Report
from NigelBlues.
"That was s**t, we were
f**king s**t, we deserve all the criticism we get,
thank you for coming all this way to support us, you deserved better, stick
by us".
Not my words but, more or less, the
sentiments of City Captain, Spencer
Prior, who made a point at the final whistle of ignoring every player on the
pitch and walking 80 yards to the City fans at the opposite end of the
ground to apologise for what we had seen for ourselves. Credit to Prior for
being brave and honest enough, it showed his embarrassment and how his pride
was hurt. It even started chants of "Prior for manager"!. Meanwhile the
rest of the players disappeared off the pitch as quickly as possible, the
majority not even turning around to acknowledge us.
This was a woeful City display which Prior
summed up better than I can. It
was as bad as City could ever be with this squad but shows how pathetic they
can be too as we did exactly the same at Cambridge when they were bottom a
few weeks ago - clearly, nobody at Ninian Park is learning the lessons.
It's easy to point accusing fingers at Alan
Cork again. He must take some
of the brunt with more baffling positional changes and a badly motivated
side on display. Tonight however, the real flak must be directed towards the
players on duty who, with hardly an exception, let the fans, the manager,
the club and each other down.
City were a shambles and a total disgrace.
They had no direction, no
ownership, no organistion and nobody willing to change the game and wake
others up. Worst of all, they also had a few players who didn't seem to
care. Bury wanted it more, they showed it in all they did. City will lose
games, including some you expect them to win or get a draw at least, but to
be beaten knowing we had less heart, passion and commitment than our
opponents is unacceptable. That's what will most sicken many of those who
were there.
Unbeaten in 7 and with 3 successive away
wins, City fans travelled to bottom
of the table Bury with dreams of jumping into the play off zone with a game
in hand. This hammering dropped us to 12th instead and left City exactly
where they deserve to be so far this season - in mid-table obscurity.
Arrive in Bury, North Manchester, and you can't help singing the Coronation
Street theme song. Gigg Lane is in the middle of a cobbled street
residential area. The social club at the ground has a clown for
entertainment with a 60 year old wooden football rattle (he denied it was
made from a seat ripped out by City fans in the 40's!). A City steward also
told us to watch out for Bartley Bluebird the mascot which many thought was
bizarre as Sam has apparently banned it, it is never seen at home games and
never goes away but more later.
The ground is compact but not bad. The away
end behind one goal is a large
covered stand, there's a smaller new stand at the opposite end and stands on
both sides of the pitch, one with a small terrace in front of it. The place
had the look and feel of a reserve match as was so sparsely populated with
Bury fans adding no atmosphere (City asked them "have you ever sung a song?"
instead of the usual "shall we sing a song for you?").
Cardiff had 2 enforced changes with Des
Hamilton and Leo replacing the
injured Jason Bowen and Gavin Gordon respectively but it was the side who
performed so convincingly against Wrexham three days earlier and should
still have been more than good enough.
Bury are a club in crisis. Bottom of the
league, they are up for sale with
little sign of a takeover. Their most ardent fans were telling us that they
worry they will complete the season (so maybe this defeat won't count - if
only) or start next year. They've already sold two of their better players,
may soon sell more and had 7 (seven) first teamers injured. They had no
option but to field a team of kids, a mix of reserves and youth. What they
didn't have in style, they were than matched in enthusiasm and hard work.
They are fighting for their lives and are not getting embarrassed by anyone,
they had also won their previous two home games. So it's not as if City
didn't know what to expect but they an embarrassment by comparison.
The warning signs were there straight from
kick-off which was like Wrexham
revisited with Bury taking the game to us, attacking us wide and then
scoring in the first 10 minutes when all City needed to do was ride the
storm. The goal was such a giveaway that it won't feature in a "what
happened next?" clip, it'll win a Comedy Award instead.
City had a free-kick on the edge of Bury's
penalty area. With the support
chanting "heyyyy Kavanagh, I wanna knowwwwww-o-o how you scored that goal"
after his Wrexham effort, he mishit a tame shot straight into the wall.
Bury broke and City were nowhere. The ball was down the wing and crossed
with Newby, very impressive all night, ready to fire home when Rhys Weston
charged over to the left and made a vital last gasp interception for a
corner. Another wonderful City set piece then!
The flag kick came over and was powerfully
headed out by Prior with the
defence moving out. Then, 40 yards out on the touchline, Jarrett simply
smashed a hit and hope high ball back into the area. No Bury player was
interested and it was dropping with Gabbidon underneath it but then, horror,
as Neil Alexander clearly shouted and ran out. Gabbi stopped for him but so
did Alexander. The ball dropped between them, Alexander was in no man's land
and watched the ball bounce over him and into an empty net.
We have conceded so many soft goals in the
last year or two plenty of own
goals too but I don't think I have ever seen one so stupid. It was so inept
that even the City fans had to laugh at it, it set the tone for the rest of
the night.
City fans who went to toilet spotted Bartley
The Bluebird's first piece of
entertainment. I can reveal that it's not a real animal and there's someone
inside it - very disturbing news for the kids I'm sure. Instead of parading
and doing nothing worthwhile around the pitch, our Bartley was in the
toilets smoking a few fags. Top one Barts, sensible too as he didn't have
to watch the farce on the pitch like we did!!
Bury should have doubled their lead a couple
of minutes later as shocking
defensive cover firstly by Weston and then Prior allowed Seddon to cut
inside both with far too much ease then shoot at a gaping goal, somehow
firing inches wide into the side netting when it was easier to hit the
target.
City were looking like a pub team or rather,
a team who had spent a couple
of hours in the pub, started to adjust. The game initially evened and then
there were signs Cardiff were getting on top. Some positional changes
seemed to affect them. With the usual three up front, Brayson switched to
his natural right side but some balance seemed lost. In midfield, Des and
Boland seemed central but Boland seemed uneasy playing mainly on the left
instead of playing around Kavanagh as he has done recently.
As the half progressed, City remained
unconvincing but gaining strength.
They were finally making width and with it, chances came. Paul Brayson hit
the base of a post after Bury were cut open, Kavanagh tried a few potshots -
one of them bringing a good diving full length save and Gabbidon produced
one superb 70 yard run through the defence that brought a good stop too.
Bury looked dangerous when they attacked but when the half-time whistle
went, Bury deserved their lead but most fans thought City were playing
poorly but were in the ascendancy and fully capable of turning things
around. Few were happy but we all expected better, how wrong we were.
Half-time: Bury 1 City 0
The second half came to life in dramatic
fashion with one of the more
amazing sights of this or any other season.
The two mascots, Bartley Bluebird and Robby The Bobby (a Bertie Basset
lookalike) were chatting to each other by a corner flag. They seemed to be
playfully slapping each other but then it kicked off big time!! The punches
started flying and to get better vision, off came Bartley's head again with
the kid inside punching Robby The Bobby and wading in with Robby fighting
away too. It was hilarious, the highlight of the night.
Bury and Cardiff stewards came running in to
separate them Keystone Kops
style and despite 10 or so trying to pull them apart, still they carried on.
Bartley was lead away with his head under his arm by Cardiff stewards doing
the ayatollah while Robby, covered in mud, walked away out of sight and
never seen again. Rumours were that both wanted to press charges against
each other but that was worth the admission, there was nothing on the pitch
for us.
Thing you wish you never said. I turned to people near me and said, "they
way this is going, I can see Bury scoring a second goal before we do
anything". Thirty seconds later, I was right. No sooner had the Battle of
the Mascots finished when Bury broke upfield and tore Cardiff apart. A quick
move down Rhys Weston's side saw a low ball pinged into the area for Seddon
to sweep the ball home from 12 yards with nobody on him. Good goal but where
was our defence?? It prompted more trouble as Bury keeper Kenny turned and
goaded City fans while an idiot Bury steward in the City end decided to
celebrate in front of us. It sparked unrest for a few minutes and even had
Cardiff and Bury stewards forcing each other. What the hell was going on???
There was no way back for Cardiff although
they can't say they didn't have
chances. But so many were off key. Andy Legg could do little right and
seemed to be banned from taking long throws, Weston looked ok but all the
danger came from his side, Prior and Gabbidon never got their acts together.
In midfield, Willie and Des were out
performed, it's not often you see us
lose that battle lately. Kav tried to prompt but became bogged down, he was
possibly the best player but it doesn't say much, it really doesn't. In
attack, Brayson tried but never broke through while Earnie and Leo were
abysmal. Both looked like they had swallowed sleeping tablets, they were
lethargic showed no movement and pace and although service wasn't good,
neither tried to make anything happen.
A change was made as Josh Low replaced Boland
which created more width and
pace. Leo was denied when a cross saw him try to power home from close range
but a combination of luck by the keeper and defender blocking the ball kept
it out on the line, Earnie didn't bother moving to put home the rebound and
it went away. Kav forced the keeper into saving a 25 yarder. Leo missed a
simple header. You just never felt City would get back into it, moves kept
breaking down with nobody taking responsibility for shooting and players
doing too much around the area instead of simple things.
You didn't think it could get worse but 11
minutes from time another move
cut open side, a through ball saw Borley (not Steve but the way our defence
were playing, even he could have got through them) put clear and the
youngster on his first team debut shot inside Alexander's near post, he
shouldn't have been beaten there but was convincingly.
Maxwell and Collins came on for Earnie and
Leo, Andy Legg seemed to be a
centre-forward and brought a save from Kenny with a swivel and snapshot.
Maxwell showed others how to create threat leaving time for the miss of the
night. A rare piece of Cardiff measured football saw Low beat two, pass to
Brayson who laid it off to give Collins whose clear shot at goal 10 yards
out was put onto the roof of the stand!! It summed up a game to forget and
a night to forget - unless you're a fan of mascot fighting.
Inevitably, the last few minutes turned into dissatisfaction amongst the
fans. Instead of "it's just like watching Brazil" which has been aired a
few times recently, we had, "Wales, it's just like watching Wales". There
were some chants of "we want Cork out" countered by "shut up" and
"Alan
Cork, he's got no hair" from others. The majority were silent and numb and
very unhappy.
I hope Cork adopts the Spencer Prior way of justifying the debacle instead
of blaming injuries (Bury had far more), upset stomachs (we've used that one
already), big time Charlies (although I would love the players on a couple
of grand a week to reimburse those of us who turned up out of their own
pockets), it could have been 9-9 on chances (one of his favourites) or that
it was just an off night (it was more fundamentally wrong than that).
My personal view, if it's worth anything, is consistent and this performance
and result reinforced it. Cork's faults (and there's no point denying he
doesn't have them) means we will get a result when we are in trouble, he
will keep us towards the top or near play-off contention meaning we have to
stand by him but he's not got what at takes at present to drive us on. The
players were undoubtedly the problem but it questions Cork's abilities
again. I want to be proved wrong but he keeps proving me right so far.
It's not good enough that the only passion we saw all night was from our
Captain after the game had finished and a kid in a furry suit but that's
Cardiff City for you.
A lot of damage will be done by this upset starting this weekend when it
must be almost guaranteed that the home crowd will fall below 10,000 (never
mind 11,000) for the first time in 10 league matches stretching back to
April. The attraction of Wales rugby with Iestyn and being live on telly,
will, like it or not, only make it worse. And City will have to work hard
to bring them back but forget that for now.
One other way of looking at this for those who believe in omens, the last
time City won had so many successive away wins was in 1993 when we won 7 on
the trot. The run was alarmingly halted by a midweek defeat against ...
Bury. We ended up as Champions then after an unconvincing start to the
season but we're definitely not as good this time, so far anyway.
Report from www.sports.com
Big-spending Cardiff missed the chance to move
into a play-off place as Bury eased their relegation blues as their third successive home
victory lifted them off bottom spot.
It was a shock result as Cardiff arrived with
a seven-match unbeaten run having won their last three away matches.
But they lacked a cutting edge and clearly
missed injured strikers Peter Thorne and Gavin Gordon.
The biggest talking point of the night,
however, was the ejection from the ground of rival mascots Robbie the Bobby and Barclay
Bluebird following a touchline fight.
Stewards had to race to the scene early in
the second half to separate the pair and escort them from the field.
Bury, who made five changes from the team
beaten at Port Vale on Saturday, made a dream start taking a tenth minute lead through a
fluke goal.
Jason Jarrett's cross from 40 yards was left
by goalkeeper Neil Alexander and central defender Daniel Gabbidon.
As the pair dithered as to who was to clear
the danger the ball bounced over the keeper into the empty net.
Bury were full value for their lead with
Gareth Seddon and Jon Newby also having good chances in a bright opening.
Cardiff hit back as Paul Brayson struck an
upright while Bury keeper Paddy Kenny made good stops to deny Graham Kavanagh and
Gabbidon.
Bury regained their control and composure
after the restart and deservedly doubled their lead in the 51st minute.
David Borley played the ball across the face
of goal from the left of the penalty area for Seddon, the former RAF man, to slide home a
shot from inside the six yard box.
Bury must have realised after 61 minutes that
it was going to be their night as Kenny made two brilliant saves in quick succession to
keep out efforts from Leo Fortune-West and Kavanagh.
Fortune-West looked certain to score but
Kenny somehow managed to keep out his header from close range before flinging himself full
length to his right to turn away Kavanagh's drive.
And Bury made absolute certain of victory in
the 79th minute when Newby broke and played a throughball to Borley who slotted home his
first senior goal for the Shakers.
The win, lifted beleaguered Bury off last
place for the first time since September 22nd and player-manager Andy Preece believes that
it is only a matter of time before they pull clear of the danger zone.
External match reports.
The
Western Mail |
