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BY KEV MONKS
CARDIFF CITY 1-0 COVENTRY CITY
With John Hartson,having
put pen to paper to sign for Celtic for an undisclosed fee but rumoured to be
around �7m, Steve Guppy apparently going to follow suit with a move to
Glasgow, Phil Masinga still without a work permit and injuries to
Konjic,Eustace, the Sky Blues pre-season tour of City Supporters Clubs (Ireland,London
and now South Wales) rolled into Cardiff.
The Bluebirds are
currently going through a transformation after promotion to Division 2. Bobby
Gould is nowhere to be seen as Sam Hamman has pumped big cash into the
Welshmen and worked with the fans and treats them properly. In return,
the place is buzzing. A staggering 9,075 turned up for this match
although most of the home support were disappointed that they could not abuse
John Hartson who once played for their bitter rivals Swansea City.
The large crowd made an
intimidating atmosphere for the 150+ plus Coventry supporters who were hemmed
in by the Cardiff top boys on the left handside and a thousand or so, noisy
fans who hurled an endless stream of anti-English abuse throughout the
game on our right. The atmosphere was something that many of the City
support had not witnessed for a long while. When they were not telling us
to quickly get back to England, they were praising their players and
treating Hamman as a deity. They also proved that someone had a
sense of humour as a number of sheep noises were played over the tannoy at
various intervals during the game.
As for the match, well. Strachan
opted to give Calum Davenport a start in defence with Gary McSheffrey and
Ysrael Zuniga the latest to be tried up front, whilst the home side left ex
City midfielder Willie Boland on the bench.
Cardiff looked a handful
from the start with the pacy Rob Earnshaw and Gavin Gordon causing mayhem in
the Sky Blues defence. In the 15th minute, the Welsh side took the lead,when
City's defensive line failed to pick up the unmarked Andy Legg on the left
hand side. The former Birmingham player took a step and hammered the ball low
past Chris Kirkland.
Did the goal spark a Sky
Blue revival? Did it hell as like. Youseff Chippo twice shot tamely at
Bluebirds keeper Ian Alexander before Gary McSheffrey raced through the
home team's defence but slotted his shot wide of the goal. In the
33rd minute, it took a good save by Chris Kirkland to prevent Earnshaw from
increasing Cardiff's goal advantage.
Strachan made four changes
at the break and City looked better with Jairo Martinez now back at the club
after his move/loan to Lucerne in Switzerland fell through, adding to the City
attack along with his fellow countryman Ivan Guerrero.
After City finally won a
corner in the 55th minute, they created the better of the chances with Guerrero,
Thompson and a Barry Quinn header all giving the home support some brief
moments of concern. These efforts were followed by ones from Chippo, Zuniga
and Martinez. The best chance was a Marcus Hall 72nd minute shot which was
well saved by Alexander.
Although, City were
creating chances, the majority of which involved David Thompson on the right
wing,it was like being back to last season as those chances never
materialised into goals and Cardiff's defence never looked unduly bothered .
Even a late changing
of referees did not help City's cause and the home side did enough
to hold onto a not too surprising victory. Thankfully the win kept the
hooligan elements in the home support happy and everybody made it back to the
pub (as we did, thanks to Colin Power) or back to their transport in one
piece. We were all glad of some liquid refreshment after a mad dash in the
Yorkie mobile saw us arrive too late to get to a pub and then suffering
another miserable City performance.
Again the second
half performance was a lot better and chances were created but there
seems a lot of work to be done and it must be sorted out quickly, otherwise,
this season of Nationwide League football could be a lot harder than any of us ever
imagined.
TEAM
1 Kirkland, 2 Edworthy (15
Nilsson 45),3 Hall,4 Quinn, 5 Shaw, 6 Davenport (12 Williams 45), 7 Thompson,
8 Strachan (17 Guerrero
45), 9 McSheffrey (16 Martinez 45),10 Zuniga (14 Lee Fowler 78),11 Chippo
Subs Not Used 13 Hedman,
18 Antoelius
Monks Man Of The Match -
David Thompson
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