October Newsfile

Newsfile Archive

Well, what shall I say. Relief that we managed a draw obviously but ignoring the fact that we scored a 93rd mintue equaliser after fouling their keeper the problems are still there. Frank shook the team up tonight, out went Perrett and Young, out went Boland, in from the start were Vaughan, Eckhardt and Brazier to replace them. Young and  Boland did not make the bench. Josh Low was named amongst the subs.

City controlled the first half and to give them credit made several attemps on goal, most noticeably 4 or 5 shots from outside the box. Blackpool were never a threat and Hallworth genuinely had no shot to save in the first half. City again dominated a match without hitting the target.

In the second half it started going badly wrong. The fluid movement was lost and City were poor in all areas. Blackpool scored the obligitory goal against the run of play but deserved for their tenacity. I could see it coming a mile off. Blackpool crossed well from the left and a far post header was put into the net unchallenged.

Cardiff then had to chase the game but up front it was lacking. There was a murmour of exitement as Frank decided to shuffle the pack. To everyones absolute amazement he took off Legg and Hill the two most enterprising players on the pitch, this was when we were one down. It was ironic that Legg was voted man of the match and he missed the last 20 minutes. Josh Low and Richard Carpenter came on. In fairness to Low he did enough to show he has potential. He put a superb shot just over the bar and looked lively. Kevin Nugent was struggling. He was failing to win the ball as he has in the past and his lack of pace took away a cutting edge. The crowd again started baying for Chris Roberts to come on and replace SuperKev. With about 6 minutes to go Roberts stripped off and a loud cheer went up. Then silence. Frank had called off Jason Bowen who had had little or no service all night. At that moment the game was lost. Roberts again in fairness injected pace and he and Low were involved a lot on the right hand side as the team attacked the Canton end. City forced a corner on 90 minutes which came to nothing. The 4th official then showed 3 minutes to play. 2 mins 30 seconds into the added time a cross again from the right was met weakly by Jeff Eckhardt, he was stretching and did well to get to the ball. The Blackpool keeper scrambled to his right and caught it next to the post, a split second later Nugent steamed into the keeper who dropped the ball under the challenge and Nugent instincively hit it into the net. I sighed at the missed chance and the foul on the keeper only to watch in amazement as the referee ran to the half way line signalling goal. The tension was released. 20 seconds later the whistle went but not before Low again had a potential chance. A cheer went up for the point. Blackpool were livid, their manager was forcibly removed from the field by his backroom staff. The Blackpool fans were stunned rigid. As it dawned on me that we had just escaped from jail big time I turned to the Blackpool fans and feebly mouthed SORRY. They must have been gutted.

There is a board meeting tomorrow at Ninian Park. Point 1 on the agenda must be 5-3-2 not working. Sort it out Frankie.