Man Of The Match

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Originally Posted by Garth Blue

Spot on Bob. The moaning Minnies will always focus on the negatives. The usual suspects will find it hard to compliment Rubin. And when they do, it will be accompanied with "he's found his level". Many strong candidates for MOM yesterday. Wintle, Kpakio, and Joel Colwill could all make cases. I was also very impressed by Tanner who grew stronger and more influential as the game went on. But my MOM was Rubin. Of course, he scored possibly the best free kick we've seen since the mighty Whitts but he also performed really well in the areas which even his supporters would have said are not his strengths. His energy was impressive, his press was very effective, he showed strength and I can't remember any occasion when he ended up on his arse. Damn, he was even effective in the air.

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My MOTM as I’ve said earlier in the thread and it was a great free kick, but your forgetting the two, almost identical, worldy free kicks from Tomlin if you think it was the best free kick since the days of Whitts.

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

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And? What does this prove? Just one websites motm. He had an assist and a shot on target 2nd half and I acknowledged he improved after HT, but first half he was guilty of losing possession several times because of poor touch and control.

I thought Rubin's knuckle technique beat Tomlin's efforts.....just.

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Originally Posted by Garth Blue

I thought Rubin's knuckle technique beat Tomlin's efforts.....just.

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It was brave, I’ll give him that, especially in front of the Canton, and at 1-0 down. The knuckle technique can go horribly wrong if not caught right and the easy option would have been to cross from that position, or a left footer.

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

https://x.com/freflchampvids/status/1951792347114856846

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He did have a great game, although the last 15 minutes you could see he had tired and a couple of bad decisions crept in. I think him and Tanner will tear this league apart. Everything good we done yesterday was on their side and they worked well together, Tanner was particularly good helping him double up on their winger at times too. Quite fitting that they combined for the winner.

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Originally Posted by J R Hartley

Hard to tell what the standard is in terms of the league as we completely dominated the ball and wasted some good positions first half. You could tell straight away there was a gulf between the two sides, it was just a case of getting R Colwill on the ball and ticking. They seemed to be happy to hang in there first half and scored off a penalty from their first real attack.

2nd half we came flying out of the traps and turned the game around straight away. Then it was back to them hanging in there but us being wasteful again and we didn’t put them to bed. They had a bit of a go last 10 mins plus 10 mins of injury time and Turner had to make one very good save near the end, but it would have been undeserved if they somehow managed to pinch the draw.

I think better teams will hurt us more defensively but going forward we looked really good even if we did waste some good chances and positions.

8/10 performance for me.

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Fair do’s Fisherman. That’s a decent summary of the game. You can construct decent posts when you try. You just need to be a bit more consistent. A bit like Rubin Colwill 👍

Rubin Colwill with Tanner a very close second. They were way ahead of anybody else on the park. I think Tanner did more than Colwill with the ball (goal aside) but..its easy to miss the times Colwill pulled 1-2 players out of position by his presence alone to make huge gaps for others in the attacking third hence I think it has to be Colwill.

On the other end of the scale was Lawlor for me..no composure and played his teammates into trouble countless times. I understand he's young but that excuse doesn't get us league points.

Hot take no doubt..i see people on the other forum saying the complete opposite :-)

I would have gone for Wintle, he snuffed out a lot of their attacks, and his diagonal balls out to the wings were our main attacking outlet for most of the game.
on one occasion fish went on a bit of a run into their half and Wintle immediately slotted into the back 4 and was there to mop up when the move broke down, I don't think we have too many other midfielders who would have had as big an influence on the game as he did

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Originally Posted by blooburd2

Rubin Colwill with Tanner a very close second. They were way ahead of anybody else on the park. I think Tanner did more than Colwill with the ball (goal aside) but..its easy to miss the times Colwill pulled 1-2 players out of position by his presence alone to make huge gaps for others in the attacking third hence I think it has to be Colwill.

On the other end of the scale was Lawlor for me..no composure and played his teammates into trouble countless times. I understand he's young but that excuse doesn't get us league points.

Hot take no doubt..i see people on the other forum saying the complete opposite :-)

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Lawlor had no composure? I don't think he can be accused of that at all, he looked very composed on the ball and played solid passes to his teammates

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Originally Posted by City123

Lawlor had no composure? I don't think he can be accused of that at all, he looked very composed on the ball and played solid passes to his teammates

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I can see why some think that. He stood on the ball when there wasn't a peterborough player within 20 yards of him (i call this wasting time rather than composure) but when he had any pressure on him i found he was snatching at the passes and although some hit their mark it was normally to a player who had 1-2 players all over them already.

Doesnt mean i was right its just how i saw it

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Originally Posted by blooburd2

I can see why some think that. He stood on the ball when there wasn't a peterborough player within 20 yards of him (i call this wasting time rather than composure) but when he had any pressure on him i found he was snatching at the passes and although some hit their mark it was normally to a player who had 1-2 players all over them already.

Doesnt mean i was right its just how i saw it

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Centre halves these days are told to do that and draw players toward them and open space in front of them, to be confident enough to do it consistently on your first league start even after some mistakes shows composure imo.

His passes found their targets with pace, that's what you want. There are elements of his performance you could certainly criticise but I'd say his passing wasn't one of them. Compare the way he passes the ball to Fish and there's a clear difference in quality

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Originally Posted by City123

Centre halves these days are told to do that and draw players toward them and open space in front of them, to be confident enough to do it consistently on your first league start even after some mistakes shows composure imo.

His passes found their targets with pace, that's what you want. There are elements of his performance you could certainly criticise but I'd say his passing wasn't one of them. Compare the way he passes the ball to Fish and there's a clear difference in quality

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Watch how loads of top centre halves now drag their feet over the ball, to try to get centre forwards to bite.

Lawlor is a wow player on the ball but he is extremely raw defensively. I will defend Fish, our full backs were so high in the first half it completely removed some passing angles.

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Originally Posted by City123

Centre halves these days are told to do that and draw players toward them and open space in front of them, to be confident enough to do it consistently on your first league start even after some mistakes shows composure imo.

His passes found their targets with pace, that's what you want. There are elements of his performance you could certainly criticise but I'd say his passing wasn't one of them. Compare the way he passes the ball to Fish and there's a clear difference in quality

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Agreed. I’ve made a few posts saying how he lost his way defensively first half after his booking but his composure on the ball and passing into midfield was a positive. Certainly not something he could be criticised for.

Can’t believe anyone would single out a young player, making his home debut and probably trying to hard to make an impression??
Lawlor looks composed on the ball and will only grow stronger as he gains more confidence with experience

Bookmark this, when he’s playing for Wales in a few years time

Think Lawlor and Kpakio did well given their age and experience, two of the best prospects we've had in forever and can see both making the jump to play at a higher level and hopefully in and around the Wales squad for years to come.

Definitely need to strengthen at CB, but I think you can see quite quickly Lawlor will be the best option currently at the club. The fact that he's playing ahead of a CB with 140 games in top level European leagues is impressive, even if that player is crap.

Think Lawlor has already mastered a part of the game (arguably the hardest) Awhich BBM will ,place great store on. Even when he was having a bit of a struggle with other aspects of the game on Saturday, his work on the ball and in passing it was fine. The worrying part was that he found the defending part of the game a struggle against a player whose record at Peterborough suggests he is your archetypal lower division target man (to be fair, ihionvien proved more effective on the day than Salech did mind) of a type he’s going to be facing a lot this season. Lawlor’s defending should improve with experience though and in some ways, he was already the best centre back available to us on Saturday.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Think Lawlor has already mastered a part of the game (arguably the hardest) Awhich BBM will ,place great store on. Even when he was having a bit of a struggle with other aspects of the game on Saturday, his work on the ball and in passing it was fine. The worrying part was that he found the defending part of the game a struggle against a player whose record at Peterborough suggests he is your archetypal lower division target man (to be fair, ihionvien proved more effective on the day than Salech did mind) of a type heÂ’s going to be facing a lot this season. LawlorÂ’s defending should improve with experience though and in some ways, he was already the best centre back available to us on Saturday.

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Didn't see the game and I can't say much about Lawlor because I haven't really seen him play, although from what I have read on here he seems like a prospect. Something people need to bear in mind is that he was coming up against a third division number 9, or whatever people want to call them these days who has probably made a living out of bullying players as opposed to competing through ability and movement. I'm not going to big Lawlor up just yet, but he may never have come up against a player like that in his short career given the way he had been schooled in playing and the opposition he would have faced, so I'm guessing that he may have been attempting to react to a situation that was new to him by trying to be over competitive for want of a better word, because he doesn't possess the experience to know how to deal with players like that just yet. He may have had an easier ride if he was up against a championship striker , because at least they're prepared to play. My post may be well off the mark because I didn't see the game, but this will benefit him, and if he's bright then he will learn from it, get stronger and adjust. Good learning curve for him in my opinion.

I thought Ihionvien looked a real handful on Saturday, but he isn't a battle hardened league one veteran, he's a 21 year old who's played 12 games at this level.

Peterborough had every bit as young a team out as we did, we will face far sterner tests going forward.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

I thought Ihionvien looked a real handful on Saturday, but he isn't a battle hardened league one veteran, he's a 21 year old who's played 12 games at this level.

Peterborough had every bit as young a team out as we did, we will face far sterner tests going forward.

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Not sure if that's a reply to my post, but if it is then I'll take what you said as you were there and I haven't really done any research. Just assumptions really on my part.

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Originally Posted by Tuerto

Not sure if that's a reply to my post, but if it is then I'll take what you said as you were there and I haven't really done any research. Just assumptions really on my part.

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not specifically at your post. but just adding to the general discussion.
We looked a bit shaky at the back, especially when Peterborough were counterattacking - but to be honest they didn't actually generate many chances. (and the ones they did we were largely the architects of our own downfall).

I had a look at a Peterborough message board yesterday, and they were pretty pleased with the performance, most of them were expecting to be thumped (figuratively and literally in some cases).
they were expecting to finish firmly in the bottom half this season, and said we looked like a 6-10th kinda team.

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Originally Posted by Rjk

I thought Ihionvien looked a real handful on Saturday, but he isn't a battle hardened league one veteran, he's a 21 year old who's played 12 games at this level.

Peterborough had every bit as young a team out as we did, we will face far sterner tests going forward.

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He might not have much experience either but he was was an awkward lump. Very raw and certainly up for the battle. If Peterborough had more of the ball and played to his strengths he might have caused us more problems. Probably their best player on the day.

Thought Wintle was man of the match, Kpakio and Colwill's done great.

I must have been watching a different game with some of the praise Tanner is getting. Amount of space he had out wide he just wasted, shrugged his arms etc, better second half but he won't have many games easier than that and he was still poor.

Tanner did waste a lot of good opportunities but having watched the extended highlights he was involved in a lot of the good things we did going forward.

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Originally Posted by PontBlue

Tanner did waste a lot of good opportunities but having watched the extended highlights he was involved in a lot of the good things we did going forward.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">6 - Ollie Tanner created six chances in Cardiff&#39;s 2-1 win over Peterborough, the most of any League One player in this season&#39;s opening round of games. Invention. <a href="https://t.co/9TXAZpLNUC">pic.twitter.com/9TXAZpLNUC</a></p>&mdash; OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) <a href="https://twitter.com/OptaJoe/status/1952317678837805058?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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Originally Posted by Hilts

Rubin.

Kpacio is clearly a real talent. Faded last 15.

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MOTM in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by BLUETIT

Sorry Bob, but Tanner wasted so much good possession down the left, or was I watching a different game ?!

One decent cross in the first half out of what seemed maybe 10 to 15 touches!

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first half tanner was on my side and I thought he played very well, but he's very limited in his options when the ball is at his feet i.e. cut inside and that is all.

but he did do well and put in a few good balls. On another day Salech would have had a hattrick

Bit surprised with people’s opinion on Tanner. Just seen that a stat that he made at least two more key passes than any other player in League One (6). I thought he was good first half as well as the seconds. Everything was going down his side, he was a constant threat.

I think Colwill or Kpakio were man of the match. Wintle come close.

Edit: someone posted that stat just above 😂

I thought Tanner was outstanding first half, always providing an option for a diagonal ball and his first touch was brilliant taking some of the balls down.

I was sat near the front of the Grand stand so had a brilliant view of his performance.

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Originally Posted by Aramore

I thought Tanner was outstanding first half, always providing an option for a diagonal ball and his first touch was brilliant taking some of the balls down.

I was sat near the front of the Grand stand so had a brilliant view of his performance.

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You must have seen what I could see, so that makes it about 3 of us who actually saw what he was doing during the match. It would make a good Specsavers advert :biggrin:

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

You must have seen what I could see, so that makes it about 3 of us who actually saw what he was doing during the match. It would make a good Specsavers advert :biggrin:

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Make that four of us.

I am really surprised by the negative posts on Tanner. True he didn’t collect every diagonal pass, and he sometimes decided against a first time cross, but he was dangerous most of the match, got some good crosses in and linked well with Kpakio and Colwill Jnr. Add to that his assist for the Kpakio goal and his second half shot which needed a great save from the Posh goalkeeper…. mostly an impressive performance, with a few things to work on.

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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales

You must have seen what I could see, so that makes it about 3 of us who actually saw what he was doing during the match. It would make a good Specsavers advert :biggrin:

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make that 4. Without Colwill's goal Tanner wouldve been my motm