FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.25: CARDIFF AT HOME

A foggy afternoon

OXFORD UNITED 3 CARDIFF CITY 2

For many years now a Boxing Day home fixture stood out because it was the day of the large attendance. Not so in 2024 now we’re in the Championship with almost every fixture at the Kassam being a sell-out.

Less room this time for the once a season types who come along with a few family members just to get out of the house after the intensity of Christmas Day and relations having come to stay. I think there were still a few around though. The types who aren’t really into it. The types who think it acceptable to stand getting on for a minute whilst the action is taking place fiddling with a zip trying to get their coat done up.

They wouldn’t have a clue as to how vital this encounter was and what it meant to us season ticket holders, us home and away every game folks.

A defeat in Gary Rowett’s first game in charge didn’t bear thinking about. But that happening certainly wasn’t out of the question. The players would have known he was sat in the stand at Elland Road as a very interested observer, yet none of them did anything to show the new boss their name was a must for the team sheet for this encounter. He’d only had a few days to work with a squad completely lacking in confidence. A squad with one win in 16 games.

Cardiff were on an awful run of form too. By taking the previous eight games as the data to work with using the lies, damned lies, and statistics approach one can prove that the Bluebirds were even worse than we were. Surely not possible, but yes. They’d picked up three points in this period. We’d got four because it just included our last win, the 1-0 against Hull. 

It was perhaps best to focus on the fact that they’d drawn their last three away games including at Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry, two sides that look mid-tableish. That’s something we’ve not been capable of.

But only goal difference was keeping them above us in the table so they can’t be very good and surely the new management bounce phenomenon had to come into play. Okay, it might not even be a thing but straws needed to be clutched at given how bad we’ve been. And I’m now 100% behind the decision to relieve Des of his duties and think GR is the man for the incredibly challenging task.

We started quite well moving the ball that bit quicker than we have been doing but the most pleasing thing I noticed early on was that out of possession we seemed to immediately drop into a 4-4-2 defensive shape and were harder to get through than in recent weeks. A hard to beat pragmatic approach, just what the doctor ordered. Doesn’t matter who it is against, be they top or bottom of the table sides. We have not got the tools to attack from the start and blow opponents away. We needed to re-build and that starts with establishing a sound defensive base.

But as the first half settled into a pattern the visitors looked to be a bit better than us. They had more of the ball and were playing it in our half. Ruben Colwill caught my eye.

However, for all their possession they didn’t make our defence look like it might crumble. Yes they hit the bar but that came from a lucky deflection. The follow up was the only other effort I can recall them having before the break and that tested Jamie Cumming no more than a father mucking about in the park with a child. He just had to pop out a hand.

Our attacking threat had looked distinctively lacking but at that stage of the game I wasn’t particularly concerned. With Tyler Goodrham coming inside we didn’t have much down the left where there was at times plenty of space. Greg Leigh was playing as a full back not wing back. The team I had picked in my head before the off didn’t include him. It had Ciaron Brown at left back with Sam Long alongside Elliott Moore in the centre and Peter Kioso in the other full-back position.

On the right side Przemyslaw Placheta played much more as a traditional winger and that’s where what few attacks we had came from. His performance was similar to that of many of our players. A mix of good and not so good. Perhaps I’m being way too demanding by even thinking about the bad things players do when some of the good is very very good indeed. We’ve hardly seen anything of him yet but it is clear that he has pace. Potential to be an entertainer in the Chicken George mould. Here he sprinted away and then knocked the ball out for a goal-kick without getting a cross in. I got more annoyed though when he turned back on himself in our half and lost possession.

Everything has to be forgiven and apologies offered for after what he did later. He was the man who provided the assist for our opener as half time was approaching. Others I’d been peed off with recently were heavily involved too. The positives that had been AWOL for months showing through.

We won the ball in midfield. First Long halted Chris Willock’s progress then Will Vaulks helped send him backwards before Ruben Rodrigues stole possession and played the ball to Mark Harris. The first time pass to Placheta could have been much better but our Polish wide man kept it in play. He gave it to Vaulks who with his second touch slid a perfect pass back to Placheta who had set off behind his marker who was a split second too slow realising what was happening. Harris being fully alert took up the classic striker’s position for a tap in. Placheta’s delivery was exactly as it needed to be and the ball was indeed tapped in. A very well worked goal. So these players can play after all.

The immediate objective was to keep the lead before Gavin Ward signalled the end of the first 45 + mins. Knowing us this was far from a given but it was achieved with no problem.

We started the second half the brighter and better side. Confidence having apparently returned.

Less than 10 minutes in we’d doubled the lead. Placheta won a corner. Tyler Goodrham placed it a couple of yards outside the six yard box. Too far away from goal for the keeper to collect. It was met emphatically by Brown’s head giving Jak Alnwick no chance. I’ve thought all season we have potential to score a fair few from corners and free-kicks bent into the penalty area. This was no hit and hope percentage game though. They will have worked on it in training. Leigh, Rodrigues and Brown all stood together. Colwill, Joel Bagan and Callum O’Dowda trying to mark and render them ineffective. That’s difficult to do when clustered together. When the attackers then break out and move, which defender goes with which attacker? CoD jumped to try and cut out the corner but couldn’t quite get high enough. No-one actually jumped with Brown. Very well worked indeed.

I wasn’t expecting to be two up this early. It felt like a real bonus. We were now moving the ball around smoothly. There was a fluidity to our play that was Championship stuff. The few moves we’d put together in the first period weren’t quite like this.

We were now really at it. Cameron Brannagan hitting a shot from distance with venom that was straight at Alnwick but he could only hold it at the second attempt. Placheta set it up for him and then, just four minutes after our second, scored the third. Brown won a high ball in the centre circle and Harris just by being there was off-putting enough to make Bagan look ungainly and unable to do his defensive job. This resulted in the ball getting to Placheta. I’m screaming, either out loud or in my head I don’t know which, “pass it, pass it”. There were plenty of options. Brannagan I thought had a really good shooting chance. But no this was from a player that I’ve already decided is one of those where we won’t really know what we’re going to get. Defenders trying to stop him will have the same thinking. He came inside using the outside of his left foot. This is the area of the pitch that the likes of Bukayo Saka move into in the Premier League. They then bend the ball into the top far corner. That’s the routine, that’s what happens next. Placheta did it differently. Doing a 90 degree swivel he found the other top corner. Vaulks put his hands to his head in disbelief. It was very much “wow” what a goal.

Even we won’t muck this up now at 3-0 my wife said. My reply was “shush”. There was still a long way to go. Let one in and we’d get a bit nervy. There was still over half an hour to go.

It looked like plain sailing. We could have had more. Harris peppered one just wide from some way out and they weren’t really troubling us.

I was thinking that if I was a Cardiff fan I would be very disgruntled at what their team was offering. I loved it though as we looked vastly superior at this point in the game. Rarely can we say such a thing.

But this is Oxford United. In the 82^nd minute the visitors pulled a goal back. They’d pushed us back a bit but we were content to get men behind the ball as we’d done all game when needed. With them patiently keeping the ball there looked to be no greater danger than there had at any point in the game. But when Cian Ashford stretched out a leg to take a ball into our penalty area from 17 year-old Ronan Kpakio which probably wasn’t intended for him he had just enough time and space to get a shot away. It was a good finish. I wonder if Long was a little too close to Cumming to give our keeper the best chance of keeping it out.

A slight worry then. Was it just a little blip in our control of the game? Apparently not. We suddenly looked anything but impenetrable. With our back line high up the pitch Callum Robinson, who I’d expected to be a starter, flicked the ball through to Anwar El Ghazi who was away and running into green grass with all out-field players way behind him. As Cumming came rushing out I saw the three points we had in the bag disappear along with the player down the tunnel having taken out the Cardiff number 20. I was very wrong because the slide tackle just outside the penalty the area was timed just right. A pivotal moment. Even if El Ghazi had gone round him and scored a second goal for the team from Wales coming before it did would likely have had us in all sorts of trouble.

The confidence and semi-swagger had gone but thankfully Cardiff’s second arrived with only seconds of added time remaining, although one never knows how long over the “minimum” a referee will play.

Siriki Dembele, great to see him back, having produced a trademark shimmy instead of just whacking the ball deep into enemy territory faced up to a couple of opponents then slipped over and handled the ball as he lay on the ground.

We had everyone back. The ball went to the far post where it was won by a Cardiff head. We now had every yellow shirt bar one in the six yard box leaving plenty of opponents free in the rest of the penalty area. It bounced off our captain to Robinson who, with no messing, sliced across the ball and despatched it. Terrible defending.

But we got over the line because it was within touching distance. A lesson if ever there was one that if you let your standards slip you can easily end up dead and buried.

Let’s return to the positives. Plenty of players worthy of man of the match.

For me it could easily have been Vaulks. Last week if I’d never seen him in an Oxford shirt again it wouldn’t have bothered me. Here I think he made one mistake when he slipped but he was looking for help that wasn’t there. He won so many balls and some of his passing was impressive too. He looked a different player, but perhaps it’s same player different manager.

Long was another contender. One crunching first half tackle laid down a marker and he came up with a quality pass or two as well. Did having a different manager help with Sam too?

Harris was back doing much more effective harrying and ended his drought, but there’s no guarantee, as some think will happen, that he’ll now go on a run of finding the back of the net. Until he’d scored he looked as likely to hit the corner flag as the back of the net.

The bottom will change again after Sunday’s games, when bottom club Plymouth visit, but for now it looks a tad healthier but still very concerning.

Argyle are only three points behind us. They’ve picked up one point from their last six games conceding 21 times and scoring five goals. Wayne Rooney is still their manager as I write this but I’m taking nothing for granted.

Cardiff are now 23^rd on the same points as Argyle.

Hull are 22^nd two points behind us and having played a game more. Their return from the last 10 games is four points.

Pompey are 21^st only a point worse off than us and with a game in hand. They seem to have turned their home form around enough to continue moving away from the trap door.

We’re 20^th and, let’s be honest, we’d take that at the end of the season wouldn’t we?

The six teams immediately above us have all played a game more and in Stoke’s case they’re only a point better off than we are. Although they have not been hammered, they’ve only got one point from the last six matches. I find it a bit of a puzzle given the Bet 365 money.

After a win I dared look at the relegation odds again. Reading up from the bottom. Plymouth 1/5. Even with Rooney still there that’s very miserly but that must be where the money has been going. Nowhere near as nailed on as that given how tight it is at the bottom. We’re next at 8/13 then Pompey at 5/4 followed by Cardiff at 11/4.

I’d say of all those odds the Bluebirds are the best value. Their fans seem to think they’re doomed. They want Vincent Tan, the owner, out. They want Omer Riza out. He was only appointed as interim manager until the end of the season this month have initially taken charge when Erol Bulut was sacked in September. They have no time at all for almost all of their players thinking they don’t care and are not fit to wear the shirt. O’Dowda being an exception. Looking at their situation and ours I’d say we’re in a better shape than they are. Goes without saying though that it is imperative that we start picking up points on our travels. I’m slowly talking myself into something resembling a sliver of optimism (best not to get carried away) but am being held back in upgrading it from a sliver because we’ve played two more games at home than we have away. That’s 19 points won from 36 played for with a goal difference of zero. Away so far its two points won from 30 played for with a goal difference of minus 15. Putting it another way, 90.5% of our points have been gathered at the Kassam.

Plymouth have the opposite imbalance of games played. Ten at home twelve away so far and it will be even more skewed after Sunday. They, like us, have lost every game except two which they’ve drawn. Away from Home Park they have scored just three and let in 33. That scares the crap out of me. I’m as nervous coming into this one as I am for any game. Possibly even more so.