Report from TotalWales.
BILLY AYRE gave a cautious reaction to the news that Cardiff City
directors will this week invite him to carry on as manager next season.
The straight-talking Geordie needs the go-ahead to strengthen
a squad patently not good enough to compete in Division Two.
And he will want contract security in the event of a summer
take-over resulting in new owners deciding to bring in their own man.
“I’ll have a chat with the chairman Steve Borley,
see what’s on offer and we’ll go from there,” said Ayre, 48 yesterday.
“I’m pleased they want me to stop here and I’ll
be delighted to stay, so that’s not a bad starting-point to the meeting.
“I’ve enjoyed being in charge since February
despite all the pressures and handicaps. I revel in them.
“But you don’t know what’s happening until you
are told. It might be a seven-day contract. I wouldn’t accept that.”
Borley confirmed the board wanted Ayre to lead City’s
attempt to bounce straight back from Division Three.
“If we agree terms this week, Billy will be in charge
next season,” he said.
The former Blackpool manager has the backing of most City
fans.
“The directors have just dipped into their pockets for
the £250,000 to help the club get through the summer,” said supporters’ club
travel officer Tony Jefferies.
“The extra shares they’ve bought will prevent
former chairman Samesh Kumar blocking any take-over deal.
“But until a Mr Big comes in everyone knows the club
hasn’t got any money.
“In the present circumstances we feel Billy Ayre is the
best man for the job. He’s got two years left on a coaching contract anyway.
“Frank Burrows had lost the plot. Had he left earlier,
as he should have done, I believe Billy would have kept us up.”
Ayre, while wishing he had been given more time to turn
things round, shouldered some of the blame for the big drop.
“We all make wrong decisions, me included. I believed
them to be right at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
His first task will be to decide who of the seven
out-of-contract players - Jon Hallworth, Jeff Eckhardt, Mike Ford, Richard Carpenter,
Jason Fowler, Danny Hill and Lee Phillips - will be offered fresh deals.
And City will surely be looking at a longer deal for Andy
Legg, who has a year of his contract to run.
The 33-year-old Welsh international was voted player of the
year by all sections of the supporters’ club at Saturday’s awards night.
One more point would have kept City up. Pathetic Ninian Park
form brought about their downfall.
But they finished on a bright note with a fifth victory to
spare them the indignity of the worst home record in the club’s history.
Inside the ground at least, long-suffering fans were in
philosophical, good humoured, singing mood.
“The Blues are going down” and “Brazil, it’s
just like watching Brazil” were two of their self-mocking renderings.
There was warm applause when City’s youngsters paraded
the Welsh Youth Cup at half-time. Hopefully, some of them will become good enough to help
the club gain success at senior level.
Bluebirds followers were almost outnumbered by 3,000 from the
West Country, expecting Rovers to gain the win they needed to reach the play-offs.
Striker Nathan Ellington missed an early chance to give his
side the lead.
And once Scott Young had put City ahead in the 28th minute
with a free header from Mark Bonner’s accurate corner, the visiting fans, like their
dispirited team, threw in the towel.
Winston Faerber was a revelation at centre-back, Eckhardt’s
15th-minute departure with a hamstring injury forcing him to switch positions.
Substitute Phillips came in at right-back to give a solid
performance. And for once City held the upper hand in midfield, the inconsistent Hill
seizing the opportunity created by Richard Carpenter’s illness to show how good a
player he can be.
City were in such control that ’keeper Seamus Kelly did
not have a save to make until the 85th minute when he denied a subdued Jason Roberts his
26th goal of the season, then foiled skipper Andy Tillson.
Acting captain Kevin Nugent twice went close to increasing
City and referee Roy Pearson failed to award a penalty when livewire Jason Bowen was
chopped down, clearly well inside the box.
Report from NigelBlues.
With nothing but pride to play for, you could trust Cardiff City to show
us that they are a reasonable team by outplaying, outhinking, outwitting and thoroughly
deserving a fairly easy win when it was all too late because they had failed to do
likewise in 37 of their previous 45 matches.
Chippy Carpenter was replaced by Danny Hill who grasped the opportunity to show his talent
and skills and was part of an outstanding midfield performance which was where the game
was effectively won and lost. Alongside Mark Bonner, Cardiff's most consistent performer
in recent months, and Willie Boland, finally showing his capabilities, Bristol never once
had any superiority during the game, nor did they threaten to either.
Bristol Rovers performance was shocking. For a side who needed to win to make the
play-offs, they show no heart, no bottle, no urgency, no passion and it was them who
looked the relegated side out of the two. It only emphasised what could have been/what
should have been as, in the 2 games between Rovers and Cardiff, City looked the better
side in collecting 4 points and it seemed the only real difference is that Bristol had 2
outstanding strikers who scored well in excess of 50 goals, if only we could say the same.
The Bob Bank, Canton Stand, Family Enclosure and Grandstand all looked as empty as they
had in the gloomiest Division 3 days but with 3,000 Rovers fans in attendance, the crowd
was a healthy 6,655 and but as lacklustre as their side were on the pitch, they were
matched by their supporters off it. Bluebirds sing but Gas is just hot air! Apart from the
opening 5 minutes of the second half, Rovers were hardly heard and showed little backing
for their team. City fans went out in style, singing from every part of the ground.
City seemed to be playing with some freedom, Bristol were inhibited and pressure must have
played its part. There wasn't much action in the opening spell but City were on top and
then a disaster, Jeff Eckhardt seemed to have tweaked his hamstring. He went off to warm
applause, a sense it may be his last game for Cardiff, to be replaced by the man with the
worst hairstyle at Ninian and likely to be on his way too, Lee Phillips. Phillips went to
right back and was up against ex-Villa,Liverpool, Celtic star, Mark Walters but Phillips
outshone him by far, astonishing. It looked ominous for City with a back of Scott Young
and Winston Faerber in central defence, Legg and Phillips but they had few problems.
Rovers should have opened the scoring on 20 minutes when Shay Kelly charged wide out of
goal to collect a bouncing ball but dropped it under pressure, the ball was centred for
Ellington to blaze over an unguarded net from 12 yards. It was a miss as bad as Nugent's
at Gillingham a few days earlier. That was the sum total of Bristol's first half attacking
efforts. The rest was in the other direction.
City turned on the pressure. Nugent was just wide with an effort, Legg should have scored
when meeting a free header on 10 yards but diving in, it glanced off him. The next attack
saw Parkin, the Rovers keeper, punch poorly. The goal opened up for Bonner but he was
closed down for a corner.
The resulting 27th minute corner was taken by Bonner, a perfect outswinger, Young headed
magnificently from 10 yards and with great power to steer the ball in off the bar and
start the party in earnest.
It was Young's 2nd goal in successive weeks. He has finished the season in some style, he
was City's best performer on the day, he bossed a clearly frustrated Jason Roberts and
still found time to support most of City's best moves. Whilst he may lack a yard of pace,
he more than makes up for it with his strength and tackling and when he's on song, he
shows excellent ability too.
City carried on taking the game to Bristol who looked so dispirited, it almost defied
belief and the only reason the Bluebirds weren't further ahead was due to inept
officialdom yet again. Brayson was wrongly ruled offside after Mark Bonner showed great
vision to place him clear on goal but the worst refereeing decision of this season of
appalling refereeing, which so often has not favoured Cardiff, came almost on the stroke
of half-time.
Jason Bowen received the ball wide and ran at the Bristol defence. He cut into the penalty
area, went around Andy Thomson and was almost at the byline as he was caught by a trailing
boot, probably at least 5 yards inside the area. The ref blew his whistle immediately as
the ball went behind, it could only be a penalty or a corner kick but Roy Pearson of
Peterlee somehow decided the foul was on the edge of the area and 10 yards infield. City
players appealed to the linesman who must have known it was inside the box but he refused
to get involved.
The Bristol players appeared resigned to accepting the spot kick against them. Even Steve
Borley in the Directors Box (patrolled by 5 bouncers - what were they worried about?) was
up on his feet complaining and staggered by the gross incompetence of it all, I've never
seen him so animated.
The free kick was unproductive and half-time was greeted by a chorus of boos towards the
officials with Billy Ayre running on the pitch to register his disgust. But then the news
filtered through Millwall were beating Oxford and if it all stayed this way, Bristol would
miss the play offs. When it was announced over the tannoy, they were taunted by the City
faithful and to think, they had come to Ninian to do that to us.
Half-time City 1 Bristol Rovers 0
The second half continued in much the same vein, it was all Cardiff. Bristol Rovers fans
decided to start cheering their team, as they were now defending the goal in front of
them, but that didn't last for long. As the other end, Bristol's sub keeper, Lee Jones was
warming up and still being a Porth boy, was reminded, "we know where you live, we
know where you live" before also being reminded he used to play for Swansea City.
Danny Hill showed excellent skills all afternoon but his best moment came when the ball
fell to him, he dropped his shoulder and swerved around one defender as if he didn't exist
then let fly an edge of the area curling shot of the outside of his right boot. Parkin,
the Rover keeper, made a great double stop to save that effort and then agonisingly block
Scott Young following up for the loose ball, the ball trickled inches wide.
There were a couple of other shots before the ref intervened again with another comedy
moment, Nugent, advancing, was hacked down. The Bristol players retreated into the area
for the free kick, City brought players forward but, only one problem, Pearson then
awarded the free kick to Bristol.
City continued to pressure and Nugent seemed set to score and Bowen had set him up
perfectly with an incisive run around the Bristol defence and perfect lay back. Nugent
shot low but Parkin scrambled the effort away with his boot.
Bristol had to attack City eventually but they were truly awful. Knowing they had to get 2
goals, beat us, and reach the play offs, they never for one moment had the stomach for it.
In the final quarter of an hour, Shay Kelly was pressed into action for the first time all
match, when he made a superb save from a far post header, then blocked a 25 yard drive.
Then came the low point of the game. With pre-match announcements that Billy Ayre is set
to stay as Manager next season and supportive comments from Steve Borley, match sponsors,
Willis Construction, decided to announce him as man of the match. Maybe I'm losing my
sense of humour but I thought it was an insult to the players but if it was meant to be
some message of support for Billy, it backfired as the ground was drowned with boos. It is
a far from inspiring choice and certainly doesn't meet with the views of the overwhelming
majority of the support.
The next tannoy announcement was just as 'entertaining'. Phil Suarez told the supporters
to stay ON the pitch at the end of the match.
City fans never stopped singing and you had to laugh when they ground rang out with
"we're the greatest team in football the world has ever seen" and "The
Blues are going down, and now you're going to believe us".
The game was played out comfortably, Nugent was narrowly wide with a header that Paul
Brayson nearly home and four minutes of injury time passed with little incident.
Bristol Rovers players were booed off the pitch by their own fans. They had led Division 2
by some distance and had never been out of the promotion/play off positions all season
until the final whistle blew today.
In contrast, City's players were warmly applauded. There was some hilarity with a one man
pitch invasion when an unfit steward couldn't chase or catch a City supporter trying to
congratulate the players as supporters used their memories to recall how to celebrate
winning a football match.
The victory just about avoided two unenviable records which sum up this calamitous
Centenary Season of misery. This was City's 5th home win equalling the club's worst record
whilst it the 9th overall league victory - not even averaging 1 a month - just surpassed
the lowest ever league wins total in the season by the club. But we did play 4 more
matches than the previous lows so it is as bad, if not worse, really.
Cardiff went down as Champions of the relegated teams and missed survival by one point.
Every City fan will agonise at where that extra point could have been earned or was lost,
the Bury home defeat last week was the killer but it was home form all season that let us
down most. Under Billy Ayre, his negativity in settling for draws at the three teams
relegated with us, Blackpool, Scunthorpe and Chesterfield, were equally as crucial. It
sums up our season best that the highlight was gaining a draw with 8 men at Cambridge and
the best football seen by a City side for years, at Oxford, still needed a late winner to
secure the victory.
But ask yourself, if City needed to win for survival before kick-off, would we have won
then? Few people would answer yes to that one. A season that promised so much, delivered
only pain. What a waste.
Report from Sports.com
Bristol Rovers' play-off hopes were sunk without
trace as relegated Cardiff City fired a fatal first-half shot in a display of form that
had been all too rare at Ninian Park this season.
Rovers posed the first threat through Nathan
Ellington who tried to capitalise when City keeper Seamus Kelly was grounded on the edge
of the box but his free-kick cleared the crossbar.
Cardiff took the lead after 27 minutes when a Jason Bowen corner found Scott Young in
the box who headed neatly past Rovers' keeper Ryan Parkin.
They nearly went two ahead but a cross by substitute Lee Phillips into the six-yard box
was headed wide by skipper Kevin Nugent to head well wide.
To add to Rovers' woes, their ex-Arsenal and Portsmouth midfielder David Hillier was
stretchered off clutching his ankle after a collision.
Rovers were under mounting pressure after the restart. Paul Brayson's drilling shot was
expertly blocked by Parkin, with the rebound finding Danny Hill who shot wide.
City were denied a penalty after Bowen was brought down in the box but referee Roy
Pearson judged the challenge to be outside the area. The free-kick was cleared to safety.
With minutes to go, Rovers' striker Andy Thomson saw his header saved by Kelly and
skipper Andy Tillson fired through the City defence only to see Kelly save again.
City boss Billy Ayre said he was "exasperated" that his side should go down
so soon after promotion.
"We defended better today than we have all season and we played a more attacking
game.
"I hoped we would be able to keep our Division Two spot but that wasn't to
be." |
