If Cardiff City were a Monopoly card, it’d be ‘Get Out of Jail Free’!

By: Martyn | March 19th, 2009

As I exited Ninian Park after witnessing Cardiff City 2-1 Watford to choruses of “The Blues are going up”, “Super Ross McCormack” and assorted other expressed forms of elation, my right hand was in continuous use (ooh matron) such was the sudden wave of Inbox activity on my mobile phone. In amongst the “Its unbelievable Jeff!”, “Get in!!!” and “YEEAAAHHH! texts, my chum Mike text-expressed his thoughts on what he’d just witnessed in a more informative manner, positing that he had not felt so much satisfaction post-match since the quite fantastic victory at Middlesbrough in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup. Now in between last night’s game and that epic victory in March 2008, we’ve had some worthy contenders for Most Satisfying Result award.

The 2-0 away victory at Coventry City in late January was described by Dave Jones as the best performance under his stewardship. In terms of performance and all-round excitement, the 1-1 draw with Reading on Boxing Day was particularly memorable and would have surely been a worthy winner had it not been for a 96th minute goalkeeper’s goal. Some would argue with good reason that the 1-0 semi-final victory over Barnsley was indeed our finest hour. Or even the FA Cup final itself? And who can forget famous single-goal margin victories in the Carling Cup over Bournemouth and MK Dons? Personally, the Middlesbrough game wins hands down for me simply because the performance was so unexpected and commanding. The Carling Cup games are there purely in jest, Reading away was spoilt by that late leveller, I wasn’t at the Coventry game, the semi-final win was as nerve-wrangling as football gets but in a sense common (and correct) consensus was that we had to beat a poor Barnsley side, and the Pompey cup final game whilst fascinating and exhilarating in terms of the experience left a sour taste in the mouth after a dull final yielded barely even one City chance. That and the fact that Wembley (town, although the ground is hardly any more exciting – my experience was perhaps tainted by the fact that only one month earlier I had been amongst the Ultras in the San Siro for Internazionale-Fiorentina. What an incredible stadium, what atmosphere, what fans!) is the boring most place on earth. So as I’ve opted for Boro away, I overlook last night’s game for the Most Satisfying Result title.

Why? Because we were awful. Yes, howls of derision will probably greet this semi-arrogance as my team are joint 4th in the league with several games in lieu of the extra points that should (and will?) see us shoot further up the league. That and the fact that clichés inform me that this is The Business End of the season and therefore at this stage it’s not how you win but that you win. All relevant points, but the performance that preceded the conversion of the 93rd minute penalty means that I can’t consider it as the most satisfied I’ve felt following the City this past year because from 19:45 until 21:30 I’d been f’ing and blind’ing along with everyone else about the turgid turds on the pitch.

Interestingly, this was practically an entirely new Watford team we faced and any notes that had been made after the previous encounter this season were rendered erstwhile and irrelevant. The club has a new manager and only 2 of players who featured in the 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road in October (Smith and Priskin) were present again last night. In comparison, 7 Cardiff City players graced the team-sheets in both games. Watford were a lot of things last night. Aggressive in both the tackle and surrounding the referee, persistent in giving away needless free-kicks, incisive with the use of old-fashioned running wing-play, always giving a colleague a passing option and negative when off-the-ball and in bringing men back to defend set-pieces. With regards to the last point, this was the Hornets tactics all over – Give away a needless set-piece, haul all back, proceed to counter-attack with vibrancy, precision and urgency. Although their profligate front-line failed to trouble Stuart Taylor, they sure as hell bothered the defence and midfield. Their quick movement and frequent change of pace bothered our cumbersome back four, and the pressing game and willingness to receive the ball in midfield rendered our middle pairing impotent. At the back, Jay DeMerit led by example and was truly worthy of the captain’s armband.

My moaning of how I was *unsatisfied* aside, I greeted the late winner by jumping around like the famous House of Pain song tells you to. The relief and ecstasy may well have been palpable, but caution is still advised:
- This is the second game in a row we’ve looked leggy.
- We face a personnel-bloated Sheffield United side who have about three million strikers and enough strength and stamina in depth to expose this lackadaisical lethargy.
- The centre midfield is not functioning effectively and getting a hold of the game.
- Likewise, the wingers are far too anonymous.
- Bothroyd is either unfit or out of form. He might have scored, but for the second game in a row his all-round showing left a lot to be desired.

On the plus side however:

- Two in two for McCormack means that Dave Jones’s decision to drop Chopra has been in some way justified. With these two both fit and in dangerous predatory form, opposition defenders (like the upcoming descipable Sheffield United thug Chris Morgan) would be advised not to wear white pants.
- Two matches, two fortuitous slices of luck! At last, it’s now we who are scoring the late heart breakers.

Players in rank order (I felt like cheekily sticking Ross Jenkins in this list seeing as his needless bicep-ball in injury time ensured we got lucky, but he’s only a kid bless his cotton socks)

Ross McCormack – Hard to choose a MOTM, but there a few reasons why Super Ross deserves the award more than his other locker room-buddies. He kept his cool to excellently convert the last kick of the game from the spot, he seemed genuinely up for the game upon being gifted the starting jersey ahead of Chopra, and he is the Boy Most Likely To. Unfortunately, some less pleasing Ross moments were on show too, such as his glory-tainted inability to pass when not in the best of shooting positions himself and his continuing weak bout of free-kick executing. But all in all, it was a decent showing.

Chris Burke – His cross led to the first goal, and his work-ethic and all-round attacking contribution was better than Parry and Whittingham’s combined.

Tony Capaldi – Sounds like an Italian gangster who’d shoot your kneecaps if you spoke out of turn but in reality he’s a quietly-does-it pasty Ulsterman who plays the left-back position quite effectively in the FLC. He got forward and offered a genuine threat (arguably more than any winger other than Chris Burke), and held his position rather well at the back. Tommy Smith soared past him or got corner kick change every now and again, but Capaldi gave as good as he got.

Jay Bothroyd – Something was missing from Jay’s game last night, and he only really finds himself narrowly short of the podium for a Bronze due to the rest of the side’s even poorer showings. The touch wasn’t as graceful as City fans have become used to and the will or effort wasn’t there. He took his goal well but overall he must improve (his fitness or state of mind) in time for Sheffield United this weekend.

Michael Chopra – Little time to make a big impact but showed the desire and urgency some of his team-mates were seriously lacking.

Joe Ledley – Got his head on Burke’s cross and the ball found its way into Bothroyd’s path for goal no. 1. Started brightly with the right amount of drive and battle, but disappeared as the game wore on save for a few misdirected passes. His lack of a right foot (not literally) was also exposed during the early stages when he squandered a great scoring position to do an Arsenal and try one pass too many rather than crack it with peg R.

Gabor Gyepes – Troubled by Priskin, the Hungarian was too often flustered before regaining his composure late on.

Peter Whittingham – After replacing Parry, all he did was send in the corner that led to the penalty. That. Was. It.

Roger Johnson – The sponsor-chosen MOTM, but I disagree. His defensive performance was adequate, he got in the way of most balls that were box-bound but then the majority were easy enough for any Championship defender worth his salt. No, where Johnson was lacking was in his use of possession. Normally it’s terrible and every City fans has accepted this. But last night, it had the added sprinkling of half-arsed and “Bovvered??”. His one positive contribution came with the header (that was going wide) that Ross Jenkins flung himself in front of…

Paul Parry – Justifiably hauled off at the interval. I struggle to remember his touching the ball.

Stale McPhail – Brought down former City wideman Jobi McAnuff for the penalty, and did nothing to redeem himself. Bowled over by the bossy Hornets midfield, this was a performance lacking in character, a team-mate radar, finesse, incision and urgency. No amount of headless chicken graft will make up for all his other shortcomings.

Kevin McNaughton – Uncharacteristically dreadful. Gave the ball away and caught out of position on countless occasions. Did not relish having to face an on-song Jobi McAnuff and this must rank as one of his worst showings in a Blue (or yellow, or red, or black, or maroon, or whatever colour the away kit is/has been) jersey.

Exempt from Ranking

Stuart Taylor – Had absolutely nothing to do other than bend down and bear his name and number to the quietened Grange End in collecting the ball after Tommy Smith’s well-taken penalty.

So then, next up is 4th vs 4th as Cardiff City face off against Sheffield United at Ninian Park. Bluebirds vs Blades! South vs North with neither Damon or Liam in sight! Neil Kinnock vs Neil Warnock! It’s a big one all right that sells itself without my tongue-in-cheek rhetoric. A painful memory of this fixture persists, and that memory is 3 years old and relates to when Sheffield United secured promotion to the top flight with a Danny Webber-netting victory at Ninian Park. The fixture between the two sides at Brammal Lane earlier this season resulted in a 0-0 draw and having made the journey up to Sheffield that afternoon, I’ve not seen many better defensive performances from the side since. Is another stalemate out of the question? To be frank, no. Although my money is on a score-draw.