Just playing catch up. Not long got in. Behind twice and equalised twice. A substitution on 50 mins and one on 58. Wow, changes with time to influence a result. Novel.
NH started off with a 2-2 draw away, coming from 2-0 down......Strange how these things work out eh? Manager to clear!
We were abysmal for 90 minutes. Anyone watching on the Barnsley TV? They hated City’s thuggish tactics! They thought the ref did ok - even though he wrongly disallowed a home opener and gave us a corner which wasn’t from which we scored
Yes I thought Flint had crunched Smithies not their guy. And wtf was Hoilett trying to do with that clearance? It did improve after their second goal but that is really not saying a lot. When we got our first, their heads went down and we could have sneaked a winner. As for thuggish tactics, perhaps I had my blue tinted specs on but I didn't see us as any worse than them. The awful pitch didn't help. Wilson would have been no use on that cabbage patch. Also the ref was useless for both sides. A fussy, officious little man who makes lots of small decisions but no big ones. We get lots of those don't we? On to Millwall on Saturday. We conceded 2 headers tonight. They have 6ft 5ins Matt Smith who usually scores against us. Perhaps he is the sort of player Flint can do well against because he was bad tonight and Nelson was not much better. Perhaps we will have the guy from Walsall by the weekend..... Although he has been playing left back lately. I can't think of anyone who played well. Ng was okay, Bagan probably had his worst game yet and midfield.... what midfield.
Ratings here https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport.../haywire-cardiff-city-player-ratings-19713557 Flint did well to get 3, should have been 0. Bacuna and Hoilett also marked way too high.
Terrible game of football from start to finish. In fact you can't call it football - the ball spent all night in the air. Maybe not surprising given the state of the mud. Glad Wilson didn't play on that sea of sludge - they'd have had to find him half time. Hope that game isn't going to be indicative of what's to come for the rest of the season. I'll cut Mick some slack first time out and look at the positives....ummm........
Positives for me were that MM looked at the pitch and knew Wilson would be wasted. He also made changes much earlier than NH. It was a difficult game to make any judgements really. More like mud wrestling than football. Just going to stick with the fact that we got our first point in ages. Saturday may give us a better idea of what to expect for the rest of the season. Would love an addition or two beforehand.
Looks like the addition will be Ciaran Brown being recalled from loan at Livingston with Cunningham off to Preston. Getting Desmond and Tomlin back will be like having 2 new players.
OK, I'll accept that Mick is reviewing what he's got and from what he's said rewards effort on the training ground. Training maybe a fair assessment of desire but not necessarily of ability. I doubt Tomlin is a hard worker and Hoilett may want to do it but can't. Whilst I don't think the short sharp shock to the system that Wilson would have received by dropping him will do him any harm, but if we're going to change from what we know as the norm into something better, then he's the type of player we need on the pitch.
In fairness when Tomlin returned last year he had dropped up to a stone and a half and that showed in training. However his groin injury then restricted his game time. It is good to see MM noting the efforts made in training but that is not everything when it comes to a proper game. As showed with Flint and Hoilett last night. I hope neither are in the chosen 11 on Saturday. Morro must come back if fully fit although Flint could play instead of Nelson (who has not been great) to counter the aerial threat of Matt Smith. That would leave us very slow on the ground. As for Wilson, I think "resting" him last night was a good move. A. To show him that he needs to work harder in training - hope he takes it the right way (he didn't always start at Bournemouth last season. They were losing badly at Tottenham, he came on, scored 2 and nearly got them a draw) and B. As Clingo said earlier, his skills would have been lost on that pitch where any sort of skill in the middle of the park was rendered useless. He must start on our grassy patch Saturday although the bloody egg chasers caused some damage which won't have repaired itself in recent weather. Murphy may have worked his way to a starting spot although Ojo was one of our better performers in the second half. Also if Watters is fit, should he start?
