How Cardiff played at the Hawthorns

Simon Wright was at the Hawthorns yesterday when West Bromwich played Cardiff City. With his Hereford United badge on he reports on what he thought of the Bluebirds.

I was at the Hawthorns to see Cardiff's last game before the big FA Cup match. No doubt GT and Tucka Trewick were also present and correct. My impressions were generally very favourable - they may be Welsh but they can pass a ball and - probably unfortunately for the Bulls - Paul Parry is their star performer. (Its particularly galling because I was assured by a club source that Albion were just about to bid for Parry when the Edgar Street man broke his leg. By the time, he'd recovered, another regime was taken over and the idea was dead).

Here's a few thoughts - right now Paz is quick, determined and full of confidence. He's not able to win anything in the air but on the ground, he roams from right to left and takes players on comfortably. His two first half goals were extremely well taken - the first a clever lob and the second he just ran at a line of three defenders unaided. Its a tough call - how are you supposed to feel when a player you've always admired scores against your club?

I'll leave the readers to debate the differences between an average Championship defence and Hereford's top notch Division Two back four and Parry's threat to them. Of course, the narrow confines of Edgar Street, possibly our biggest trump card, aren't going to phase him.

Cardiff have a surprisingly small squad. With one forward injured, (two if you consider Trevor Sinclair a forward) another departed to Plymouth, they've only got three left - Parry, Hasselbaink (who properly can't do 90 minutes) and Steve Thompson. With other departures and injuries in the squad (including one poor sod who's contracted MRSA), their bench consisted of one forward, a goalkeeper, the notoriously erratic Darren Purse and two very young players.

City have a very slick passing game and when the midfield push up behind the mobile forwards, its easy to understand why the Welshmen have only lost 3 League games away from home....

..... Yet surprisingly they choose to mix up the sweet passing play with much wretched gamesmanship - injuries feigned, sly kicks off the ball, blatant timewasting -it's as though they've taken lessons from Accrington Stanley.

Had they continued to press forward, they would have defeated the League leaders. Instead, they chose the understandable options of funneling back to defend their lead, leaving the two front men isolated. That's fine against most clubs but its a mistake against the country's top goalscorers, who were perfectly willing to match 8 defenders with 8 attackers. An away win became an away draw and they may even have lost the point in the six minutes of injury time.

City look vulnerable to quality wing play (oh Lionel, where are you?) and possibly in the air too.

Still it will be a different game next week. Won't it?

---