Cardiff City Stadium

Cardiff 1-0 Middlesbrough

21st September 2019

Cardiff City and Middlesbrough each went into this one on the back of four successive league matches unbeaten.  And were it not for a mental aberration by visiting striker Ashley FLETCHER in the opening couple of minutes, it is a fair bet both clubs would have extended their respective runs to five this afternoon.  

In other words, had Fletcher not inexplicably headed a corner kick past his own 'keeper, this encounter would, in all likelihood, have ended goalless.  As evidence for my assertion I present the BBC match stats which record just two strikes on target by Cardiff during the whole of the 90 minutes.....and none by the visitors.  I did wonder if Fletcher's effort counted as an attempt on target for Cardiff, or if o.g. were just discretely dropped from such statistics.

Boro did succeed in racking up 11 attempts on goal in total though, but pretty much all were unimaginative long-range affairs which either cannoned back off the first blue-stockinged leg they encountered, or harmlessly trickled past one of Alex Smithies' goalposts.

Indeed, Middlesbrough were pretty woeful all over the pitch, I have to say.  Throw-ins and free-kicks simply seemed to have been deemed as opportunities to surrender possession.  Whilst so many passes went not only astray, but appeared almost wilfully placed into space without a potential recipient anywhere near.  Even the generally reliable Darren Randolph succeeded in finding touch on more than one occasion with his attempts at distribution from hand.  

Two visiting bods I may absolve from my criticism.  Most of what Paddy McNair attempted to achieve came off, and he enjoyed a couple of fine runs as he probed down the Cardiff right.  Whilst the tall Spaniard Daniel Ayala looked a composed and accomplished chap in the heart of an, at times, wobbly Boro defence.  But when even he, late in the match, began passing to Mr. Nobody in vacant areas of the pitch, I think most travelling fans probably realised they were going to be wending back north empty handed.

This was my first ever Senior-price football ticket.
Whilst it was nice to save a fiver, it nevertheless made me a bit queezy to ask for it.

I do appreciate there is a long association between Wales and dragons,
but the grafting onto the club badge of this little red fella just looks so tacky.

Panorama of The Cardiff City Stadium.

Panorama of The Cardiff City Stadium.

City bods warming up pre-match

When you have attended as many grounds as I have, few things surprise you.
But the sight of a platoon of soldiers digging up the turf with their tackety-boots was a new one for me.

The upper tier of the Ninian Stand has. picked out in the red and white seating, instructions (should anyone
require them) in how to perform "The Ayatollah" - a sort of bastard cousin of Mo Farrah's Mobot.  I did see a
few folks to my left in the Canton Stand occasionally giving it a go, but their hearts were not really in it.

Boro fans down from the north-east for the day - perhaps a thousand or so?

Quite what dusty cobwebs between seats in the main stand of a football ground suggests, I am not sure.

Panorama of The Cardiff City Stadium.

Cardiff v Middlesbrough - Sept 2019

Cardiff v Middlesbrough - Sept 2019

A sign of the (modern football) times.

Almost Full Time - and not too many Ayatollahs going on here.

As for Cardiff; well, they were perhaps rather more creative than their opponents, but were frustratingly profligate with what few chances they did create.  Joe Ralls executed one of those embarrassing fresh-air swipes in front of goal, whilst both Callum Patterson and the wonderfully named Omar Bogle failed to trouble Randolph with headed attempts in the second-half.  Although, to be fair, Bogle's attempt did bip the crossbar on it's way over.

If pushed for a man-of-the match, I should probably plump for Canadian international Junior Hoilett, (who seems to have been around for ages, but is in fact only 29).  He replaced the unwell Josh Murphy at the break, and kept Boro's  Anfernee Dijksteel (a chap who had rather impressed me, when I saw him turn out for Charlton a couple of years ago), on his toes. 


It is, I admit, fairly early in the business, but on this showing it is difficult to imagine either of these sides being invited to any end of term prize-giving party.

But time shall tell, I suppose.

I felt the green lettering to be a nice touch.

The gates from the old ground have been incorporated into a structure near the new one.  I rather liked that.

The proximity of the new ground to the site of the old can be seen in this pic. 
The block of steep-roofed houses sit where the Ninian Park main stand formerly did. 
On the right of this pic is the rear of the new Grandstand.

This delighted chap is one Fred Keener whom, I learned, captained Cardiff City
when they won the FA Cup in 1927.  Unfortunately, the backdrop to the statue
makes it looks as if that final was played in Kuala Lumpur or somewhere similar.  

For those of you (like me) interested in this sort of thing, that is the Millenium Stadium in the distance.

A cheery, but injured, Sol Bamba posed for a few pics and signed a couple of autographs.
He has come a long way since I first witnessed his Bambi-on-ice displays for Dunfermline over ten years ago. 

Panorama of The Cardiff City Stadium.

Cardiff City's former ground Ninian Park was demolished in 2009, with housing built upon the site.  The name Ninian Park was retained for the new development.  I believe somewhere within the estate the centre-spot of the old ground (or at least it's position) has in some way been commemorated.  But (unusually for me), I could not be bothered going searching for it.

The "new" Ninian Park

The "old" Ninian Park, looking north along Sloper Road in 2007 

Same view in 2019.