We lost 3-0 today to a Cardiff side that played the percentages and took their chances – 4 shots on target and 3 goals tells its own story.
Although Ogbeta, Watts and Parker were missing, we still seemed to have a decent starting 3-5-2 line-up at Leckwith: Remy Mitchell; Harry Jones, Filip Lissah, Richard Faakye; Joe Thomas, Liam Smith, Mitchell Bates, Cameron Congreve (s – Charlie Veevers 87m), Lincoln McFayden (s – Zane Myers 62m); Kyrell Wilson, Kristian Fletcher (s – Cadogan 87m). Unused subs: Archie Matthews, Ruben Davies.
Cardiff had some familiar names in their team, notably centre forward James Crole, midfielder Joel Colwill.
Poor defending allowed Crole a clear shot that put Cardiff ahead on 12 minutes.
We dominated play without particularly creating much – a shot each for Wilson and Fletcher that were saved.
Despite this, we were always vulnerable to quick breaks, conceding cheap free kicks outside our box and on 35 minutes Conte converted well from one of these to put Cardiff 2 up.
We really needed to get a strike back early in the 2nd half to get a foothold in the match. Shots peppered the Cardiff goal and the ball ping ponged around – Jones had a shot cleared off the line, Lissah sliced wide of an open goal. Wilson and Fletcher cut frustrated figures as chances got away.
Cardiff weathered the storm.
Richard Faakye, who’d been booked unnecessarily in the first half, got himself dismissed 10 minutes from time as we looked to have run ourselves out. Rather predictably, Colwill – who’d been booked himself for a gratuitous dive earlier – rubbed salt in the wound with a strong shot in the closing minutes to put the game finally beyond reach.
Liam Smith was our standout performer.
We were rather spoilt last season with such a strong complement of U21 midfielders – Abdulai, Cotterill, Lloyd in particular. Despite our periods of dominance today, it didn’t really happen for a number of our usually more prominent players. Hopefully they’ll quickly put this one behind them.
Feature Image Credit: Welsh Athletics