Pity the poor marketing people at CCFC. How to pitch this one?
Is YOUR life going nowhere? Are YOU struggling to see the point? You’re sure to feel at home this afternoon at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Hey Guys! Is masochism YOUR bag?
Is YOUR life an unmitigated success? Born on the RIGHT side of the tracks? If YOU’RE bored with the good life why not visit us at the CCS to get your life permanently derailed. 20,000 basket cases can’t be wrong!
In the event they took the easy way out giving 5,000 tickets away to local schools. Which did wonders for the atmosphere. It was like being at a live recording of a Kris Akabusi - era ‘Record Breakers’ - all inappropriate cheering and ill-judged enthusiasm. At least the club had the good sense to confine the brats to the new stand well away from the peevish majority.
For an exercise in futility it wasn’t a bad game really. And 3 (three) goals at home. Blimey! Considering we’d only scored 6 at home in 11 attempts since Christmas this was quite a return. Mind you Blackpool gifted us two of them with soft penalties, Doyle stepping up in the absence of penalty-taker-in-chief Whittingham and sending the keeper the wrong way on both occasions.
Doyle was also instrumental in our goal from open play, winning the ball in midfield and finding space down the wing to cross for Mason to find the net with the help of a deflection which wrong-footed the helpless Parish. I like the look of Doyle. He’s a tireless runner with an exemplary goal-scoring record in the lower leagues and combined well with Mason today. Assuming that Kenwynne doesn’t return from his loan spell with Bournemouth and with little prospect of Tan spending big in the summer he’ll get a decent run next season.
Despite a comfortable win (an injury time second for Blackpool flattered them) six months into the Slade regime the fundamentals are still not in place. A woeful opposition was there for the taking but we conspired to make hard work of it. Time and again we got into good positions but the final delivery lacked precision. We don’t play as a cohesive unit. There is no indication that players have been assigned roles that they understand, that suit their abilities, and that they are putting into practice moves that have been worked on endlessly in training. What do they DO during the week?!
Throughout this season of uncertainty and mediocrity the effort and commitment of (most of) the players has been impeccable. Men of lesser character might reasonably have been consumed by apathy. The lack of leadership on the pitch is a problem - goalkeeper Marshall and the pathologically diffident Whittingham are never going to effectively direct matters on the pitch - but the leadership deficit is a fault line running through the club from boardroom to dug-out.
There were isolated shouts of ‘Slade Out’ towards the end of the game and it’s generally accepted that the man is out of his depth. He seems a nice chap but his job here is done. The ship has been steadied, its assets stripped. We’ve got a decent squad - albeit one that has been emptied of genuine quality - and one with which we might even be able to compete next season. What we need now is a masterstroke in the boardroom to take us to the next level. Quite.
No season tickets for us next season. What a glum sentence that is, poignancy shooting from the neck downwards. Easy to write, not so easy to read back. Not giving up just yet, rather, with a heavy heart and cement in our boots we’ll be playing the percentage game, taking each game as it comes.
Well that’s it. The muse has gone. No more barrel-scraping shabby scribblings from me. Ta-ra.
No comments:
Post a Comment