Courtesy: The FA.com


Cardiff rue missed opportunities

by Matt Hardy

Tuesday, 14 February, 2012

Fourteen goal thriller ends in stalemate as City maintain unbeaten run.

Cardiff City continued their unbeaten start to 2012, drawing 7-7 with Team Newbury despite a disappointing performance on Sunday.

The Welsh side are unbeaten at home since 11 December but very nearly lost that proud record in an eventful encounter at Cardiff’s @Futsal Centre.

A hat-trick from Cardiff’s Taylor Harding and four from Newbury hitman Alex Wall came as spectators witnessed a 14 goal thriller.

The game started slowly and as expected it was the home side that looked the more comfortable, creating two or three good early chances which led to Dean Maynard opening the scoring after just three minutes.

In a game where mistakes would be the norm however, Newbury equalised just a minute later through Aaron Parfitt after some lapse Cardiff defending. The home side recovered well though and looked in control after eight minutes when goals from Maynard, his second, and captain Taylor Harding had given City a 3-1 lead.

Newbury hit back though and two goals in two minutes from new boy Alex Wall pulled the visitors level before adding a third to put his new side in front for the first time in the match.

Both sides looked vulnerable defensively which saw a further four goals added before half time, which came with the visitors surprisingly leading 6-5.

Coach Peri Antoniou’s words seemed to work wonders for the home side after the break as they came out of the traps firing on all cylinders. They piled on the pressure and only heroics by Newbury’s Joe Cooke, with a little help from the woodwork stopped Jonny Nelson from finishing a well worked Cardiff corner.

The home side continued to press and Tyler Mills fired home to bring the scores level.

At 6-6 the game opened up again and both sides’ leaky defences allowed a number of golden scoring opportunities, with Cooke and Cardiff counterpart John Tapia-Owens frequently called into action as they tried to keep the score down.

With six minutes to go though the resistance of the goalkeeper’s union was broken when Newbury’s Gavin Mackie fired his side back in front much to the adulation of his team-mates. Again though, the visitors couldn’t hold on and Joe Dyer smashed home his sides seventh from a tight angle to level the scores once more.

Sensing victory, Cardiff again piled on the pressure but mistakes at key times ruined any chance of them finding a winner much to the dismay of Antoniou and his assistant Keith Ellis.

“Today was one of our most disappointing performances yet” said Antoniou, who joined Cardiff from Manchester at the start of the campaign.

“We have shown great improvements this season in comparison to last year and this has been reflected through our results.

“We’ve had to work very hard and I speak for all of the coaching staff when I say we are very proud.”

Antoniou was disappointed post match in a number of key decisions he felt went against his side but was quick to praise the hard work of the visitors on Sunday.

“All credit to Newbury who refused to give up today and grabbed an important point to take home with them” he added.

“I thought we had just done enough to win today as we had too much for them in key moment in the game.

“Our luck was out though and a number of key decisions went against us yet again that have cost us points.

“Hopefully we can get the disappointment out of our system and focus on Hereford where we need a much better performance.”




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com