With Millwall the visitors last Saturday, Bluebird supporters marched into Cardiff City Stadium carrying the hope; The Winning Starts today! But a lacklustre performance greeted us against a poor negative Millwall side struggling towards the bottom of the league; Malky Mackay started the game yet again with a lone striker, Kenny Miller, no width and the same tired team which was soon found lacking in confidence and creativity, there was little to cheer about in the first half from either team the final ball for Cardiff City was lacking, Joe Mason had a shot blocked on the goal line by Paul Robinson while Cardiff keeper David Marshall remained relatively untroubled. The half ended to boo’s and chants of boring!

The second half was a little brighter Mason went close again when his flicked header was tipped over the crossbar by Millwall’s veteran goalkeeper Maik Taylor, Cardiff City although poor dominated, although former Cardiff City loanee Andy Keogh did have the ball in the back of the net for the visitors but the flag was already up for off side, Gunnerson and Miller both went wide of the target and Kevin McNaughton had a powerful goal bound drive blocked, before Miller failed to hit the target yet again, the chances were mounting up for the Bluebirds  but no one could produce the killer touch.

Then came a set piece Aron Gunnerson rose above the Millwall defence and headed the ball into the back of the net the Blues celebrated on the field and throughout Cardiff City stadium only to be quickly brought back down to earth with a bump the linesperson had flagged for a foul, Gunnerson his teammates and the City fans protested. The linesperson’s indicated to the referee, he raised his flag after seeing a Millwall defender plunging to the ground; (presumably because his sight was impaired by the mass of bodies in the box) he adjudged this to have been the result of the defender being fouled by the goal scorer, when in actual fact to the player fell in the act of fouling Gunnerson!

Mackay flew down the tunnel to view a replay of the video on a monitor, he emerged from the tunnel infuriated and proceeded to berate the fourth official with a fervour sadly lacking in his team.

The game ended 0-0 with Cardiff City supporters dejected at the uninspiring performance. the inability of our team to score and the bitter pill of injustice of a perfectly good goal being erroneously disallowed, further replays merely highlighted the point and during the media round which followed the match Mackay remained petulant at the refereeing decision he knew had robbed his side of two points and a top six placing blasting the decision as “horrendous and embarrassing” in the days following the match Cardiff City sent a video of the incident to referee Tony Bates.

Mackay later went on record to BBC Sport  –  “He (Bates) called me back today and apologised because he had seen it – he watched it seven or eight times and said there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it!”

The apology however merely rings hollow to Cardiff City who have suffered at the hands of least four other good goals being disallowed this season, which all brings into the limelight the debate about goal line technology, instant replays and judgements based on reviewing of video playback evidence by the fourth official to the fore again, while this works wonderfully in the world of Rugby, Cricket and Tennis, all of those sports have natural pauses in them. The changing of ends in Cricket and Tennis and the sheer physicality of large men picking themselves up and ambling back to get into formation for a lineout or scrum the review procedure therefore isn’t out of place within the natural constraints of said sports.

Football however is pretty a seamless affair save for injuries, to introduce time outs in effect, would ruin one of the main things that makes it the beautiful game, which invokes an emotional attachment long after the final whistle and in bides an infatuation with the game in the supporter rarely found in other sports, the breathless end to end helter-skelter of open play.

The answer I would suggest does lie in technology, but in post match review of debated decisions which could be appealed the way red cards currently can. Footage of a disallowed or given goal could be reviewed at leisure from several angles then should the decision bring about a change in the result the points lost would be awarded, whilst none would be deducted from the other team likewise the goal difference would be amended on the plus side for the wronged team the goal different for the other team would remain unaltered, only this system would be the fairest on both teams, while it may bring about more playing on after a tight flag it would also reduce the amount of times the off side trap is employed and make for a more flowing and end to end game, it would also make it less likely to be abused

While I understand this would mean the clubs have to take on more responsibility for the filming of matches -: these days equipment is relatively cheap and easy to use, in lower leagues I am sure willing supporters would provide the footage.

  As for Cardiff City we now know the winning did start last Saturday we just don’t have the points to show for it! We have to face Middlesbrough away on Easter Saturday with the need for more fire in our bellies hopefully the disallowed goal will be the catalyst! A wide man and two strikers would help too!

Cardiff City can still make it! In the words of Jon Bon Jovi, “Keep The Faith!”

Bluebirds!! 

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