Punchless City Beaten by Walsall
City 0-1 Saddlers
By Chris O'Brien
December 27 2003
City's fortunes continue to slip, with the Bluebirds losing 1-0 at the hands of a battling Walsall side. The strong Saddlers defence stopped the hosts creating many chances, and Neil Emblem's goals condemned Lennie Lawrence's side to a third consecutive defeat, and a fifth home game without victory.
The predictable Lennie Lawrence made 2 changes, a fantastic achievement for him, with Martyn Margetson and Spencer Prior coming in to replace Neil Alexander and Chris Barker. Tony Vidmar switched to left back position, with Spencer Prior at the centre of defence.
Neil Emblem scored the only goal of the game for the Saddlers, with a scrappy strike that followed the pattern of the game.
It was pretty obvious from the opening exchanges of the game that Walsall had come to defend, and they did so with a purpose. Manager Colin Lee had stressed he feared a City backlash following two consecutive defeats, and his tactics saw his side look quite happy to battle out for a draw.
However, despite their defensive minded tactics it was the visitors that started the brighter of the two sides with an early spell of pressure. The City defence handled the pressure quite well, with Martyn Margetson being forced to make only one save of note, despite Lee's side having 5 corners as they looked to take an unlikely lead.
As the game went on Walsall began to sit back but City created few chances. The Walsall defence, which has leaked only 26 goals this season, was proving very difficult to break down meaning City created only a handful of opportunities before the break.
The best of the Cardiff chances fell to record signing Peter Thorne who squandered a chance wide from close range. Robert Earnshaw also went close earlier in the half, but the blank scoreline was the fair result at the break.
Unlike with the Millwall game, there was no half-time streaker to gear up the crowd, and in fact the atmosphere amongst the bumper Boxing Day crowd remained pretty subdued for the entire 90 minutes. The travelling band of Saddlers supporters were out-singing us at several points in the game, and it wasn't until the final minutes that the home support of the 17.531 in Ninian Park really got behind the team.
The second-half saw Cardiff start to stamp some authority onto the game, but the impressive Walsall defence withstood a lot of pressure and didn't allow Cardiff to create many chances.
Gareth Whalley sent a shot over the crossbar, and there were a couple of half chances for the two-pronged City forward line, but it was the visitors who took the lead twenty minutes from time.
Simon Osborn headed Zigor Aranalde's cross into the path of Emblen, who scrambled the ball home to give the visitors the lead, and send their travelling support into ecstasy.
Peter Thorne completed a hat trick of missed headers with fifteen minutes to go, and Richard Langley saw his close range shot well saved by the Walsall 'keeper as City searched for an equaliser.
Robert Earnshaw had a shot clipped off the post, with Rhys Weston, Richard Langley, substitute Andy Campbell, Spencer Prior and Danny Gabbidon all going close for City in the final few minutes. However, City ha left their onslaught on the Walsall goal to late, and the game ended with City's Christmas present an unwanted third consecutive loss.
The result sees the Bluebirds fall to 11th in the table, with a visit to Vicarage Road to face struggling Watford next up for Lawrence's side after just one day's break. Changes need to be made, and the usually highly predictable Lennie must be ruthless and make changes, and show some players they are not un-droppable.
It's not all doom and gloom. We sit 11th in the First Division, a position most City fans would have snatched your hand of for during pre-season. However, when you read in the local media that chairman Sam Hammam wants fans to 'burn in hell' if they want this side to consolidate in this division, then increased levels of expectation from the fans onto the players and the manager are inevitable.
Bluebird to the Bone Man of the Match - Rhys Weston
In a day where few City players performed well, Rhys Weston showed some good spells and his runs down the right flank created most of the City chances. Willie Boland was awarded the Ninian Park M.O.M award. Spencer Prior also had a good game, and should keep his place on Sunday.
Cardiff City: Margetson, Weston, Prior, Gabbidon, Vidmar, Boland, Kavanagh, Whalley, Langley, Earnshaw, Thorne.
Subs: Croft, Barker, Bonner, Campbell, Alexander.
Walsall: Walker, Bazeley, Roper, Ritchie, Emblen, Aranalde, Osborn, Wrack, Samways, Leitao, Birch.
Subs: Allaway, Hay, Wright, Oakes, Lawrence.