The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

[the other bob wilson]

My only point of reference was the club's own twitter feed but it seemed like we did well to get back into the game at 0-2, but conceding right after we got one back did for us and the 2 late red cards didn't help. Still, seems like a valiant effort all through the season and one where they had to overcome their head coach having to disappear for a while so Robert Mueller, I presume, could look into his conduct. Maybe those who took over are Bellamy's equal (or superior) but I wonder if he'd have made a difference.

Based on what I saw when Sheffield Wednesday played us down here in March, I'm not surprised by the result last night - in fact, full credit to our lads for running them so close despite being down to nine at the end.

On that subject, until recently you could easily count on the fingers of one hand the number of red cards you would see if you watched a season of Academy football - in fact, it was probably more likely that you wouldn't see any at all, but now they are commonplace (I think I'm right in saying that it's the second time Dan Griffiths has been sent off this season). Nothing I have seen leads me to think that the game at this level is dirtier than when we had the likes of Ledley, Jerome, Blake, Gunter, Matthews, etc. in our side, so I can only assume that referees are stricter than they were. It wouldn't be fair for me to be critical of last night's ref when I've not seen anything of the match, but, looking at the Twitter reporting of it, there seems to have been an awful lot of bookings in the game so I hope the ref wasn't one of those who thinks everyone has turned up to watch him (e.g. Clive Thomas back in the seventies).

With Bellamy, if you just look at results when he was there and when he was on his "sabbatical", I'm pretty sure you'd find that they were a fair bit better earlier in the season when Bellamy was there.

Any review of our season at Under 18 level would have to include some reference to the amount of pretty long term injuries we had to important players, but I believe their impact was much the same in the time Bellamy was there and the period when he wasn't because there were members of the squad missing for weeks or months virtually from August to May.

In last month or two, I've formed the opinion that there is a good chance that there will not be a Mueller Report style announcement of the findings of the club enquiry into the Bellamy allegations - I feel that, especially if the verdict is unfavourable towards Bellamy and the club, that it will be more like what we saw at Newcastle with Peter Beardsley.

[Loramski]

Based on what I saw when Sheffield Wednesday played us down here in March, I'm not surprised by the result last night - in fact, full credit to our lads for running them so close despite being down to nine at the end.

On that subject, until recently you could easily count on the fingers of one hand the number of red cards you would see if you watched a season of Academy football - in fact, it was probably more likely that you wouldn't see any at all, but now they are commonplace (I think I'm right in saying that it's the second time Dan Griffiths has been sent off this season). Nothing I have seen leads me to think that the game at this level is dirtier than when we had the likes of Ledley, Jerome, Blake, Gunter, Matthews, etc. in our side, so I can only assume that referees are stricter than they were. It wouldn't be fair for me to be critical of last night's ref when I've not seen anything of the match, but, looking at the Twitter reporting of it, there seems to have been an awful lot of bookings in the game so I hope the ref wasn't one of those who thinks everyone has turned up to watch him (e.g. Clive Thomas back in the seventies).
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I've been surprised how competitive the Academy games have been this season, there's been a real edge to them. Has that always been the case or do you think that's been a part of Bellamy's philosophy? I know you said its not dirtier than in the past but I wouldn't necessarily say the games have been dirty, just really hard fought. Maybe the refs are cracking down more at youth level, there have been a few reds in DVP games too, but I've been more than happy to see a number of full-blooded matches this season and I'd say that the bookings have come out of a hunger to win rather than over-zealous officials.

Interested to see Griffiths getting a red last night. When I replied to Jamie's post about him at the top of the page, I was going to mention that one problem with him going on loan to a lower league club might be that experienced defenders will pick up on his super-competitive attitude and try to wind him up into getting cards. I didn't because he seemed to have got that under control lately, I may have to rethink that after last night although I've no idea what happened. Good player though, if he can channel his aggression in the right way he's got every chance of making it.