Cardiff Come Back

Plymouth Argyle only manage a point at home after giving away a 2 goal lead to Cardiff City.



Come backs appear to be the trend with this clash at Home Park, however unlike last year it was Cardiff who this time managed to snatch the point. With the cameras rolling yesterday Argyle came out of the blocks as the stronger side, not the familiar selections for the starting 11 either with starts for Dan Gosling and Bojan Djordic on the flanks and no sign of Nalis. The back line remained unchanged from the Leicester game and so with Abdou and Norris in the middle and SEB and Hayles up front the bench was supplying alot of the familiar starting 11.



Cardiff had arrived with a team that shows the amount of investment that had been put into their club with both Fowler and Hasselbaink in the squad ready for action. Tony Capaldi also made his return to to the Theatre of Greens, however I get the feeling he wont be too happy with the reception he was given with booing and jeering echoing every time he touched the ball.



As a paper exercise Cardiff would have been favourites at the start however it was all Argyle creating the early chances and it looked to be only a matter of time before one went in. It took half an hour for that to happen however as the final quarter of the pitch still seems to be an area that we really need to get to grips with, when it did come it was the boot of Ebanks-Blake that sent the ball in on 30 minutes to the appreciation of a much noisier crowd than the recent Home Park faithfull.



After the first goal the first half carried on much as it had started with what was a much more organised and impressive display coming from the Plymouth team. The Cardiff team which seemed to be playing with Hasselbaink in a lone striker position were not creating much in the way of chances and anything they did put forward was being absorbed by the strength of Seip and Timar in the centre of defence. With the score at 1-0 half time came and Argyles dressing room would have been the happier one during the break.



The second half started with one change to the teams, Bojan Djordic, who had not really put his mark on the game made way for the lightning feet of Peter Halmosi on the left flank. The other change at half time appeared to be in the attitude of the Cardiff players who came out of the tunnel looking to quash the 1 goal difference as soon as possible and applied a barrage of pressure in the opening 10 minutes. The Argyle defence managed to hold strong though and as Argyle started to break the run in play, Holloway decided to play his second Hungarian trump card in the form of Akos Buzsaky who replaced Dan Gosling, this saw Norris move out to the right flank and Buzz join Abdou in the middle.



Akos came on as a man determined to make his mark on the game and a strong run through the middle ended with a shot that Turnbull could not keep hold of and in came Ebanks-Blake to slot home from the rebounded ball, 2-0 and things were looking good.



The 2 goal defecit did not seem to discourage Cardiff who tried to dig back in, changes were made to the line up and one of them was Fowler coming on to partner Hasselbaink up front. With what should have been a comfortble lead Plymouth fond themselves defending a little more than they were comfortable with and corner after corner was being awarded in favour of the visiting team, all of which seemed to be unsettling McCormick who was starting to look uncomfortable.



On 71 minutes the first goal for Cardiff came in a very similar fasion to the second from SEB, McCormick could only parry away an initial shot and Rae slotted the ball home for the start of the Cardiff come back. The familiar problem of a deep defence seemed to peering its way back and although Argyle were still looking strong going forward, the defence was getting deeper and deeper when the flow of play was in the other direction. Buzsaky and Halmosi again provided some classy link play in the midfield and although balls were being sent in the finish was not there, it was Cardiff who netted the final goal of the afternoon with an 89 minute strike from Thompson. Cardiff had produced a draw from what really should have been 3 home points, even the unbiased Southampton fan I had taken to the game agreed that we should have come away with the honours after Cardiff had simply failed to impress.



Hasselbaink and Fowler for me both looked like they need to work on match fitness and Hasselbaink who played most of the 90 minutes didn’t appear to have much of a workrate. Argyle on the other hand for me have 3 clear problems at the moment, a strong commanding goal-keeper is a must buy for us, the defensive flanks are better and they look great going forward however the tracking back is opening us up and the centre backs are needing to pick up the pieces, thank the powers that be for Timar.

The final problem for me is a convincing strike partner for Sylvan, Barry was fantastic last year but he seems to be struggling to find a similar form this term so far, his lack of pace is becoming apparent and with Fallon and Chadwick still to prove their worth the only place goals are coming from is SEB or the midfield.