Bluebirds boss Dave Jones recognised the fact that Scunthorpe had to come and spoil the game if they were to get anything from it and said:
“They are fighting for their lives and we are too, but for a different reason. They got men behind the ball, but we were always pressing hard and, as long as our two centre-backs did their jobs, it was really a case of when we would score.”
And eventual goal scorer Seyi Olofinjana was the man who ensured Cardiff added another three valuable points to their tally and finished the weekend in second spot in the Championship.
Olofinjana is a very approachable man who has more than his fair share of grey matter (see the scanned report) and it’s just as well that he was happy to talk to me as the home side’s media officer seemed the think that his job was to prevent the great unwashed in the media from talking to anyone he hadn’t approved beforehand.
As Mr. ‘Jobsworth’ told me: “E-mail me a request for an interview and I’ll arrange it.”
Fine if you know what’s going to happen and who the main characters are going to be before kick-off, but totally pointless otherwise. I’m afraid that Cardiff is one of a growing number of clubs that have employed people to deal with the media who don’t seem to understand what is required. They see themselves as gatekeepers to prevent questions being asked rather than doing what they can to assist the players and get their messages to the fans – through the media.
I’m afraid that the more difficult that they make it for reporters and the more clubs try and sanitise the information that is released, the more of a disconnect there will be between football clubs and fans and ultimately the game will suffer.
Of course the irony of trying to keep journalists away from news stories is that – by the very nature of the beast – they’ll start digging around and end up unearthing stuff you really didn’t want anyone to know about.
Rant over.
My clipping from this morning's paper
On the plus side, Cardiff is a smashing club and they have a wonderful stadium that will grace the Premier League next season if Dave Jones, his coaching staff and the players keep doing what they are doing.
I hadn’t spoken to Jones before, but he was very easy to talk to and is no-one’s fool. It would be great to see him take the club up to the top flight as he has put together a good footballing squad that doesn’t seem to be short on character either.
I’m afraid that the future doesn’t look too bright for Scunthorpe though. One win in thirteen games is definitely relegation form, but to give the players their due, they battled all the way.
Boss Ian Baraclough still has faith in his boys though and said:
“There is a definite belief we can get out of the bottom three and games like this should give confidence to the players that we can escape relegation. We now have three home games which will be vital for us in moving up the table. But we must reproduce our away form at home and make sure the players express themselves.”
Song artist: Alice in Chains
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