Initially, Bristol seemed determined to gang up and attack the right side which housed Peter Whittingham and Kevin McNaughton, the former perhaps being seen as a chink in our defensive armour. As the game progressed - and as Ledley had a typical post-Wales stodgy game and his left side sparring partner Comminges continued his own unorthodox brand of defending - the Robins realised they might be able to gain fortune from either side. This prised and stretched the game out in a manner that even the most distracted neutral fan would regard as wonderful.

Such a post-Christmas dinner unfastening of the belt was aided by the harsh reality that Gavin Rae was clearly unfit and mentally unprepared after being hurried back from the sidelines, and thus Peter Whittingham was utilized and involved more than he normally is from his right-sided outpost. Both sides thoroughly deserved the proverbial and patronising post-match pat on the back after trying to work and persevere with the broken tin opener rather than just throwing the tin against the wall and hoping it smashed open. Wherever possible, it was pass and move your way out of trouble. As Arsene Wenger and the Gunners fans have discovered, winning Miss World doesn’t necessarily win you a place in Mensa International. After possibly the last Severnside derby at Ninian Park, we’ll overlook the whole ‘winner takes it all’ and ‘the end justifies the means’ mantra and rejoice in what proved to be an excellent value for money in terms of enjoying a form of entertainment and a game, proof that football can be and is still The Beautiful Game. Expect my tone to change sharply should the games against Swansea be draws or losses but lost in spite of style, effort, inventiveness and innovation. The same logic will probably apply to a must-win game against Barnsley on Tuesday night too…

Tom Heaton – Can be a world-beater when it comes to shot-stopping (highlighted by an awesome stop from a net-bound Nicky Maynard effort), but then GK’s in the BSP can get themselves in the way of things. Lets himself down week in week out with his timid, hurried and skew-whiff kicking, and his reluctance to boss the box or having no single-mindedness to speak of when it comes to seizing the ball. Excuse my crudeness, but goalkeepers have to be obnoxious, arrogant arseholes. His opposite number Adriano Basso saved his team with two crucial stops from Bothroyd and Whittingham, yet his kicking was equally woeful. Maybe it’s something in the Leckwith air.

Kevin McNaughton – Certainly not one of his best showings for Wales’s capital, although like the idea of a xenophobe supporting Arsenal, when it comes to wingers or strikers trying to run past the grey-tinted Scot it ain’t likely. Was far too sloppy by the high standards he has set himself.

Roger Johnson – I’m in danger of becoming a stuck record when it comes to describing Johnson’s weekly performances: Battling and heroic defensively, awful and wasteful offensively. However, one point of note struck me more than any other yesterday. After Purse went off (and promptly came back on again) injured, the defence was in total disarray as our club captain remained semi-dazed during one Bristol attack. You’d expect someone like Johnson to assume leadership duties temporarily and confiscate control from the hands of the English opposition, but nothing of the sort happened. Does this show that Johnson is still a work in progress, or a player never destined for the highest level?

Darren Purse – Bristol City tried to exploit his lack of pace by using Adebola as a tool to feed balls in behind the former Brum man. Dealt with the fact that clubs realise he isn’t Real Madrid’s (?) Usain Bolt with consummate ease and composure. A Ninian Park view-obstructing pillar at the back.

Miguel Comminges – It says something when haphazard and clumsy seem light lexemes in terms of descriptive context. Left back may not be his position, but someone used to playing on the flanks should be able to get to grips with positional sense for that position. Equally disappointing when it came to his distribution, favouring the long-ball to Bothroyd on far too many occasions.

Peter Whittingham – More involved than he has been in any home games so far this season, and had one of our two best chances. Technically gifted and educated in football aesthetics, as displayed by his reliance on passing his way out of trouble. Jose Mourinho once said of Joe Cole that he could be the most beautiful and the most ugly player in the world. Such a description is equally apt for the man often dubbed Shittingham.

Gavin Rae – Perhaps it is harsh to criticise someone who was resplendently ailing, especially as options in this position are currently limited. Swapped roles with McPhail somewhat, with Rae restricting his lung-bursting box-to-box runs in favour of a DM role. In this respect he did his job, but it just wasn’t a Gavin Rae performance when it came to all things attack-minded.

Stephen McPhail – Along with Purse and Parry, our most impressive player. Always looked to get on the ball, always looking to release others when on it. He even had a go at foraying himself on occasion, a driving function he displays too infrequently normally. A few crunching tackles added to the derby occasion and the grit was needed on such an occasion.

Joe Ledley – Just hasn’t got beyond second gear in a City shirt this year. After memorably netting in Moscow in midweek, the young Cardiffian was perhaps understandably subdued. However, he was more involved than he has been on other occasions this season and showed that he has the vision and precision to keep the big guns sniffing around him for months to come. Needs to improve on his final ball, alertness, defensive characteristics and marking.

Paul Parry – Widely anticipated that he’d have boos ringing with his every touch, but not a peep from the dissenters and Parry showed why we’d be a fool to turn on him. Neat, tidy, inventive and always creating an option for a colleague, Parry was inevitably substituted after what must have been a mentally draining week, but he did enough to convince everyone in attendance that this boy has talent, aptitude and the key too many locks in this division. Parry’s is a talent that we’ll continue to see more of now that he has no other playing distractions.

Jay Bothroyd – I just don’t know what to make of Bothroyd. Clearly, he isn’t the solution to our goalscoring striker conundrum, and effectively offers exactly the same as what Steve Thompson brought to the squad. Touch, lay-off’s, headers, battling qualities and various other fan favourite attributes, but little in the way of scoring goals. He’s yet to score for the Bluebirds - Thommo netted two on his debut, but that was a sign of what wasn’t to come – in spite of having our very best chance early on, a one-on-one with Basso after a laudable and successful mêlée. Maybe one goal will launch the snowball/domino effect for the big no. 8.

_________

Ross McCormack – Had barely any playing time after picking up a knock on duty for the Scotland U21 side, but his brief cameo gave everyone glimpses of his incredible ability to find the right space to run into and he remains our fundamental goal threat.