No Lawlor. Strong looking bench again. Cardiff City XI: Trott; Kpakio, Fish, Osho, Bagan; Wintle, Turnbull, R. Colwill; Ashford, Salech, Willock. Subs: Turner, Ng, Chambers, J. Colwill, Kellyman, Davies, Robinson.
OK - money where mouth is - we're gonna win this by more than 1 goal..................honestly my first bet of the season on City. As long as we win by more than one goal I'll get my money back - anything else is a bonus. please log in to view this image
Great write up with lots of useful information. It's a shame there are not more league 1 active clubs here to enjoy them with us!
Bradford are quality and showing up our deficiencies. Stupid penalty to concede and fluffing 2-3 decent chances. Need an early goal second half.
Well, we knew we'd suffer at some point. Be interesting to see how we bounce back now. How will our young 'uns react to a big setback??
No doubt they deserved to win but over 90 we had 4-5 really good chances which were spurned. It’s too late now but we needed a quick winger and left back in the window.
Hopefully being optimistic it’s a minor bump in the road, a dose of reality but thinking more about the game you have to think Alexander sussed us out. City under BBM play the possession game; we’ve got the ball so you can’t score. Bradford took the ball off us and attacked us with pace, adroit passing and vision. One assumes BBM had done due diligence on Bradford but if he had it wasn’t evident today. Yes we had chances and on another day we’d have scored 2-3 times and a penalty but over the 90 we didn’t do enough to counter Bradford. Possession is all good and well but we were second best going forward. The telling problem is the lack of pace in midfield especially out wide; Kellyman is not a winger, he’s no pace - if only we had a NML/ Burke type. Also there’s no pace up top. If only we had an Earnshaw/ Chopra type of player. It’s early days. We have played two likely top 6 teams back to back and been outplayed twice. It’s now up to BBM to deal with opponents who have done their homework on us.
Had time this morning to re-watch the game. We weren't half as bad as I thought at the time, in fact we were very unlucky not to take something from that. Taking nothing away from Bradford who were the most organised league One side I've watched this season, but them taking a 3-0 lead five minutes after the break was not a true reflection of the game. Unfortunately only goals count at the end of the day. I could see that penalty coming as soon as Osho took off on his chase. No excuses there but that's one of their three we gifted - the other two were well taken chances similar to ones we failed to convert. Ashford should have had a couple, and Turnbulll was very unlucky with his shots being deflected away from goal by Bradford players who knew nothing about it. The 5 second half subs all made a difference with Robinson's enthusiasm even though 0-3 down at the time was especially noticeable. Bad day at the office? Well, not really, just the way things go sometimes - on to the next one (and I'm not necessarily talking about Burnley).
I thought some players had poor games. Apart from one good cross in the first half, Ashford did not do well. His short range passing was poor and, other than when he cuts inside, his lack of pace was again evident. He is very reluctant to go outside on his "wrong" foot. In addition he didnt give Kpakio the support he needed so he was frequently outnumbered. This made Kpakio's game look poor but not necessarily his fault. Kpakio got dispossessed before their first (I think) but he had been sent a hospital pass in the air with 2 of theirs around him. Bagan had his worst game in a long time. Second half he was so tentative with the ball at his feet and in the air. He caused us some tricky moments when quicker decision making would have prevented any problem. Wintle was ineffective, outnumbered again and my view was that he nodded in their third which was otherwise going wide. Turnbull was also ineffective and caught in possession often. I wouldn't blame Rubin but he again tried too hard, wanting to beat too many players before laying the ball off. Salech really needs more support close to him. It picked up when Robbo came on. We had the alternative of playing the ball in short to his feet thus drawing out defenders. He could easily have scored a second after the one piece of real skill shown by Ferryman. As Sparks says we improved when our second half subs came on. Fresher legs, more ideas and asked new questions of their defence. Isak's pace troubled them much more than Willock's trickery. Why oh why don't our wingers switch occasionally. Right foot to right wing, left foot to left wing. Go for the byline and get the crosses in quickly. Much better for Salech. However, they were better than us all over the park. Hopefully a lesson learned.
Agree about Ashford, Bagan and Wintle. Ashford is too one-dimensional in his play, Bagan is lightweight and all too often looks indecisive on the ball as if he needs time to work out what to do with it. As for Wintle, I said earlier in the season that although he's a decent "tidier upper", he lacks pace out of defence. I like the bloke but looks a bit "dated" in this side. Tend to disagree about Turnbull - a few more games under his belt after his spate of injuries and he'll be a real asset as a No.8 or even a No.10 in Colwill's absence. Must say I like the way Osho plays (apart from the penalty ). Different to Lawlor in that he tends to drive out of defence with the ball rather waiting to find a pass forward like Lawlor - both qualities have their merits in different circumstances. Colwill is certainly a changed player under BBM - he's really putting himself about sometimes to the extent of doing too much, but I'll take this new Colwill over the old one.
Burnley away in the Cup is a free hit. BBM should play a strong side and get them up & running for Wigan away. Burnley will surely rest some players with one eye on the PL. If Salah at 33 can play 3 times a week then so can our players.
Just watched the highlights. As the stats on saturday suggested, not a lot in it. Finishing and desire to defend seemed the deciding factors. One difference on desire, for their first, Rubin half heartedly turned his back as the ball whistled past him. With Turnbull's effort, a defender threw his body in the way to make the block. Not the only instances, but the most obvious examples. Fine margins and hopefully a learning experience. In defeat, another good interview by BBM.
I did as well - we hit woodwork twice, one off the line, a penalty not given and spurned several other decent chances. Their first goal 9 times out 10 goes into row Z, we gifted them a penalty and their 3rd was going wide before deflecting in. That said they were quicker, stronger and better organised than us. BBM needs to re-think Turnbull and Wintle starting.
