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City Draw 1-1 at Blackpool, Slip to Second
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Cardiff City drew with Blackpool 1-1 today at Bloomfield Road. Michael Chopra's third goal of the new campaign put City ahead in the 12th minute but Ian Evett netted an equaliser right before half time. The Bluebirds were able to withstand a hard-fought second stanza to come away with a point. Both clubs had good chances to win the match in the late going. With the draw, City slip to second place via four points and a goal-difference mark of +4. Coventry take over the top spot with six points.
A report posted to the Cardiff City Supporters Club site summed up the afternoon as follows: "The Bluebirds were grateful to come away with a point at a soggy Bloomfield Road this afternoon, having keeper David Marshall to thank after a series of excellent saves kept Blackpool at bay." The report adds that "Blackpool piled on the pressure in the second half, creating numerous chances and David Marshall was called upon to make several point blank saves as Cardiff failed to get any sort of grip on the game." That Mr. Marshall was City's top performer on the day is confirmed by Simon Kendal-Williams, who rated the keeper a 9, adding that it was "a busy afternoon in which he made some excellent saves, the pick of which was from Euell in the 85th minute. Faultless handling and an unflappable temperament. A reassuring presence." Check the rest of his ratings here.
City lost Ross McCormack, who had to be stretchered off with a hamstring injury in the first half. Paul Quinn and Steve McPhail left with second-half injuries. Quinn's injury led to teenager Adam Matthews's making his debut for City. Nigel Harris weighs in on City's injury problems in a post to his Bluesy's Blues blog. He observes, "Somehow I don't think it's my perception over reality but Cardiff City players do seem to suffer more injuries than the average club, especially injuries where players just pull up." Check Mr. Harris's story for more on City's injury woes.
A big question going into this match was whether City could win again at Bloomfield Road. Back on December 11, 2007, City beat the Tangerines away for the first time in nearly four decades, with Steve Thompson netting the lone goal in a 1-0 win. Another win today would have given the Bluebirds two wins in their last three visits to one of their biggest hoodoo grounds. The 1-1 draw means, however, that City have but the one win from season before last to show for 40 years of futility at Blackpool. Since winning at Bloomfield Road in November 1968, City now show five draws and 15 defeats to go with that one win.
David Marshall, City's new goalkeeper, shares his views on today's draw in this BBC video. He says that "the side are happy with the 1-1 draw at Blackpool and the way they have come through a bruising start to a long season." Manager Dave Jones offers his not-so-happy views on the match in another BBC video here.
In a Wales Online story, "Dave Jones Blasts His Cardiff City Players for Below Par Blackpool Show," the manager observes that "“Our players were all watching for the goal and our back five had to work really hard because the players in front were not working hard enough." He adds that "“We should have made more goals in the first half and we should have stolen it at the end but this is a very difficult place to come to and we’ve taken a point." In "Bluebirds Rue Hudson Miss," a story for Wales Online, Simon Kendal-Williams reports that, indeed, City could had won at the end. "Whittingham’s injury-time free-kick was headed down by Anthony Gerrard into the path of Hudson on the six-yard line, but with the goal at his mercy, the centre-half ballooned over at full stretch." He adds that "Hudson was left holding his head at what might have been, but a point after an overall under-par display at least maintains their unbeaten start to the season."
City at Bloomfield Road - It's Not a Pretty Picture
Friday, August 14, 2009
Cardiff City travel to Blackpool to face the Tangerines at Bloomfield Road tomorrow. Blackpool in August has a lot more going for it than, say, Blackpool in January. There's the warmth of the sun, the rides at Pleasure Beach, Blackpool Tower, North Pier, etc. The thing is, though, that City never win there. Well, almost never.
City's record at Bloomfield Road over the last forty years is terrifyingly bad. Back on November 9, 1968, City won at Blackpool 2-1 with John Toshack netting both goals. The Bluebirds were in the early stages of a nine-game unbeaten streak (six wins, three draws) that would lead them to second place in Division Two at the turn of the year. The club wound up dropping back a bit that season and finished fifth.
It's uncertain what might have happened that day to anger the football gods. Whatever it was it brought about a horrific hoodoo that City have yet to overcome. In their next 11 visits to Bloomfield Road following that November 1968 win, City registered precisely no wins or draws, losing all 11 by a combined score of 25-3. City failed to score in nine of the games.
City ended their losing streak on September 14, 1991, when they managed a 1-1 draw at Blackpool. Beginning with that draw City's Bloomfield Road fortunes improved slightly. Counting that 1991/92 visit, City have won one, drawn four and lost four of their last night away to the Tangerines. The win came in the season before last, when Steve Thompson's goal gave City a 1-0 win there on December 11, 2007. The win was their first at Bloomfield Road in 39 years.
Altogether, City have won one of their last 20 visits to Bloomfield Road, drawing four and losing 15. That's scary.
City Get Bristol Rovers at Home in Carling Cup Draw
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The draw for the second round of the Carling Cup came up last night and Cardiff City drew another home tie, this one with third-tier Bristol Rovers. The match will be played the week of August 24.
The second round will feature 25 games. The 25 winners that advance will combine with seven Premiership clubs to form a third round of 32 clubs. The seven top-level clubs coming into the competition in the third round are Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham.
BBC Sport has a brief story on City's drawing Bristol Rovers here. The full draw is available here.
That Big Opening-Day Crowd
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Ninian Park could squeeze in just over 20,000 and in its last years a handful of crowds managed to make it above the 20,000 mark. Last season, for instance, a throng of 20,079 showed up for the FA Cup match with Arsenal and 20,156 attended the April 5 match with Swansea City. The new Cardiff City Stadium has a capacity of 27,000 or so. With the added capacity, then, it came as no surprise whatever that City eclipsed the 20,000 mark with ease for Saturday's opener against Scunthorpe United. In fact, 22,246 was announced as the attendance for the season lidlifter.
So, this was most assuredly the biggest crowd to see City play at home in ages. But exactly when did City last surpass the 20,000-and-change level? Trust Kevin Stephen of the mailing list to come up with the answer. He writes, "Pedant alert. Errr ... we had 23,438 against Swindon the Saturday directly after the Hereford game (17/04/76). Also in 1977 we had 3 FA Cup games - with Spurs 27,868, Wrexham 28,953 and Everton 35,582." He adds, "The ground capacity was reduced with the Safety Of Sports Grounds Act before the start of the 77/78 season."
So, following Mr. Stephen's lead, let's say that Saturday's gathering was the biggest since that FA Cup home tie with Everton on February 26, 1977. I'm quite confident we haven't seen as many as 35,582 for a home match since that day.
City Whip Dagenham 3-1, Advance in Carling Cup
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Even if it was a bit scarier than the scoreline might suggest, Cardiff City managed to get past Dagenham & Redbridge 3-1 at Cardiff City Stadium tonight to advance to the second round of the Carling Cup. A 20-yarder from Gavin Rae put the Bluebirds up in after 20 minutes and a Jay Bothroyd penalty in the 26th minute gave City a 2-0 halftime edge. The Bluebirds maintained their two-goal cushion until the 81st minute when substitute Josh Scott gave the Daggers a chance thanks a close-range effort. Then in injury time Peter Whittingham eased worries with a nicely-worked goal.
In his report for the Bluesy's Blues blog, Nigel Harris summed up the match as follows:
They could/should have got more but predictably, if wrongly, over-elaborated and dropped a gear which allowed the visitors to force their way back with a goal in the final 10 minutes and cause a few flutters afterwards before sanity was restored as Peter Whittingham finished it in added time with a superb finish to an equally fantastic move.
Regarding individual performances, Mr. Harris observed:
A good controlled performance on the whole but City got sloppy and almost paid the price. In all reality though, it was as comfortable a win as they could have hoped for. There was no real star of the night - they all put in reasonable shows - although that central defence still need to tighten up and control more, Enckleman still has wayward kicking and can't blame the pitch this year and we could do with being more direct and shooting when the chance is there instead of overplay.
Mr. Harris offers a page of links to other reports on the match. Get that links page here.
If this match proves at all memorable, the handbags over who would take the penalty that put City up 2-0 could be what stands out. Mike Morris provides details. To set the stage, though, it should be pointed out that Jay Bothroyd took the penalty, missed it, but got a reprieve when the referee called for a retake. That's when the fun started:
Jay Bothroyd and Michael Chopra fought over who would take the penalty (re-take).
Bothroyd's first effort was crap so Chopra took the ball. Bothroyd chased him and beat it out of Chopra's hands and both squabbled over it like kids.
Chopra went off in a huff while Bothroyd won the mini battle. He then scored.
The penalties (and the squabbling) are on YouTube. Don't know how long they'll remain available but the link is here. Enjoy.
Debt, Strategic Marketing Alliances, And All That
Monday, August 10, 2009
Cardiff City Chairman Peter Ridsdale announced today that the football club is looking to line up new investment via some Malaysian operatives. The idea appears to be that the new investors would help City put a dent in that £24m debt that's still hanging around. A Mark Bloom story from Wales Online, "Cardiff City Out to Pay Off Debt with Far East Investment," quotes Ridsdale as saying, "I’m still talking to people I met in Malaysia last week and the investment could be 30p or £30m." That's a bit of a range there, no?
BBC Sport offers a five-minute video featuring Ridsdale's holding forth on this new "strategy marketing alliance," one that
"will be looking to take the Cardiff City brand into the Far East." Don't you just love the way the new language gets tossed about - strategic marketing, branding, etc. And here we thought this was about football. Anyway, heady stuff indeed.
About what Mr. Ridsdale had to say, mailing list member Scott Thomas observed, "I’ve seen more reliable information in a Nigerian e-mail scam." Another lister, C. H. Holmes observed, " I've got a spare 30p if that's what they are interested in . . . . If we start getting strange one-off results, the conspiracy theorists may think we are part of a Far East betting coup." Lister Stu Ropke noted, "Ridsdale has clearly never heard of the term 'under-promise and over-deliver' has he? This was news announced to a packed press conference that was so vitally important that the club haven't even bothered to stick it on the website as of now."
The one tangible thing coming out of this (so far) is that City could well be touring out Malaysia way next summer. So much for a summer toasting in Portugal then.
So, How Is That New Stadium Experience, Anyway?
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Yesterday was a huge day for Cardiff City Football Club. Winning your opener 4-0 is a big deal, especially when the margin of victory puts you top of the league! Yesterday was huge in another way too, of course, as City embarked on a new era before their biggest home crowd in eons (22,264 to be exact) at brand new Cardiff City Stadium. We've covered the day in terms of the football. Now let's consider the overall experience. How was it? The football, the new ground, the day out.
In his report at the Bluesy's Blues blog, Nigel Harris captured something of the spirit of the day as follows:
The beauty of a new stadium only across the road to Ninian Park is that we can still head to the same watering holes and Canton was doing a roaring trade both in the pubs and with those who bought tinnies in Tesco and hit the streets. Still can't get used to those plastic glasses they now serve us which makes town more appealing for a pre-match bevy anyway.
It did feel surreal walking under the railway bridges and past Ninian Park to go to the new ground. It is just me surprised they still haven't taken down the fences and taken away the portkabins creating the eyesore on Leckwith Road?
Mr. Harris went on to say:
Bearing in mind the prices of food and drink in the ground, it was funny to see many keep on walking to Asda, Greggs, Subway and even Costco in the retail park. But is it a surprise when a hotdog and drink in the stadium cost £7 but the same in Costco with unlimited refills costs £1.47?
However even the most hard-bitten Ninian Park-ite, whilst bemoaning the lack of a clock/time display, looking at a "big" screen that's too small and doesn't show any replays and counting the embarrassing sight of meagre few prawn sandwich brigaders in the Premier Club, had to admit with the new ground being light years ahead . . . a bit like moving from grabbing grans in the Wynford Hotel to suddenly getting into the VIP of a superclub.
Big areas under the stand to meet/chat, better seats, better views, enormous toilets and, most importantly of all, the atmosphere/buzz as the afternoon developed was more than a match for the old place.
Speaking of the "big" screen, mailing list member Mark Bowen asked, "Anyone know what the story is? A 'Stonehenge' style mishap?? Is it just a spare tv from Ridsdale's house ? It was barely visible from the Canton Stand tho the fact that it didn't seem to be able to show replays made it wholly redundant anyway." Mr. Bowen was happy with the first-day experience, though, adding, "Apart from that and the running out of Strongbow by half time I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to the new ground."
Lister John Marenghi wrote, "First view of the stadium for me today and must say was impressed. View from the seats was excellent, pitch looked good and of course the sunshine and 4 unanswered goals all helped." Gareth Foran, another list regular, offered the following:
Fantastic stadium. One gripe. The food on offer seemed a bit shit. Everything pre-prepared and put under a hot lamp. The drinks were off a fountain instead of the 500ml bottles we used to get. I much preferred the burgers on the old Bob Bank Village. You could see them cooking there and had a choice of onions. I
think the next Saturday league game I'll be making sure I've had enough to eat in The Goscombe and just have a Capri-Sun at half time.
Clearly, City fans will be making some adjustments to this brave and spanking new world. Gareth Thomas wrote, " Myself, the wife and our two kids went to Asda and got fed on just 8 quid . . . bargain, looks like I’ll be doing that each time I go now, then we went to the ground, I had a pint they found the seats . . . nice." Regarding Mr. Foran's concerns, Matt Gabb brought it all back down to earth with this: "Where is the food in football grounds not shit?" Not sure you can argue with that!
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To get to the previous week's entries (August 6 to August 8), go here. For the next week's (August 16 to August 22), go here.
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