3-0 half time, we've had a lot more goal attempts than Watford, but their keepers barely had a save to make.Originally Posted by Bluebirdman Of Alcathays
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3-0 half time, we've had a lot more goal attempts than Watford, but their keepers barely had a save to make.
3-1, City piling the pressure on!
Not sure why I keep on saying we're playing Watford when I know we're playing Coventry.
2-3 - superb volley by Humprhies.
Final score 3-2 - so many chances to win that game missed.
It looked a strong team that started but O'Keefe lost the ball in midfield twice which led to their first two goals (keeper didn't do too well for those either). Damour also missed a clear cut chance and we should have been at least level at half time rather than three down. However, there seemed to be a huge improvement once those two had been replaced and I thought we were unlucky not to get at least a point. (Coventry no. 11 - Allasani - looked a good young player throughout).
Yes, O'Keefe was an absolute clown to start with. Swore at the 17-year-old Bagan for misplacing a pass then swore at Damour for doing the same before misplacing a number of passes himself as well as letting himself get dispossessed in key areas, as you say. The turning point was dropping Humphries into defence after half an hour, he gave the two young centre halves some much needed support as well as freeing up the two full backs (who were excellent I thought) to play pretty much as wingers. Suddenly the problem of having four centre-midfielders had been solved and we were fine after that. Everyone put a shift in, Williams & Bolger got a run-out, the Academy lads didn't look out of place and we could easily have got at least a draw if we'd got our second a bit earlier. Humphries was man of the match for me, really impressed by him tonight.
I daresay if the game gets a mention on a Coventry website it will say that Cardiff had "first teamers" O'Keefe, Darmour and Healey in their side, yet I thought they were three of our weaker players.
You would have thought O'Keefe would be in a pretty good mood when you consider that this was, almost certainly, his first appearance in a long while, but, whether someone did something to annoy just before kick off I don't know, his expletives came over loud and clear on the video stream, as did his "body language" which was a picture of frustration and annoyance. The ironic thing being that, for much of the game, he passed the ball as badly on many occasions as the two team mates he berated had done once in the opening minute or two - some allowance should be made for his rustiness, but, O'Keefe didn't do himself any favours last night.
Humphries did a Connor Coady impersonation in the second half (I mean that in a good way), but I've never seen Coady score a goal like that - using him in a back three would be an experiment worth continuing with, but do you see the first team ever using a member of a back three in the way Wolves do?
I thought Dan Martin (who has done well in other games I've seen him play) was good and I'd say the team improved with the introduction of Williams and Bolger, while Mayembe didn't look out of place either when he came on.
Clive is right to question our keeper for at least one of the first two goals as well.
City Academy already 4-0 up in the first half at Palace. Ryan Reynolds back in the starting line-up, Spence, Bowen, Evans and Colwill with the goals.
The highlights of this game are up. I mentioned last week that I wasn't quite sure about Spence's fitness levels but his form is excellent.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/card...video-archive/ (U18 highlights; Palace)
Lovely finish by Spence for the first goal and Sam Bowen's wasn't bad either - all done without any one in the eleven that I would call a specialist striker.
We had two of them (Griffiths & Isaak Davies) when we played Palace at home and lost 1-0, it's a funny old game. I remember texting my lad when I turned up to the Watford DVP game a while back saying it was going to be a long night because we haven't got a striker and we ended up winning 7-1, Man City didn't have one for the first half of our cup game with them but they seemed to manage ok. If you've got a number of players making runs from midfield and good enough passers to pick them out (Reynolds ball to Evans for the 3rd against Palace is a great example) then it must be pretty hard to deal with.
Yes seems an impressive win :
https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2019/feb...cal-bluebirds/
City's Development team (they are currently only above bottom placed Colchester on goal difference) are at Millwall with a team which includes Stuart O'Keefe and new signings Dan Williams and Aaron Bolger - 0-0 after twenty minutes.
City leading 1-0 thanks to a Lloyd Humphries penalty with less than ten minutes to go.
That's how it finished. Good result and good for the Academy centre backs to keep a clean sheet too, presumably Humphries was helping them out again but its a confidence booster for them all the same.
For some reason, our FAW Youth Cup semi-final with Swansea is now being played at Llanelli's ground on Weds, March 6th.
https://www.swanseacity.com/news/faw...date-confirmed
What are the first impressions of that Bolger we signed on loan?
He only came on for twenty minutes last week, I'm wary of saying he was an improvement on O'Keefe because you might think I'm damning him with faint praise but he slotted in well and contributed to a strong finish for us. I haven't seen his name mentioned with regards to yesterday's win but he played the 90 minutes and, presumably, played his part in the clean sheet.
It's an area we need to strengthen with Arter, Gunnarsson and Camarasa all likely to be leaving at the end of the season so let's hope this is leading somewhere positive. I like the look of Duffus at that level (but he seems to be made of glass), Humphries was excellent in a back three last week, Reynolds is impressing for the Academy, Spence is playing very well too but we really need one or two of these guys to push on now or its going to be an expensive rebuild in the summer. Too early to say whether Bolger is going to be the answer but the under-23s have two home games coming up so TOBW should be able to give us a better assessment of him soon.
Highlights of the under-23s win at Millwall here. Something tells me that Dan Martin missed Warnock's e-mail explaining what he expects from his full backs.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/card...video-archive/ (U23 Highlights; Millwall)
You can't read too much into three or four minutes highlights, but that was like that Welsh Youth Cup match when Martin seemed to be directly involved in all ten of the goals we scored - he was, apparently, at the heart of all of our best attacking moves on Monday and a clean sheet suggests it wasn't at the cost of his defensive responsibilities.
I thought he was good against Coventry the week before as well.
Yes, he seems in a good run of form at the minute. I enjoyed his performance against Coventry, he was relentless. Even if the ball didn't get to him three or four times in a row he kept making the run and then, when he did get it, there was usually a decent end product.
He seems the kind of full back who'd thrive in both the unusual back three/four system that the Academy play and the more regular back three/five system that the DVP team have recently adopted so it's hardly surprising his performances have been so good of late. In fact, he should thrive in any back three variation- bar one, of course.
Just off to watch the Under 18s take on Coventry at Leckwith this morning, kick off is at 11.30.
3-3 draw, Kieron Evans equalising with seconds to go after good play from Sam Bowen. Sloppy and complacent from a few today, first time I've seen that this season. William Warnock started, on the left wing. I'm not sure if Warnock himself watched the first half but he settled down in front of me ready for the second only to find that William had been taken off at half time. Not his weekend.
Warnock was there for the first half, but I don't think Craig Bellamy was after the meeting last Monday that was supposed to let him know the result of the inquiry into the claims against him.
The under 18s got out of jail today because they fell away badly in the second half after dominating the first forty five minutes without being at their best. It seemed to me that some of our players looked tired and there wasn't much "snap" and pace to our passing - we seemed to think that all of the possession we had would eventually tire Coventry out, but it was all done so ponderously that the visitors looked the fitter team at the end for me.
My report on yesterday's game.
http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/
Highlights of the Coventry game here. Our first goal is a beauty, Pinchard is a good player (although slightly weak in the build up to their second). Sam Parsons got the second goal, I'm not sure why Spence got credited with it. You can see the last one properly now, great play by Bowen but it has to be a foul by Evans in the build up. I know it's a slip but he headbutts the guy in the leg, I'm not surprised the Coventry player goes racing after the ref as soon as the ball hits the net.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/card...video-archive/ (U18 Highlights;Coventry City)
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