The Only Way is Up

Worrying times at Cardiff City football club. For the first time in 12 years, we find ourselves at the very bottom of the Championship following four consecutive league defeats. Despite the acquisition of the experienced Rickie Lambert during the transfer window, Cardiff are still finding it difficult to score goals. To make things worse, there seems to be a general lack of confidence in the team. After Leeds United went ahead in the 60th minute last Saturday, you could see the body language of the players indicated that they felt that there was going to be no way back into the game for them. They badly need some form of confidence boost. Manager Paul Trollope is increasingly under pressure, and if results do not improve soon  he may find himself out of work.

Rickie Lambert.

In general, I like to take a positive attitude towards the team. Indeed, in some of the  home matches that I have witnessed this year there has been very little between the two sides playing. But Cardiff's inability to score goals, coupled with their increasing lack of confidence, has put them in a very difficult predicament. It is still a little early to talk about a relegation battle, but if results do not improve in the next three or four games then this is what we are facing for the rest of the season.

Matches since my last post:-

FULHAM 2 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 0 READING 1

NORWICH 3 CARDIFF 2

PRESTON 3 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 0 LEEDS 2

Despite conceding a late equaliser, the Fulham game was encouraging against a team who have made a good start to the season. The home defeat to Reading was not deserved, as Cardiff made plenty of chances but were unable to score, and Reading had one chance which they put away. A loss at Norwich, who I confidently expect to return to the Premier League this season is also no disgrace, especially at one of our most unlucky grounds. Reports suggest that the performance at Preston was very poor.

Last Saturday provided some encouragement for the first hour of the game. Cardiff probably should have been ahead just before half time when Aron Gunnarsson hit the post. But once Leeds went ahead in the 60th minute following an unfortunate penalty decision, Cardiff never looked like getting back into the game.

In general, Cardiff have played quite well at times in the 3 home games in which they have lost this season. But the capitulation after going 1-0 down on Saturday was worrying. Manager Paul Trollope badly needs to find a way to lift the confidence of the players, or its going to be a long season!

Paul Trollope - food for thought.

And So We're Back Again!

This years preseason predictions will take place after 4 games have already been played, as we didn't get back from our family holiday until after the start of the EFL season. It's been a bit of a mixed start for the Bluebirds, with one win, one draw, and one loss from the first  3 league games. Sandwiched in between those games was an extra time defeat in the EFL cup to Bristol Rovers.

The team is indeed using the 352 formation, as used successfully by Wales during the summers European Championships. It still seems to be a bit of a  “work in progress”,  but last night's first win of the season against Blackburn began to illustrate the benefits of the formation.

The new system has been slightly disrupted by a series of injuries to key players. New signing Jazz Richards was unavailable last night having picked up an injury last Saturday against QPR, and Stuart O'Keefe broke his arm in a freak accident at Bristol Rovers. There were some issues concerning the link play between the midfield and the strikers on Saturday, but this seems to have been addressed by last night. Encouragingly, the wingbacks seem to be getting forwards to provide width to the team, with Declan John in particular doing very well.

Wales international Emyr Huws

The main worry is the lack of goals in the team. It is difficult itself whether the team needs a new top quality striker, or whether a more creative midfielder may be required. It is hoped that the signing of Emyr Huws from Wigan may help in that respect. There has been some criticism from some fans about the abilities of Frederic Gounongbe, but he has not had a very much good quality service so far to fully pass judgement.

Results so far:

BIRMINGHAM 0 CARDIFF 0

BRISTOL ROVERS 1 CARDIFF 0 (after extra time)(EFL Cup)

CARDIFF 0 QPR 2

CARDIFF 2 BLACKBURN 1  

BIRMINGHAM 0 CARDIFF 0

I was unable to witness the first Game of the season due to my holidays. Accounts in the press suggest a good performance from Cardiff and they probably should have won the game. Freddie Gounongbe missed a very good chance.

BRISTOL ROVERS 1 CARDIFF 0

This game was moved to Thursday night to be shown live on Sky television. Approximately half of the team were rested, which resulted in a slightly disjointed performance. Although Cardiff dominated possession, they rarely looked like scoring. A fantastic 35 yard strike sealed the game for Bristol Rovers 5 minutes before the end of extra time.

CARDIFF 0 QPR 2

These two teams were clearly very evenly matched. Defences were well in control, and despite both teams having long periods of possession, neither side likely to score in open play. The first goal when it finally came was a header by former Cardiff player Steven Caulker following a free kick. The second goal came from a slightly dubious penalty. The main disappointment during this game came from Cardiff's inability to create chances for their strikers.

Declan John.

CARDIFF 2 BLACKBURN 1

Card's first win of the season came courtesy of Blackburn Rovers. Rather bizarrely, from  2 own goals from Blackburn centre half Shane Duffy. And to make matters worse for Duffy, he managed to get sent off for a second bookable offence in stoppage time at the end of the game! Therefore, after four games, no Cardiff player has scored a goal this season! The general performance was much better, although Blackburn were very poor side. Declan John in particular had a good game, as did Aaron Gunnarsson who was replacing O'Keefe in midfield.

Shane Duffy of Blackburn (22) heads his second own goal of the game!

PREDICTIONS:

This is the time when I usually try to predict the top six and the bottom three Championship teams for this season. A very difficult task as usual. 

The top six - Newcastle, Norwich and Aston Villa(last seasons three relegated Premier league teams) should all be up there. The other three places could go to any number of clubs - Derby, Brighton, Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday and Brentford could all be involved. I'm not as convinced as in previous years that Cardiff can force their way into the top six, but the Championship is as wide open as ever and they have as much chance as a number of other teams. If I have to make a definite decision I would say that Derby, Brighton and Bristol City would be my choice after the first 3 mentioned.

Bottom 3 - Blackburn, Burton, and Rotherham may all struggle.

Midsummer update.

It seems hard to believe that it is only 11 days since Portugal beat France in the final of Euro 2016, especially when the new EFL season is now only 16 days away! Whatever happened to a break between seasons? Most of the league teams were back in pre-season training before the international season had even finished, and in the case of our own beloved Cardiff City this was actually more of a problem than we expected, due to the fantastic performance of the Wales team in reaching the semi-final of the Euros. Our own manager Paul Trollope was involved in the coaching team for Wales, and so was unable to take up his full time position with the club until 2 weeks ago. Thankfully, he has now  seen the impossibility of combining his coaching role with the Welsh squad and has now devoted himself completely to the Bluebirds.

Paul Trollope on duty with Wales

Comings and goings.

At this stage between seasons its difficult to finalise the complete list of ins and outs. The transfer window doesn't officially close until 31st August. This season, as an added complication, there is no "emergency" loan window for Football league clubs, so the players in your squad by the 31st August cannot be added to until the new window opens on the 1st January.

Two of our signings are already familiar to the club. Dutchman Lex Immers has now been signed to a permanent deal following his successful loan spell during the second half of last season. Also returning on a permanent deal is Danish under 21 international Kenneth Zohore who also showed good potential at the same time.

 Kenneth Zohore

Lex Immers

I'm particularly pleased about the return of Immers, as his inclusion really boosted the team after Christmas. In hindsight, it may well have been his injury during the last few games of  the season which prevented us from going on to get at least a playoff place.

A signing which had Bluebirds fans reaching for the Google search button was Frederic Gounongbe from relegated Belgian League 1 side Westerlo. He was a prolific scorer there in a struggling side - lets hope he can fill the need we have for a quality goalscorer.

Freddy signs!

Significant signing?

Perhaps the most significant signing of the closed season so far is of Welsh international Jazz Richards from Fulham. As a part of the deal, left back Scott Malone went in the other direction to Fulham. Jazz had been away with the Welsh squad at Euro 2016, and although he did not get any game time there he was under the coaching of Cardiff manager Paul Trollope. This seems to indicate a change of formation for the Bluebirds to the 3-5-2 system as employed by Wales (5-3-2 when defending). Considering the success the Wales had at the Euros with this formation, and Trollope being one of the coaches, this is an exciting development. Jazz has been playing as a wing-back successfully for Wales in the qualifiers, and at Cardiff we already have 2 natural wing-backs in Fabio and Declan John. If it works as well for Cardiff as it did for Wales we could yet have a very successful season. All we have to do now is sign Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey!

Jazz Richards on Wales duty.

Its a little difficult to say more at this time - there could be many changes before the season starts - but this is positive news and gives supporters a little hope. Hopefully we can keep hold of the players who ultimately did well for us last season and push on up the table. Now lets look forward to the opening game away at Birmingham city on the 6th August.

(Due to my annual holiday there is unlikely to be any more updates before the new season commences).

Good and Bad in parts.

Well - the season is over for the Bluebirds and a final finish of eighth is probably a fair enough position for our form this season. I hoped at the start of the season that we might have made it into the playoffs, and despite a great deal of pessimism from many of our so-called fans we were still in with a chance of doing that when we went into the 45th game of our 46 game season. Ultimately it was our away form that wasn't good enough, as only 2 home defeats all season compares favourably with almost every other team in the division.

Inconsistency was our biggest problem. In addition to that, the financial shackles placed on us by the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations in January also made it difficult to press on with one or two more key players to get us over the line. As I have said before in the blog this season, we were nearly a good team and overall I'd rate the season as about a B, with a B+ for home form.

Results since my last post :-

CARDIFF 2 DERBY 1

BURNLEY 0 CARDIFF 0

FULHAM 2 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 0 QPR 0

BRENTFORD 2 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 2 BOLTON 1

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 3 CARDIFF 0

CARDIFF 1 BIRMINGHAM 1

I'll not go into the disappointing details of those games. Most of us were quietly confident after the win against Derby, and the point away at eventual Champions Burnley, but the late defeat against Fulham, followed by a poor performance at home against QPR meant that the writing was on the wall. the defeat against Brentford should have sealed it, but Sheffield Wednesday wobbled for a couple of weeks themselves. We went to Sheffield where a win would have kept our hopes alive, but were never really in the game and were comfortably beaten to effectively end our season.Th

Nothing stays still in football.

On the eve of the final game of the season, the club announced that manager Russell Slade was being "kicked upstairs" and was relieved of his role as manager to become "Director of Football". (For my friends in the US, this is similar to the GM role at a baseball club!). As  I compose this a new first team coach has not been appointed, with countless rumours circulating about who that might be. A lot of fans want a big name manager from outside the club, but I'm not sure that this is the way Cardiff City does business these days, and an appointment from within, possibly Russell Slade's deputy Paul Trollope, is a distinct possibility - watch this space.

There is a lot of work to be done over the summer, but a number of our higher earners should be off the books or leaving. Exciting times, and the club has made the change at exactly the right time.

An Important Point

Following the last game of the season, it was quietly announced that the transfer embargo placed on the club by the FFP regulations had been lifted, meaning that the club could now get down to doing business over the summer. There has been much work going on behind the scenes at the club over the last 18 months to stabilise the club financially, and the work now seems to have paid off. The club is now more united between fans and management than it has been for some time, and it is to be hoped that this translates itself into bigger crowds next season.

The first new signing for the club has been Lex Immers who has been on loan to the club since January, but his deal has now been made permanent. He has been very influential since his arrival, and I'm not sure we would have got as close to the playoffs as we did without him. Also, he was injured and unavailable from the QPR game onwards, which may have has more of an effect on the team the many give credit for.

Lex Immers is a Bluebird!

The Fat Lady can wait awhile yet!

There is a bit more of the season yet. The playoffs start this week, and the Premier League finishes this Sunday. We now know that Norwich, Aston Villa and Newcastle will be joining us in the Championship next year following their relegation last night. Then there is still the FA Cup final and both European finals to be played. And following that the European Championships where Wales play in a big tournament for the first time since before I was born in 1958! The tournament finishes on the 10th July, and 4 weeks later the Championship season begins all over again. Bring it on!

ITS IN OUR OWN HANDS.

Just a brief update, mainly to keep my friends across the Atlantic up to date!

So, we reach a break in the season for international friendlies (yawn!). A useful time for the team to re-group and prepare for the vital month of April, with 7 games to play before the final match of the season on May 2nd (hopefully not the final match for us!).

If anything, we are in a slightly stronger position since my last post 4 games ago, and we continue to be in with a good chance of at least forcing our way into the playoffs. As I see it, there are 5 teams battling for the last 2 playoff places - ourselves, Birmingham, Ipswich, Derby and Sheffield Wednesday. The pundits suggest that if we can get to 75 points we should definitely make it into the playoffs, which means that we need to win 5 of our remaining 8 games, and perhaps get a draw elsewhere. It means that we really need to show some consistency. As an added ingredient to the situation, our last 2 matches of the season are away to Sheffield Wednesday and then at home for Birmingham. Oh ... and our next game is at home to Derby! Exciting times indeed!

Four matches since my last post:-

BRISTOL CITY 0 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 0 LEEDS 2

CARDIFF 1 IPSWICH 0

READING 1 CARDIFF 1

It was very important after the hard fought home win against Preston to keep up the momentum, and this is what we did with the short trip to Bristol City for the  "Severnside Derby". Another thoroughly professional win where we gave the opposition few chances and  took our chances well.


CARDIFF 0 LEEDS 2

Then came what could prove to be the pivotal moment of the season. And it was a home defeat by Leeds! This was a good Cardiff performance, but it just wasn't our night. Leeds scored a deflected goal on the break in the first half. Soon after half time, we were down to 10 men when Fabio was red carded for a second reckless tackle. But the team dug in deep, and put huge amounts of pressure on the Leeds goal. Unfortunately their keeper had a superb game, and we hit the woodwork on at least 3 occasions. But 2 minutes into stoppage time, Leeds broke through the Fabio shaped hole down the left hand side and scored the almost inevitable counter attack clincher.

Then, an amazing thing happened. The home crowd of Bluebirds fans stood up as one to applaud their team. A couple of months ago there would have been booing, but now there was an appreciation of how far the team has come, and how much effort the players had put in on the night. The whole mood of the crowd changed, the attitude towards Russell Slade has changed, even the attitude towards the ownership. Even if we don't make the playoffs or get promoted this season, there was a feeling that this could be the start of an upward climb.

CARDIFF 1 IPSWICH 0

After the defeat by Leeds, the home game against fellow playoff candidates Ipswich took on even greater significance. A Bruno Ecuele Manga goal after 20 minutes proved to be the only goal of the game. Although the final score was 1-0, this was quite a comfortable and professional win where Ipswich had few chances to equalise.

READING 1 CARDIFF 1

It would have been nice to win this game, but to come back from a goal behind and get an away point was more than acceptable

The biggest game of the season so far!

So, this Saturday we are home to Derby County, another of our playoff rivals. We really need a win here. The club has had a moment of inspiration here, and has arranged many thousands of free tickets to be distributed via season ticket holders. The new stand, which has been mothballed for the whole season, will be opened for the occasion, and there could even be a record Cardiff crowd for the Cardiff City Stadium. I must admit, I can't wait! We can do this!

Lex Immers has been nominated for Championship player of the month.

Nearly a Good Team

This has been the story of our season so far. We are nearly a very good team, and just when you think you can write off our chances of making the playoffs, we seem to discover a new vein of form and start to climb the table again. Following my last post just before Christmas, we went to Milton Keynes dons on Boxing Day and managed to lose to a last minute own goal. This was followed by a battling but uninspiring 1-1 draw at home to Nottingham Forest, and a scratchy 1-0 win over a very poor Blackburn. The following week's defeat to lowly League 1 side Shrewsbury in the FA Cup was followed by a comfortable 2-0 defeat at table topping Hull City. So - that seemed to be that, and we were heading for a season of mid table mediocrity.

But something changed, and as I compose this report, we are 3 points and one place away from the the playoff places. A LOT has happened since the dark days of early January.

Results since my last post:

MILTON KEYNES DONS 2 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 1 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1

CARDIFF 1 BLACKBURN 0 
CARDIFF 0 SHREWSBURY 1 (FA CUP 3RD ROUND)

HULL CITY 2 CARDIFF 0

WOLVES 1 CARDIFF 3
CARDIFF 2 ROTHERHAM 2

HUDDERSFIELD 2 CARDIFF 3

CARDIFF 0 MILYON KEYNES DONS 0
CHARLTON 0 CARDIFF 0
CARDIFF 4 BRIGHTON 1
MIDDLESBOROUGH 3 CARDIFF 1
CARDIFF 2 PRESTON NORTH END 1


The January Transfer Window.

Most supporters were expecting a quiet time during the January Transfer window. The financial implications of the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations meant that we were only expecting a couple of ins and outs with no major fees. However, about half way through the window we discovered that the club had actually breached the FFP rules and were not allowed to sign any players for a fee. This immediately ended the expected deal for Tony Watt from Charlton. Also, Kenwynne Jones was released by the club, to get his very high wages off the books. This meant an immediate change of tactics and playing style for the team, now fielding a 4-4-1-1 formation, as much as a result of the lack of target man strikers as anything else! 

This formation was first shown at Wolves, where we showed our best performance of the season to that point with Joe Mason playing as the main striker. However, an unexpected consequence of this was that Wolves were very impressed by Mason, and a little over a week later they bought him from us for £3m - a figure which should get us out of any further FFP problems at the end of the season. 

Lex Immers in his Feyenoord days.

We were able to bring in 3 players during the transfer window on loan. The first of these was Feyenoord midfield player Lex Immers. He has a good goalscoring record for a midfield player in the Erdivise, and our new formation has an immediate spot for him in front of the midfield 4. 

Kenneth Zohore - just a couple of late substitute appearances so far.

The second player who arrived was Kenneth Zohore, by a slightly more complicated route. As were were unable to sign players ourselves, our owner's Belgian club Kortrijk bought him and immediately loaned him to us! It looked a slightly questionable deal, but the Football League approved the transaction and the young Danish under 21 international was a Bluebird!

The third player signed was Welsh international Tom Lawrence  from Leicester City. Ironically, Tom had spent the first half of the season at Blackburn Rovers, which is where our previous loan player Tony Watt now finds himself! Lawrence is keen to play regularly in order to get himself into the Welsh International squad for the European Championships in the summer. He has been a useful acquisition playing out wide and is very quick.Already he has had a couple of Man-of-the Match performances.

So. How have we been playing?

In general terms, things have been going very well. Since our loss away at Hull city on 13th January, we have only lost one of our last eight games. This was away at Middlesbrough,who are challenging for an automatic promotion place themselves.

The first sign of a major improvement came at Wolves. A high tempo passing performance resulted in a comfortable three one win for the Bluebirds. Unfortunately, I don't attend away games, but reports suggest that this was easily our best performance of the season to that time. Therefore, there were high hopes a week later when struggling Rotherham came to visit the Cardiff City Stadium. But yet again we struggled against a lowly team. But we did manage a 2-2 draw with our new “makeshift” striker Anthony Pilkington scoring three times! This included a rather freak own goal early in the second-half. In many ways we were a little unlucky to only draw on this day as the run of the ball just didn't seem to go our way.

Joe Ralls, who has been outstanding this season, scored a top class goal against Wolves.

Following our disappointing draw with Rotherham, the team then went away to Huddersfield and  won 3-2 in a confident and competent manner. But a week later another struggling side Milton Keynes Dons also held us to a 0-0 draw at the Cardiff City Stadium. This was another day where we found it difficult to score against a very determined and solid defence. Subsequently, Milton Keynes have been on a good run of form and so perhaps this was not an entirely unreasonable result. We followed this with an away game at Charlton, where there was yet another 0-0 draw. We were well in control in this match and were extremely unlucky not to come away with three points against a team which now sits at the bottom of the Championship table.

So, after a couple of disappointing results against struggling teams, promotion chasing Brighton came to the Cardiff City Stadium. The weather was horrendous, with a strong wind and swirling rain soaking just about everybody at the game. But this turned out to be our best home performance for the last three years! Goals from Peter Whittingham, Anthony Pilkington and Lex Immers put us 3-0 up within the first half an hour of the game. Despite Brighton switching to a more attacking game in the second-half, an early goal from them did not cause too much panic in the Cardiff defence and a Peter Whittingham penalty to make the score 4-1 soon settled home supporters nerves.

Peter Whittinghams 2 goals against Brighton now put him above John Toshack on Cardiff's all time goalscorer list.

Three days later we made a long midweek trip to Middlesbrough, who had been having a disappointing run themselves having spent a lot of money chasing promotion to the Premier league. The fact that they had had 10 days of rest whereas Cardiff had played in the wind and rain three days previously was too much for the Bluebirds to overcome. Despite an exciting early goal from Fabio, the team ran out of energy and lost 3-1.

Anthony Pilkington wins the first penalty against Preston.

This brought us to our next home game against Preston North End. Preston had been on a run of four consecutive wins, mainly built on a strong defence. The constant movement of the Cardiff midfield players in their now familiar 451 formation managed to cause a number of problems for the Preston defence. Ultimately, it was 2 Anthony Pilkington penalties during the course of the game which resulted in a fairly comfortable 2-1 win. Anthony Pilkington was outstanding - it is hard to believe that he had been considered a wide midfield player until his recent promotion to striker! There were also notable performances from Lex Immers and Tom Lawrence, both of whom look to be very useful signings for the team.

Can we do it?

As I complete this post, we are three points away from a play-off place. My heart says we can make it into the play-offs, but there is just a slight doubt at the back of my mind and a feeling that we may just miss out this year. However, we have performed well at times this year, and the recent resolution of long term financial issues at the club by our owner Mr Tan gives us hope for further improvement next season. We CAN make the play-offs this year and our fate is in our own hands. But we need to show a little more consistency. It is hard to believe that we have not won two games in a row since last September. Now is the time to set that record straight.

6.5 out of 10?

Well, the season is one game short of the half way point, with the busy Christmas and New Year period coming up where most teams play 4 games. A combination of 3 weeks holiday in the USA (seems such a long time ago now) and a return to work has meant that I haven't updated since the 14th October, and so now seems as good a time as any. 

As the title of the post suggests, the Bluebirds are playing quite well, and remain in contention for a playoff place, without setting the world alight. We have the potential to be a very good team, and with more than half of the season to go there is still plenty of time to achieve this, but somehow its just a little more hope than expectation. Lets hope they prove me wrong.

There have been 12 matches since my last post, the first 5 of which were while I was on holiday. However, I didn't miss much as in those 5 games, we had a 1-0 win, a 1-0 defeat and 3 0-0 draws, so in total we scored 1 goal while I was away (and that was an own goal!).

PRESTON 0 CARDIFF 0
CARDIFF 1 MIDDLESBOROUGH 0
CARDIFF 0 BRISTOL CITY 0
IPSWICH 0 CARDIFF 0
LEEDS 1 CARDIFF 0
CARDIFF 2 READING 0
DERBY 2 CARDIFF 0
CARDIFF 2 BURNLEY 2
BOLTON 2 CARDIFF 3
CARDIFF 2 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2
CARDIFF 3 BRENTFORD 2
BIRMINGHAM 1 CARDIFF 0

We rushed back , jet-lagged, from Florida to get to the Reading game. There were various mutterings from the supporters groups about the club not being able to score goals from open play, and general disillusionment with the way the team was playing, but suddenly we were more adventurous! Goals from Kenwynne Jones and Matthew Connoly either side of half time were enough to see us through on a fairly comfortable win. An encouraging performance.

Kenwynne Jones celebrates against Reading. He also scored 2 goals against Brentford including a stoppage time winner

Unfortunately, our next game was at high-flying in form Derby, and we were beaten comfortably by a team of promotion favourites. By the time our home game against Burnley arrived, we had signed a new striker on loan from Charlton, Tony Watt. I think most supporters were underwhelmed by this signing. After all, Charlton are struggling near the bottom of the Championship, so if he couldn't get a game there, why were we getting him?

Well, it could yet be the turning point of our season. Hard working and mobile, he has fitted in well with our team and we have started scoring goals - 2 of them by Watt himself!

But the Burnley game began a disturbing run of games, as we led 2-0 with 4 minutes of regular time left, only to draw 2-2 with a very unlucky own goal. We then went to struggling Bolton, where Watt scored his first goal for the club in a 3-2 win. Bolton equalised twice during this game before Anthony Pilkington capped a great move with a late winner.

Sean Morrison heads the second goal against Burnley.

Sheffield Wednesday were the next team to visit the Cardiff City Stadium, and again we played good attacking football where yet again we went into a 2-0 lead before half time. We played some good football, and a Craig Noone penalty was followed by a great solo effort breakaway goal by Anthony Pilkington. But, the team panicked again and allowed Wednesday to pull back to 2-2, and in the end we were happy to settle for the draw.

3 days later, and Brentford were the visitors. Goals from Kenwynne Jones and Tony Watt put us up 2-0 before half time. Surely, after the previous 2 home games we couldn't mess it up again? Well, yes we could! The side got notably anxious after Brentford pulled one back, and almost inevitably with 4 minutes to go Brentford equalised! Boos echoed around the Cardiff City Stadium and the crowd left in huge numbers. Only this time, there was a sting in the tail of the game as a cross from Fabio in the 3rd minute of stoppage time was turned in by Kenwynne Jones for a 3-2 win!

Then for our 3rd game in a week we went to Birmingham for the Friday night televised game. We were really unlucky here, with a bad penalty decision given against us for handball when replays showed that the ball clearly hit Matt Connolly in the face, not on the hand. This turned out to be the only goal of the game, although we made enough chances to win but did not convert them.

Tony Watt - from Celtic to Cardiff via Liege and Charlton!

THE TRANSFER WINDOW APPROACHES

January looms, when the buying and selling of players commences. Rumours abound, but at the moment the only fairly concrete news is that the permanent signing of Tony Watt is likely to take place. Kenwynne Jones seems to want to move, but it is to be hoped we can persuade him to stay at least until the end of the season. I think we could do with another strong midfielder to support Gunarssonn and Ralls, and perhaps another fast wide player. But time will tell, and there are 4 games to play before then. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards.