A decent game today at Ice Station Zebra, but one in which our standard shortcomings were all on show: lots of possession; no real cutting edge; inexplicable errors at key times putting the team behind; lots of resilience and fortitude; a moment when we could have got back on terms; another goal for the opposition and, ultimately, another defeat.
We fielded a very young side: 4-3-3 with Harry Jones and Seb Dabrowski in the centre of defence, Filip Lissah and Kian Jenkins either side. Captain Josh Edwards, Ben Lloyd and Charlie Veevers made up midfield. Geoff Bony led the line with Rohan Davies and Aaron Hillier on either flank.
Cardiff are a big, combative side and not without flair: midfielders Joel Colwill and Cian Ashford are tough and skilful, forwards James Crole and Japhet Mpadi hound defenders, find space and run all day.
The first meaningful event in the game was an underhit back pass, resulting in a stranded Swans keeper and an open goal for Mpadi to score into. Contrary to the teamsheet and match report, Ben Hughes was in goals and his save shortly after from Crole came from another opportunity created by the Swans rather than the visitors.
We had few chances – Ben Lloyd’s shot blocked on 35 minutes, a couple of corners – but the clearest was in the 2nd half when sub Iwan Morgan burst onto a Lloyd pass only to see his angle narrowed and the Cardiff keeper prevent what would have been a deserved equaliser.
3 minutes later, a misplaced pass led to Cardiff’s 2nd and on 78 minutes the referee was conned into a penalty that was walloped into the net to clinch the game.
The Swans got punished for mistakes in areas where we are vulnerable, while our opponents rarely seem to give our players similar gifts, possibly because we aren’t set up to put them under pressure in those equivalent areas.
The positives included Josh Edwards’s first half performance before he got injured – some really pleasing passing and with both feet. A number of our youngsters came through a tough game in really unpleasant, exposed weather conditions with great credit – Dabrowski and Morgan in particular; Jack Cooper also acclimatised quickly and confidently on entering the game at centre back; Ben Lloyd and Charlie Veevers kept trying and prompting throughout.