| Report
from NigelBlues.
These reports are starting to write themselves. City start well, play much
better quality football, miss their chances to kill the game then make a stupid defensive
mistake(s) to let the opposition into the game, go to pieces and end up drawing or losing.
Lightning doesn't strike twice unless you're talking about Cardiff City performances!
Attendance: 1,030 (My guess was 2 out!)
Barry fans: 200 (almost all their home support!!!)
Atmosphere: Noisy ... whenever a train went past
Weather: Cold, clear
Pitch: Superb
It was a fair result from a game that City blew yet again. Why can't we defend? Why can't
we score the goals we should? Why are we giving professional players some of the best
contracts in the division if this is what they are giving back? The rot has well and truly
set in. Sort it out City.
Cardiff used the game as an opportunity to test fringe players or those returning from
injury. As a result, Shay Kelly in goals was the only player in the starting 11 at Bury on
duty.
Barry Town of course see this as perhaps their biggest game of the season, they were
resting players during their league game on Saturday. It probably goes a long way to
explaining why they can match the league clubs in this Cup that is rarely
"Premier" because they raise their game for it but the Nationwide teams use it
as an excercise to try those who rarely feature in league action.
City started the game well and were in charge from the off. It was mainly the local
players making the biggest impression. Lee Phillips was showing some excellent touches and
runs, Christian Roberts as a free role midfielder looked a class act and Earnie panicked
Barry every time the ball went near him. Every time Earnie ran at Barry, he was fouled.
It was from the third foul that City opened their account. Danny Hill tried to curl a free
kick over the wall on the edge of the area but it never got height. It did however hit a
defender and deflect into the goal. I saw the net bulge immediately but, strangely, the
Barry and Cardiff players all stood still. The wait seemed longer that Chris Tarrant
giving an answer on "Who wants to be a millionaire?" but when the Barry keeper
went into the goal to get the ball, the sparse crowd realised it was a goal and started
celebrating. I've never known fans take so long to recognise a goal.
This seemed to further increase City's confidence and Barry were on the rack as their
keeper produced a couple of good saves and players were lining up shots from distance,
Carpenter and Ford in particular went close. Dai Thomas was unlucky with a shot from the
edge of the area which went a couple of inches wide although many fans thought he tried to
trap the ball and it flew off his leg. Chris Roberts was narrowly wide too after a
tremendous 30 yard run and getting behind the defence. Dai palyed well, first half
especially, and suggested he could do well in the League of Wales!
Dai made it 2-0 after half-hour with a cracking goal. Mike Ford ran 40 yards from inside
the Cardiff half. Approaching the area, he passed ahead to Earnie who turned and played a
beautiful pass dissecting two defenders and finding Dia in the clear on the wide right.
Dai immediately sot on the outside of his boot and whilst it wasn't the best placed
shot,it was too good for the Barry goalie. 2-0.
City dominance was total and it seemed a case of how many we would score. A minimum of 4-0
seem to be expected. And we contiuned peppering shots towards goal.
Then in the 40th minute, Barry scored. Chris Fry advanced down the left for a rare forray
into Cardiff's half. His cross was poorly headed into the air by Perrett, clearly some
distance short of match fitness for the first team and a poor game overall, and it fell to
a Barry player unmarked in the area who hit the ball low first time across Kelly. Like
Dai's effort, it wasn't the best shot but good enough. I don't know the scorer sorry and
it wasn't announced.
The effect was unbelievable as City dramatically folded and lost their way. Everything
good they had done all match just stopped happening. It was startling to see how their
performance dropped from quality to total pants in a matter of moments.
H/T Cardiff 2 Barry 1
Barry came out for the 2nd half and their tails were up, City seemed unable to get back on
top again. A corner was nearly flicked in by Barry, Chris Fry screwed a shot wide when
clear on goal, Phillips and Roberts had stopped getting forward and any service to Dai and
Earnie ceased altogether.
It was no surprise when Barry equalised but it was another shocker. A harmless looking
Chris Fry corner was floated to the near post for ex-City trainee Paul Evans to meet it
wih no challenge whatsoever inside the 6 yard box and direct a low header past Kelly.
There was clearly no organisation in defence, whre were you all?, and whilst Kelly could
not be blamed for the goals, you cannot help feeling that Hallworth would have saved at
least one of them.
Barry were now in the ascendancy and one or their fans chanted out "We're
theChampions of Wales" without managaing to look remotely embarrassed at his claim
that Barry were doing well against Cardiff's reserves!
City's game had gone altogether and you could only sense that Barry would score more. To
be absolutely fair, some of their passing and movement was very good. They were a credit
to the League of Wales and you had to admire their fightback but, in all honesty, City had
only themselves to blame for allowing this situation to happen. For all their possession,
Barry could not get more efforts on goal although they certainly had chances. When the
ball came down the other end, Earnie tended to be greedy and lose possession when simple
passing could have played others in.
Then inexplicably, City woke up for the final 10 minutes. Hill and Roberts got direct
again and when City players ran at Barry, they struggled to cope making it totally
baffling why we just stopped doing this in the middle part of the game. Hill was wide
after one mesmerising 50 yard run, beating four players and shooting after going wide to
get around the last defender. Roberts was close with a curler and Chris Fry for Barry was
not so far away either tying a similar effort on the break.
Earnie got booed as he continued to shoot on sight but never got hold of the ball. He will
learn but it was greed of the highest order.
The final whistle went and City left to boos and chants of "what a load of
rubbish" by those who bothered to express an opinion.
Some players showed well but none for 90 minutes. The pick was Chris Roberts, awarded
sponsor's man of the match, who showed some great runs and menace but went anonymous in
the middle part of the game. Earnie showed that he is still not a 90 minute player but
could do a job coming on for the final 15-20 minutes in matches. Lee Phillips was more
defensively minded than Faerber but also faded and probably did not show much going
forward after a very bright start. Perrett was very disappointing on the night, he looked
very unsure and his passing, supposedly a feature of his game, was woeful. He needs time
to get match fit. The rest performed adequately but, like nearly all FAW Premier Cup
matches, it is a game to quickly forgot.
Thought for the Day - If Frankie and Billy were such good central defenders, maybe we
should start with them? I am jopking but, boy, is there some work to be done at the
training ground. Shoddy would be too kind a description for some of the play tonight. |
