Carmarthen Town 2 Cardiff City 0

The Bluebirds new summer signings all made their first City appearances on a sunny afternoon in Carmarthen.

City boss Jones selected a mixed starting eleven with youth and first team players in the starting line up.

Tony Capaldi started at left back, with Steve MacLean up front and Gavin Rae taking up a central midfield role.

The signing of Michael Oakes came too late for the first of the pre-season games. Youth goalkeeper Josh Herring took the spot in between the posts.

Cypriot International Costas Charalambides who is currently here on trial started on the right hand side of midfield and showed his international pedigree with a string of tricks and movement.

It was this movement early on that created a chance for MacLean to force the impressive Carmarthen keeper Thomas to make a smart save.

The Bluebirds forced the tempo of the game and really dominated the opening exchanges.

It was Carmarthen Town though, who opened the scoring with Nathan Cotterrall seemingly impeding Gunter to the ball his cross into the six yard box found Sacha Walters, who headed firmly past a helpless Herring.

City forced the rest of the half and created a number of chances with the front two looking lively. Matt Green kept the Town keeper Thomas busy, forcing him into a string of saves.

Steve MacLean came close to opening his City account but his shot was once again saved by Thomas.

Half Time:

Carmarthen Town 1 Cardiff City 0

The second half started in the same manner as the first finished. City continued to create chances, but either no luck in front of goal or Thomas denying the break through.

In fact it was Carmarthen who doubled their lead after 60 minutes with some bizarre refereeing. Glenn Loovens passed the ball back with his knee to the young keeper Herring only for Mr John to deem the pass and illegal back pass. The four hundred plus crowd all saw witnessed the legal pass but unfortunately one man never.

Paul Fowler from the edge of the box dead centre dispatched the free kick past the City keeper with some style.

The impressive MacLean nearly brought the Bluebirds back in touch with a neat turn and finish, but the Town keeper palmed the shot over for a corner when the ball looked destined for the top right hand corner.

All in all it was a good work out for the team we now pack our bags for Portugal and move into the next phase of our pre-season programme.

FT:

Carmarthen Town 2 Cardiff City 0

Attendance 420

Source: Cardiff City - The Official Site