Cardiff City 1-1 Plymouth Argyle - Match Comment
City Goalscorer...
By Chris O'Brien
February 22 2003
A late Paul Wotton equaliser gave Plymouth a deserved point in this evenings 1-1 draw at Ninian Park. It was another dissapointing display by the home side, and the result means another huge blow to City's automatic promotion hopes.
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It was another disappointing display from the Bluebirds, and definitely another two points dropped as a hard working Plymouth side got a late equaliser to take a well rearmed point back to Devon. Robert Earnshaw had given the Bluebirds the lead with his 24th league goal of the season just before half-time, but leading Argyle goalscorer, Paul Watton got Plymouth's equaliser from a free-kick just 4 minutes from time.
Argyle deserved at least a point from the game, they dominated possession in the Second Half as the Bluebirds sat back and let the visitors come forward. Lawrence's late substitutions also left a lot to be desired, putting on the unpopular Spencer Prior with seven minutes to go! Cardiff failed to create enough chances, in fact Plymouth had double the attempts on goal than Cardiff and if it wasn't for two fantastic Second Half saves from Neil Alexander then Cardiff could have lost their third home league game of the season. An impressive away following of almost 1,000 from Plymouth boosted the attendance to just over 14,000 but judging by tonight's performance it will be interesting to see how many of them are back for City's next home game against Notts County. The point keeps Cardiff in Third place, two points behind Crewe Alexandra who are in action tomorrow.
Cardiff City - Alexander, Weston, Young,
Barker, Croft, Boland, Kavanagh, Bowen (Bonner 76), Legg (Prior 83), Thorne,
Earnshaw Plymouth Argyle - Larrieu, Worrell, Coughlan,
Wotton, McGlinchey (Keith 78), Bent, Norris, Hodges, Friio, Evans (Adams
88), Stonebridge (Lowndes 78) Referee - M Warren
Alexander's shot stopping has been vital this season, but he must learn to come off his line more, and command his area if he is to succeed at a higher level. |
It
speaks volumes when you have to give your goalkeeper Man of the Match for a
home match against a team 7 places below us, but Alexander made two great
saves during the game to keep Cardiff ahead.|
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