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Friday 19th |
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| Cardiff
City Hallworth Young Legg (O'Sullivan 78) Mitchell Eckhardt Carpenter Fowler Delaney Williams (Bowen 65) Nugent Middleton (Hill 73) |
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Halifax Martin Thackeray Lucas Sertori Stansfield Stoneman Etherington Hulme (Brown 51) Power (Hanson 61) Jackson (Williams 90) Bradshaw  |
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| Report by
NigelBlues. Cardiff City must be kicking themselves for dropping 2 home points in a game they really should have won with comfort. The price was paid for not taking advantage of huge territorial possession, missing their chances again and a poor second half performance. There were a few changes from last week as Kevin Nugent and Craig Middleton returned from suspension whilst Mark Delaney was back from injury. Places on the bench belonged to Jason Bowen, Wayne O'Sullivan and Danny Hill so out of the squad altogether were Dai Thomas (lovely picture of him in the programme with a golden halo around him though!) and Lee Phillips. In front of an excellent crowd of 8,570 but a closed Grange End (why do you do it City? You can't imagine how many fans you angered last night), City kicked off on a greasy surface due to persistent drizzle all afternoon which continued throughout the game. Clearly, they had a point to prove as they ripped into Halifax from the start and must have had 5 corners in the first 3 minutes. Nothing came from any of them however although Jason Fowler, back in form, brought a superb save from the Halifax keeper with a low drive from 20 yards. The pressure continued as City were livelier than they have been in recent weeks. All the team seemed to be playing well although Mitchell was excellent in everything he did at the back and one interception was exceptional. Delaney (wearing no 8) was terrorising the Halifax defence on the right side, Andy Legg was doing likewise on the left (allied with some awesome throw ins including throws into the heart of the area from 35 yards out), Carpenter was linking superbly in midfield and Jason Fowler was a joy to watch with superb passing, one touches and flicks. It seemed a matter of time before City scored and they came very close on 20 minutes when a Scott Young header came back from the upright. Shots were flying in but Halifax seemed to be weathering the storm and started to get into City's half. They should have scored on the half hour when they hit City on the break and their no 10 looked particularly dangerous. City must be grateful that he is a greedy player, who keeps his head down and doesn't think of passing as he shot at Hallworth from an angle when his strike partner was unmarked on the penalty spot. It was a warning to City but they continued in search of the goal with corners more frequently than Cardiff Buses and they seemed to come two or three at a time as well. We must have had a dozen or more in the first half but never created problems with them until they took the lead on 43 minutes. Jason Fowler swung a corner to the far side of the area and it was met well by Kevin Nugent who headed towards goal. Jeff Eckhardt swept in and placed another header into the post of the Grange End goals. It was no more than City deserved and, at this stage, it looked like it would set us up for more fun in the second half. HALF-TIME City 1 Halifax 0 The second half was a major disappointment. There's two ways of looking at things. Either Halifax worked out that if Andy Legg and Mark Delaney were stopped from getting forward, City would not be as great a threat or Legg still is not fully match fit and Delaney has not fully recovered from his injury. Either way, this was the key as both players were largely anonymous in coming forward during the half and City were blunt as a result. The game petered out as Halifax looked no danger to City but Cardiff showed no appetite to get the killer second goal which would have sealed the match. There was one moment of supreme magic and artistry from Jason Fowler who received the ball near the edge of the penalty area, beat three players as he cut across goal and chipped from the edge of the area. The Halifax keeper was well beaten but the ball came down and back out from the underside of the bar. It deserved a goal and was worth the admission money to see. That was as close as City got in the second half as the Halifax keeper was largely untroubled (apart from by Eric The Red who kept shouting out that he was in school with him and sat next to him in maths. The keeper waved to Eric at the end as if he knew him, Eric had never seen him before!) It still came as a huge shock and totally against the run of play when Halifax equalised on 68 minutes. Just before Jason Bowen was introduced at the expense of John Williams. Williams played well tonight as it was a surprise to see him come off early although Bowen showed plenty of zip and enthusiasm. The equaliser was a well worked goal as three or four passes were interchanged in central midfield before a 25 yard shot went diagonally across John Hallworth and in the net. Defensively however it was a shambles. Whilst Halifax passed it about, City went to sleep. Nobody closed down any player and they almost encouraged the shot. Hallworth will also be unhappy that he didn't save it. For a team with the best defensive record in the division, apart from Plymouth who have played 2 games fewer, Cardiff have now failed to keep a clean sheet since Boxing Day. That was 12 league and cup games ago and it is a problem. No wonder Frankie Burrows kicked a wall behind him in anger. Rather than encourage City, they remained asleep and nearly went behind as Halifax hit the bar 2 minutes later with a header from a corner. At this stage, Frankie changed things around and brought on Danny Hill and Wayne O'Sullivan for Middleton and Legg but it did not produce the desired effect. Jason Bowen however staked another claim for a permanent start with some great runs and play. In one moment, he beat 2 or 3 players on the edge of the area and chipped a beautiful pass across goal but typical of City at this stage, nobody was there. Some of the crowd moaned at Bowen but his thinking and play was ahead of the others and it was his team mates who deserved some flack. City nearly produced a last gasp winner as Kevin Nugent (very subdued tonight) won a scramble on the edge of the area before he swivelled and shot 6 inches wide.City are now having a mini crisis. The recent poor away form was going to prove costly once we failed to win at home and we failed to register our 9th successive home league win. It had to happen sooner or later but two points and two goals from three matches is not good enough and needs to be put right. On the brighter side, City played much better than they had done for some weeks (first half especially) and if Halifax are to be regarded as fellow play off or promotion contenders, it serves to show how far ahead of the pack we are. Halifax worked hard for a point but deserved to lose if only because they wore hideous yellow shorts and green shirts, I kept looking for their Fyffe's banana sponsorship logo. They were not interested in winning as they packed their defence once they equalised and are obviously not as good a team. City need to knuckle down but fans should not be too despondent. An injection of new blood may be needed to keep things fresh but the next 5 weeks have 3 very winnable home games (Chester, Torquay and Carlisle) plus 4 aways where we need to, and should, pick up a few points too (Rochdale, Brighton, Rotherham and Exeter). City must aim to collect 15 points from these games. That would take us to 72 points going into April with 8 games remaining, on the verge of promotion and heading to an awayday at Cambridge which may be a championship decider. Our destiny in fully in our hands, every club in the division would want to be where City are today and it's all play to for. Come on City! Report from
Soccernet. |
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