Match Report

The Bluebirds have crashed out of the FAW Premier Cup after losing on penalties to Dr.Martens Premier League side Newport County last night, who also shocked Swansea City with a 3-1 victory in the quarter-finals.

Since the arrival of Sam Hammam at Ninian Park, Cardiff have shown a slight lack of respect to the competition fielding weakened sides in almost all of their matches and yesterdays' semi-final was no exception with Lawrence making 11 changes from the side which beat Mansfield Town 1-0 last Friday. With the game being played just 5 days before the next round of European Championship qualifiers it was never going to be a strong City side out anyway.

Despite fielding a second string side, looking at the team sheet Cardiff should have had enough quality to beat County with players such as Martyn Margetson, James Collins, Gethin Jones, Des Hamilton, Jason Bowen, Lee Fowler, Gavin Gordon and Leo Fortune-West in the starting XI, but it was to be Newport County's night and the pride and hard work they put into their game throughout made them deserved winners.

The game started slowly, and on the hard Spytty Park pitch it was never going to be a classic. The first real chance of the game fell to County on the half hour mark, with star striker Gary Shephard breaking through the slow City defence and putting a powerful shot on goal, only to be denied by Martyn Margetson who did well to parry the ball out for a corner.

Lee Fowler, who was making his Cardiff City debut was taken off 10 minutes prior to half-time with an injury. He is due to join up with the Welsh Under-21 squad today, so hopefully he will be fit enough to play in their game with Azerbaijan.

Newport had a couple more half chances, but couldn't find the break through and the two sides went in at half-time goalless.

You would have expected the City side to take control in the second half with their full-time training paying off, but Newport continued to have the better of the game with the noisy home support cheering on their every move.

Former City players, Jeff Eckhardt and Jason Perry both went close before the hour mark as Newport continued to look more likely to score first.

Despite Newport's best efforts they couldn't find the winner in normal time and the game went to 30 minutes of extra time. City through on hot prospect Stuart Fleetwood to look to bring some fresh legs to the Cardiff City forward line to replace Gavin Gordon who had had a disappointing night and hadn't received much service from the City midfield.

Both sides looked very nervous during the additional thirty minutes and the only real chance of the period fell to Leo Fortune-West. Leo found himself with only the 'keeper to beat from 12-yards out, but the £300,000 striker put in a poor shot and Gareth Wessons who is with County on loan from Newport YMCA made an excellent save with his legs to keep the scores level.

At the end of the 30 minutes the scores were still level and we were left with the lottery of penalty kicks. After a slight delay, with the penalty spot having to be re-painted the shoot out got underway.

Newport converted all four of their penalties, with misses from Stuart Fleetwood and Andrew Jordan securing them a place in the FAW Premier Cup Final for the first time in the competitions short six year history.

It was a very poor display from the City side and many fringe players who had been given the chance to impress Lennie Lawrence failed miserably. The team didn't show enough respect to Newport County and frankly do not deserve the chance to defend their FAW Cup title.

I was also a little disappointed by the crowd. There were only 1,160 in attendance and for a fixture which used to be much anticipated by supporters I might have expected a few more at Spytty Park. The away following from Cardiff was also surprisingly low - people had complained we had only been given 500 tickets before the game, we didn't come close to selling that! I suppose with the game on BBC TV, it was never going to be a full house.

Credit though, must go to the County home support who were loud throughout the 2 hours of football and really got behind their team. Chants of "What a waste of money" - "Your not very good" - and "If you all hate Cardiff City..." particulary wound up the visting supports too. Sam Hammam's theory that Cardiff City is a club all Welsh based clubs should support is bring proved wrong, we are proving to be the most hated! The City chairman was also booed by the Newport fans!

Newport County were worthy winners and best of luck in the final against either Wrexham or Rhyl in May.

Full Time Score - Newport County 0-0 Cardiff City
(Newport County won 4-2 on penalties)

Newport County - G Wesson, C Collins, S Benton, A Thomas, J Perry, J Eckhardt, M Rose, M Fowler, N Davis, G Shephard, N Davies.

Cardiff City - M Margetson, G Jones, J Collins, A Jordan, M Giles, D Hamilton, L Fowler, M Parkins, J Bowen, L Fortune-West, G Gordon.

City's only threat going forward was Jason Bowen. He created the majority of City's chances and looked a class above the rest of the Bluebirds starting line-up.

Although getting my MOM award, Bowen still drifted out of the game at times.

Martyn Margetson was also a contender for the Man of the Match award. Although he didn't have a lot to do he made one fantastic save in the first half from a Gary Shephard shot and put in another solid performance.

Set as Homepage

Contact the Author

Add to Favourites