The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Here you go - count the passes:

https://x.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1957115200693322181

[Dave Blue]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Winning 3-0 at home to anyone is of course enjoyable but we did have to watch the centre halves stand still on the ball or pass ponderously to each other for more time than I would like.

[Jamsarnie]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Darren Purse gets hammered by some.

Shouldn't he be getting a lot of credit for all these young players coming through.?

I’d be interested in watching an interview with Darren Purse, giving his update on how the U21s are going, how the new players are bedding in and if/how Brian Barry-Murphy’s arrival at the club has changed how the youth teams are operating.

Since Bellamy was involved with the academy at Cardiff we’ve heard about the importance of all age groups playing in the style of the first team, to ease the pathway into the senior squad. I think it’s obvious what we’re building here with BBM is long term and the timing seems perfect for the youth teams at Cardiff to adopt the identity of the first team playing style.

I thought Dak Mafico had a rough ride against Rotherham on Saturday, but should have Jac Thomas been in the frame for his league debut? Granted, he’s two months younger than Mafico, but he’s an out and out left back and should’ve been a better fit to plug the gap in that position with Bagan (sort of) ruled out.

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit bored during the first half. There were a few nice passages of play from City, but ultimately they were ineffective and, for much of the time, Salech looked way too isolated up front. Rotherham, meanwhile, were just dreadful.

A lovely finish from Ashford for the second goal and a much better second period overall. It was a decent performance all round, but in truth City didn’t need to do much to beat some hopeless opposition.

I fully expected the standard of football in League One to be inferior to the Championship (and I thought that was pretty poor last season), but I’ve been genuinely surprised by just how bad our first two opponents at the CCS have been. Peterborough looked a weak side, but at least they attempted to give us a game. Rotherham were woeful from first whistle to last and it quickly seemed like they had absolutely nothing to offer.

Although I don’t claim to be an expert on League One by any means, I suspect the EFL computer has been kind to City and given us a comfortable set of fixtures to begin with. Peterborough finished 18th last season and, before the new season began, the bookies reckoned they’d finish 15th this time around. Rotherham finished 13th in 2024/25 and were priced to finish 14th this season. Meanwhile, newly-promoted Port Vale and Wimbledon were both expected by the bookies and pundits alike to be among the relegation candidates (they were priced to finish 20th and 24th).

Those fixtures have given our young players a good opportunity to find their feet at this level and gain a bit of confidence, and I’m sure the games will also have given the new manager some much-needed time and space to get his ideas across. I’m pretty certain there will be much stiffer tests to come, but it’s been a decent start all the same and there are definitely some encouraging signs.

Ah so the fixtures we get at the start of the season are important, there you go then :thumbup:

Agreed, last year's were very tough, this year's are pretty good.

[olderblue]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit bored during the first half. There were a few nice passages of play from City, but ultimately they were ineffective and, for much of the time, Salech looked way too isolated up front. Rotherham, meanwhile, were just dreadful.

A lovely finish from Ashford for the second goal and a much better second period overall. It was a decent performance all round, but in truth City didn’t need to do much to beat some hopeless opposition.

I fully expected the standard of football in League One to be inferior to the Championship (and I thought that was pretty poor last season), but I’ve been genuinely surprised by just how bad our first two opponents at the CCS have been. Peterborough looked a weak side, but at least they attempted to give us a game. Rotherham were woeful from first whistle to last and it quickly seemed like they had absolutely nothing to offer.

Although I don’t claim to be an expert on League One by any means, I suspect the EFL computer has been kind to City and given us a comfortable set of fixtures to begin with. Peterborough finished 18th last season and, before the new season began, the bookies reckoned they’d finish 15th this time around. Rotherham finished 13th in 2024/25 and were priced to finish 14th this season. Meanwhile, newly-promoted Port Vale and Wimbledon were both expected by the bookies and pundits alike to be among the relegation candidates (they were priced to finish 20th and 24th).

Those fixtures have given our young players a good opportunity to find their feet at this level and gain a bit of confidence, and I’m sure the games will also have given the new manager some much-needed time and space to get his ideas across. I’m pretty certain there will be much stiffer tests to come, but it’s been a decent start all the same and there are definitely some encouraging signs.

Rotherham were a very poor side, and there will likely be a few who are worse than them, who will just pack 11 men behind the ball
I think you’re right about the confidence bit though, thankfully we have played two crap teams and have come out on top by finding a way to play against them

I expect a different type of game against the likes of Luton, Stockport etc and that’s where BBM will earn his money
10-12 games in and we’ll have a better idea of how the season will shape up in my view

Coming back to the confidence thing, last season we had got into the habit of losing and there seemed like an expectation of that from the players!
This season we have started well and as you rightly point out that can only be a good thing for the young players in the squad, long May it continue

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Agreed, last year's were very tough, this year's are pretty good.

Last season, our first four fixtures saw us play the teams that had finished 16th, 14th and 8th in the Championship and 19th in the Premier League during 2023/24 - a perfectly reasonable set of fixtures by anyone's standards. Unfortunately, however, we collected only one point from those four games because it turned out that our team was the worst in the division and our manager was utterly hopeless.

Thankfully, things appear to be a lot more promising this time around.

:thumbup:

[Dave St]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

I agree, it was a bit boring at times. A decent team would have made it more enjoyable and made it a cricket score. Rotherham were the worst team i've seen come to the CSS in years. they were woeful ! don't get too carried away, we play a decent team and we'll lose as the squad is toilet and no physicality

[North Cardiff Blue]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Last season, our first four fixtures saw us play the teams that had finished 16th, 14th and 8th in the Championship and 19th in the Premier League during 2023/24 - a perfectly reasonable set of fixtures by anyone's standards. Unfortunately, however, we collected only one point from those four games because it turned out that our team was the worst in the division and our manager was utterly hopeless.

Thankfully, things appear to be a lot more promising this time around.

:thumbup:

Sunderland Promoted, Burnley Promoted, Swansea away, Boro, Leeds Promoted, sixth game, it would have been hard to get a tougher start.

Agreed, a great set of fixtures this year, Plymouth without a point soon too.

[fugsyphil]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Same Rotherham that put 5 past us less than 16 months ago

[TheBirchgrovePub]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

I’ll be honest, I was a bit bored during the first half. There were a few nice passages of play from City, but ultimately they were ineffective and, for much of the time, Salech looked way too isolated up front. Rotherham, meanwhile, were just dreadful.

A lovely finish from Ashford for the second goal and a much better second period overall. It was a decent performance all round, but in truth City didn’t need to do much to beat some hopeless opposition.

I fully expected the standard of football in League One to be inferior to the Championship (and I thought that was pretty poor last season), but I’ve been genuinely surprised by just how bad our first two opponents at the CCS have been. Peterborough looked a weak side, but at least they attempted to give us a game. Rotherham were woeful from first whistle to last and it quickly seemed like they had absolutely nothing to offer.

Although I don’t claim to be an expert on League One by any means, I suspect the EFL computer has been kind to City and given us a comfortable set of fixtures to begin with. Peterborough finished 18th last season and, before the new season began, the bookies reckoned they’d finish 15th this time around. Rotherham finished 13th in 2024/25 and were priced to finish 14th this season. Meanwhile, newly-promoted Port Vale and Wimbledon were both expected by the bookies and pundits alike to be among the relegation candidates (they were priced to finish 20th and 24th).

Those fixtures have given our young players a good opportunity to find their feet at this level and gain a bit of confidence, and I’m sure the games will also have given the new manager some much-needed time and space to get his ideas across. I’m pretty certain there will be much stiffer tests to come, but it’s been a decent start all the same and there are definitely some encouraging signs.

Completely agree with every word here. It's going to be interesting how the players react to a few setbacks at home.

One player I am not a fan of and was happy to see sold in the summer is Perry Ng but watching it the other day, he has a big part to play this season I would say. He will be good on the ball at this level, if he can sort his attitude and concentration defensively he will be an important player.

[Trigger]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Winning 3-0 at home to anyone is of course enjoyable but we did have to watch the centre halves stand still on the ball or pass ponderously to each other for more time than I would like.

I blame Rotherham for that. At nil nil their lack of urgency or desire to win the game could be forgiven by some but they kept doing it when behind.

[insider]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Great win with good football played but it seemed to me that Rotherham were waiting for it to piss down to save them.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Same Rotherham that put 5 past us less than 16 months ago

In name only.

Of the 16 players who turned out for Rotherham that day, just three remain at the club and only one of them played on Saturday - Jordan Hugill.

The City starting line-up on that occasion included Horvath, Wintle, Turnbull, Tanner and Ashford, while both of the Colwill brothers made sub appearances.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Sunderland Promoted, Burnley Promoted, Swansea away, Boro, Leeds Promoted, sixth game, it would have been hard to get a tougher start.

I guess we could have played the top seven teams in our first seven games, but we didn't. We played the teams who eventually finished 4th, 2nd, 11th, 10th, 19th, 1st and 21st. We got one point from that lot.

I can remember the hilarious thread you started where you claimed we could beat the teams at the bottom but not those at the top. In fact, in the twelve games against the teams who finished 18th to 23rd, our record was: W 3, D 3, L 6.

There's a reason for all of this: we were the worst team in the division and our managers were hopeless. I appreciate you were a big fan of Erol Bulut, so that's difficult for you to accept, but it's the way it was. We were a very poor side who mostly got dismal results against everyone regardless of where they were in the table.

[Woosnam]

Re: The Brian Barry Murphy effect making home games enjoyable again.

Completely agree with every word here. It's going to be interesting how the players react to a few setbacks at home.

One player I am not a fan of and was happy to see sold in the summer is Perry Ng but watching it the other day, he has a big part to play this season I would say. He will be good on the ball at this level, if he can sort his attitude and concentration defensively he will be an important player.

I think NG is an excellent player, but I agree that he was not up to his usual standard last year, though I have a feeling he was not happy with the management style. I think he will tighten up the left back position, as Kpakio, despite his promise, makes too many mistakes for my liking.