City’s eight match unbeaten run came to an end in Cardiff on Tuesday night, with the Bluebirds enjoying a comfortable 2-0 victory…

Sven Goran Eriksson made two changes to his side for this long midweek trip to the Welsh capital with Chelsea loanee Jeffrey Bruma making his debut and Dyer getting  a starting place, Oakley and Vassell making way.
After a cagey opening spell City had the first chance with Gallagher forcing a save from Heaton with a low shot across goal in the 18th minute.
Dyer then sent Van Aanholt in on the left but his shot went straight at Heaton.
But Cardiff took a 21st minute lead through a simple move when Olofinjana squared for Chopra to net from 10 yards out.
City were on top for the rest of the half but were unable to conjure up an equaliser. Bamba headed wide from a Mee cross; Burma strode through the middle before firing a shot narrowly over;King clipped a ball from Wellens just wide; and  Yakubu’s 25 yarder following a McNaughton error was off target.
The second half started in much the same vein when Wellens forced a save from Heaton after shooting from the edge of the area; and Gallagher sent a long range free-kick inches over the bar.
Then, in the 52nd minute, Cardiff gave City another lesson in economy of finishing.
Mcnaughton squared a ball to Ramsey, on loan from Arsenal as he comes back from a leg break, who side-footed past Ricardo to put the game beyond City’s reach.
Sven responded with a double substitution – Abe and Waghorn coming on for Gallagher and Wellens – but Cardiff were on top now and Ricardo brought off a fine save to deny Emmanuel-Thomas.
What few chances there were in the clsoing stages fell to the home side with substitute Parkin forcing Ricardo into a save and Burke going close.
It was a disappointing end to a great run for City, and an unrewarding trip for those City fans who had travelled and faced four sepearate motorway closures on the long trek home.
Sven was already looking ahead: “We will bounce back, I am sure of that. We will be disappointed all the way back home but, when we get back into training on Thursday, we will pull ourselves together and go on fighting. It is important that we bounce back against Coventry on Saturday and then QPR away.”
Happily results elsewhere went in City’s favour so not too much damage was done.

Cardiff: Heaton, Quinn, Keinan, McNaughton, Hudson, Whittingham, Olofinjana (Parkin 77), Ramsey, Emmanuel-Thomas, Chopra (McPhail 53), Bothroyd (Burke 71). Subs Not Used: Naylor, Gyepes, Marshall, Blake.  
Leicester Ricardo, Bamba, Naughton, Mee, Van Aanholt, Bruma, King, Dyer (Vassell 67), Wellens (Abe 55), Yakubu, Gallagher (Waghorn 55). Subs Not Used: Weale, Berner, Oakley, Vitor.

Referee: D McDermid (Hampshire). Attendance: 22,410.

For the second time in under a week a former Cardiff City player got applauded by Cardiff supporters, did the Ayatholla and then scored against us. Steve Thompson’s goal for Burnley on Tuesday cost us two points, Robert Earnshaw’s goal for Nottingham Forest yesterday cost us three.

The difficult away game at Nottingham Forest started brightly with City having a few glorious chances before Forest went 1-0 up scoring from a corner. How did Bothroyd miss one on one with Camp, and why didn’t Mark Hudson jump to head the ball away when the home team scored?

Cardiff wasn’t helped by the fact that both Michael Chopra and Aaron Ramsey, who has played for Nottingham Forest on loan from Arsenal earlier this season, were missing due to injuries. In came Chris Burke and Jon Parkin. No bad players, but replacements none the less. Parkin and Bothroyd as a pair up front isn’t the ideal combination.

When Peter Whittingham, playing agianst the team he was rumoured to be close to joining in the summer, converted a softly given penalty 20 minutes into the second half there was hope that we might steal a point of Forest, who have been in great form lately but who surprisingly lost 1-0 at Scunthorpe on Wednesday.

Then Earnshaw came back to haunt us. Earnie is one of the greatest Bluebirds in modern times, and it was sad that it was he who scored this goal. At least he had the decency to only raise his arm slightly to celebrate.

Lee Camp had a great game between the sticks for Nottingham Forest and was probably the main reason we didn’t get anything from this game.

Luckily Cardiff have the chance to get back on track already on Tuesday when Sven Göran Eriksson’s Leicester visit the Cardiff City Stadium. As Dave Jones said yesterday:

“We will lick our wounds and get ready to go again on Tuesday and try and get back on track.“

“There will be a lot of twists and turns in this division before the season is over – there are probably 10 teams up there with not a lot between us. I will be surprised if the top two that are there will be the top two at the end.“

Maybe Leicester and Cardiff will be the two?

Steve “Thommo” Thompson was back in Cardiff with a vengeance yesterday, and said thank you for the warm reception he got from the Cardiff crowd when he came on as a second half substitute by scoring Burnley’s equalizer…

I remember Steve Thompson as a hard working striker scoring some important goals for us, but he at some point fell out of Dave Jones’ favour. When he moved to Burnley on the 1st of September 2008 he’d already been on the transfer list for a whole year. I bet it felt as a sweet revenge for Thompson to score yesterday.

The striker was mostly popular among the Cardiff faithful during his time in the Welsh capital and he was applauded when he came on as a sub yesterday. He even did the Ayatholla before heading in Burnley’s goal. The goal came from Burnley’s sixth corner of the second half, and you could sense that City’s 1-0 lead thanks to Michael Chopra’s goal just before halftime wasn’t going to be enough. It’s a bit annoying that Burnley’s goal was due to sloppy defending. It’ll be interesting to see that one on the highlights on Cardiff City Player later this evening.

I understand that a lot of Cardiff’s players were below par yesterday. Considering that I guess 1-1 against a strong Burnley team proving promotion contenders under their new manager Eddie Howe isn’t too bad. When you think about how we could have narrowed the gap to leaders Q.P.R. to three points however…

I understand Jay Bothroyd probably played his worst game of the season against the Clarets – typical when I just voted for him as the Championship Player of the Year and wrote about how good he is…

Being able to bring a player like Craig Bellamy on as a sub gives you an idea of how strong our squad is. I’m sure most other Championship managers are envious of Dave Jones because of the players he’s got at his disposal. Doesn’t help much when those players fail to produce though…

Looks like SkySports have relied heavily on the local press when writing their match report. It’s almost a blueprint:

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_3354968,00.html

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballnation/cardiff-city-fc/2011/02/15/steve-thompson-returns-to-haunt-cardiff-city-against-burnley-91466-28178363/

Or was it the other way around…?

"Taking the Liberty" PC wallpaper.

I’m still on cloud nine after our victory over Swansea yesterday, and let me heap some praise on or captain Craig Bellamy, whose tremendous goal five minutes before the end won us the game.

To say that Craig Bellamy is worth his weight in gold is a grave understatement. Weighing in at around 70 kg, that’s only about £1 884 843,10 worth of gold measured by today’s spot price for gold, and Bellamy is certainly worth a lot more than that! When Manchester City brought Bellamy to the club from West Ham they paid £18 million for him, and even though his market value is probably not quite as high today, I don’t think any Cardiff supporter will disagree when I say that to us he is, well, priceless!

Yesterday our captain didn’t have one of his best games overall, which he was the first to admit in his post-match interviews, but every time he got the ball he was booed by the home fans, so in a sense you can tell they rate him highly as well! And then to score a goal like that. In a derby match like that. The goal was Premier League class, if not world class, and that’s no less than what we can expect from a player of Bellamy’s caliber. Is he really playing for us, or are we dreaming?!

Praise also goes to Mark Hudson, who has been under a lot of criticism this season. Goals win matches, and Bellamy will therefore no doubt and not undeservedly be named man of the match by many. I think Mark Hudson equally deserves that title! He was superb, and alongside him Dekel Keinan made a fine debut that might indicate that Hudson – Keinan will be our central defenders in the games to come.

A quick mention of Darcy Blake, who replaced Kevin McNaughton in the second half at left back. Blake played well, especially going forward, and his magnificent raid resulting in a shot hitting the post deserved a better destiny. What a way that would have been for the home grown player to have scored his first senior goal for the club!

It wasn’t to be though, and I suppose Jay Bothroyd, Michael Chopra and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas will also be disappointed not having found the back of the net although being presented with some glorious chances. Bothroyd with less than a minute gone.

I have to comment on Aaron Ramsey as well. What a superb display it was by him!

Only a few players didn’t play up to their usual standards yesterday, but I won’t spoil my revel in positives by naming them!

All in all it was a great team effort, and Dave Jones got his tactics right as well. Brilliant!

Today has been all about making the most of the bragging rights, and I was quick to download the fine PC wallpaper provided by the club (pictured above).

A special t-shirt (pictured right)  being made also underlines the fact that we’re squeezing every drop out of this magnificent victory over Swansea, and who can blame us!

To a Cardiff fan having beaten Swansea is as good as it gets. That’s just the way it is, and I’m loving it!

Yesterday’s match was the first of seven games in 25 days in what’s been dubbed “frantic February”. It ended in a disappointing draw.

With the teams around us winning, we slumped down to fifth in the table, but it could have been even worse hadn’t Craig Bellamy blasted home the 96th minute free kick.

Aaron Ramsey was as expected in the starting line up, with Michael Chopra a bit surprisingly making way, but Dekal Keinan was only on the bench as Dave Jones for some reason decided to keep faith in the same defence as against Watford. How does everybody else but Jones see that Lee Naylor needs to be dropped? Time and time again Naylor is singled out by opponents as our weak point, and against Reading I understand Jimmy Kébé gave the left back a tough time and that Naylor (not for the first time this season) was at fault when the visitors went ahead in the first half. I suspect one of those players Dave Jones said slipped just as the transfer window came to a close on Monday was a left back, but surely Kevin McNaughton cold do the job just as well as Naylor so that Keinan can play alongside Hudson in central defence?

Transfer deadline day was mostly quiet for Cardiff, and keeping an eye on skysports.com’s transfer clockwatch throughout the day, it was mainly news of Fernando Torres getting in a helicopter heading for Chelsea and Andy Carroll’s transfer to Liverpool. A bit funny that both Peter Whittingham and Michael Chopra scored more goals than £35 million Carroll in the Championship last season! As only a few hours of the transfer window remained there was surprise rumours that we were about to sign Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given, but it never happened. I guess it could still do though in the so called “emergency loan window”. Cardiff reportedly also tried to capture Preston’s goalie Andy Lonergan earlier this month, so it seems that Dave Jones although having two quality keepers in Tom Heaton and David Marshall is intent not to let any potential injuries or suspensions in that department become a problem in the battle for promotion. I hadn’t thought that much about it and with youngster Jordan Santiago also available should there be a crisis I thought we were well covered.

Andy Keogh joined Danny Drinkwater in being recalled by his club so that they could loan him out to another Championship side, Bristol City, where he’s probably going to get more playing time than at Cardiff. He scored a couple of late, important goals for Cardiff in his months here, but he never looked to make a real impact for us. Sadly he didn’t score in his debut for Bristol City against Swansea yesterday, as the Swans won 2-0!

I feel sorry for Chris Riggott whose short Cardiff career has come to an end bacuse of the injury he picked up in the New Year’s Day defeat at Bristol City. He made a promising debut against Coventry on Boxing Day having just having returned from a serious knee injury he’s been struggling with for two years. Good luck to him, as he now probably has to find something else than professional football to do for a living!

Back to the Reading match, and there were some positives yesterday: Jay Bothroyd getting yet another goal, Chopra looking lively when he came on as sub, an excellent Cardiff comeback for Aaron Ramsey and last but not least the superb free kick by Craig Bellamy in the 95th minute.

Going down 1-2 already into time added on and having been the dominant team in the second half could easily have seen the us fold, but the players showed guts and determination as they kept on going right to the death, and the equalizer and a point was the reward. That’s the sort of attitude that has brought Q.P.R. to the top and a team like Leeds into the promotion mix and is a key to success in the remaining games.

We’ve got to get the defense right when we play Swansea on Sunday.

I can’t bear the thought of another derby day defeat.

Come on you Bluebirds!

This was a very scrappy game with a disappointing result at the end of it.

There are a couple of reasons why I’m not too sad though.

Firstly, I got to watch the game online on FA TV, and win, lose or draw, I always enjoy watching the Bluebirds play! My warm thanks goes to Stephen Fowler and his UK Proxy for placing me virtually in the UK and thereby enabling me to enjoy the stream at thefa.com!

Secondly, yesterday’s replay was more draining than anything for the players. That’s not what we need at the moment with the heat on in the Championship, although Dave Jones did rest players like Bellamy, McNaughton, Whittingham, Olofinjana and Bothroyd (assuming he was fit that is) plus he put Chopra on the bench.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis also let a lot of second string players start, and while on the one hand you would expect there to be a bit less quality on the night considering the team selections, I was on the other hand surprised that there wasn’t more spark and enthusiasm from a lot of those who got their chance. One should think they were eager to prove to their managers that they belong in the starting eleven.

The first half performance from the Bluebirds was about as weak as I’ve ever seen, and I was a bit surprised that neither the players nor City’s manager and coaches failed to see how Cardiff time and time again got stuck on the right hand side when it was obvious that they had to shift play to the left where Stoke seemed more exposed and Lee Naylor had a decent game. I also question why there weren’t any tactical changes when we were trailing by the one goal. Surely we could have put more bodies forward and thereby perhaps have created something? And why did Parkin and not Keogh get substituted when Chopra came on? Why didn’t Jason Koumas even figure on the bench? But I’m not a manager am I, and I expect Dave Jones to have had an answer to all my critical questions!

It was sad that Stephen McPhail got injured (hamstring), but at least that meant a rare outing for Aaron Wildig and gave us the unusual midfield pairing of Wildig and Gavin Rae. The latter did not do much to stake his claim for a place in the team by the way.

I think we should have had a penalty when Michael Chopra went down in the penalty box at the end of normal time and had we gotten a penalty and a goal we surely would have won.

Stoke now go on to play a not too glamorous fourth round tie against Wolves. Cardiff go on to concentrate on the League. I for one am happy with that.

First “the Beast”, although closely marked by an opponent, managed to head the ball coming from Tom Heaton’s goal kick perfectly down to Michael Chopra. Then he broke lose from his marker, who even tried to hold Parkin back by putting his arms around the big man’s waist, before delivering a clinical finish past Norwich’s keeper as Chopra did the only sensible thing and stepped aside leaving the ball as Parkin came storming in.

The attack was like a carbon copy of Norway’s success recipe from the 1990s, loathed by anyone else but Norwegians, where the ball would be hoisted forward to the towering Jostein Flo, and the former Sheffield United player would then either distribute the ball to one of his team mates or finish it off himself.

“The Flo pass” became Norway’s notorious trademark, and although I do not in any way think Cadiff should adapt that style of play, Parkin’s physical prescence up front will give us another dimension in attack. I doubt even Jay Bothroyd is as robust as “the beast”, although the England international of course makes up for it in other departments.

It’s too early to pass judgment on Jon Parkin, whose shaving ratio by the way seems similar to my own, but I expect the new target man will play a big part in Cardiff’s promotion push this season.

I’d looked forward to watching this televised game, but unfortunately I had to shovel snow in stead… As you can tell from the above pictures it was needed to get some snow off our cabin’s roof, and it lead to me following the Norwich match via text messages from the pretty unusual location of a snow covered roof!

The first text message came early on in the game and brought good news to the winter wonderland: 1-0, Jon Parkin! Superb opening from City and great for Parkin to get off to a goalscoring start in his Cardiff City career.

The text message announcing Norwich’s goal came just as we’d finished our snow shoveling and was on our way into the cabin. I was sure it was the text message saying the game was over, so when I heard another message coming in even before I had checked the first one I got a bit worried. It was not the best news to get after five hours of hard work in snowy conditions on a roof, but I guess this was one of those results which you would have gladly taken before the match, can’t complain about from what chances and play there was, but still end up disappointed about because of the late time of the equalizer!

From the highlights at Cardiff City Player and the match reports, 1-1 seems a fair enough result, although both Parkin and Michael Chopra had good chances to increase Cardiff’s goal tally during the game. How the home team’s Russell Martin managed – and I must add was allowed – to score in the last minute of the game from what seemed an impossible angel I don’t know.

Elsewhere Steffen Iversen could not reproduce his magic from his first Crystal Palace appearance, as the Eagles sadly crashed to a 0-3 defeat at our arch rivals and fellow promotion hunters Swansea. Another Norwegian, Abdisalam Ibrahim, who has just joined Scunthorpe on loan from Manchester City, could not stop Leeds from easily winning 4-0 at Elland Road. Petter Vaagan Moen made his full debut for Q.P.R. yesterday against Burnley, but just like Cardiff, the R’s only managed a draw away from home. Table wise this all means that City slipped to third place overtaken by the Jacks and equal on points with both Norwich and Leeds. Further down the table lots of teams are starting to catch up with us as well.

It’s going to be some incredibly exciting last four month’s of the season!

What a convincing win against in-form Leeds, unbeaten since our last meeting back in October when we outplayed them winning 4-0 at Elland Road! Cardiff’s form in the mean time has been quite the opposite, and as the pressure mounted both on the players and manager Dave Jones and teams have started to overtake us in the table, this win meant a very welcome return to second place.

A great eight minute Craig Bellamy goal after a perfect one-two with Peter Whittingham set City off to the perfect start, and in the first half it was all Cardiff. I wonder what those in the crowd not having seen the Bluebirds play since the last home game, the victory against Coventry, made of it all!  It’s pretty hard to fathom how the two catastrophic defeats away at Watford and Bristol City could happen.

In the second half against Leeds Cardiff let the visitors back into the match, and after a clever tactical substitution by Leeds manager Simon Grayson, Leeds’s equalized through a well placed shot by Robert Snodgrass.

Michael Chopra had however had a cup of coffee on the pitch (!) earlier in the game, and the caffein seemed to kick in just at the right time as the striker converted  a perfect Peter Whittingham pass from deep in his own half into another City goal from a difficult angel. Great skill by both players, and with only ten minutes remaining we incredibly managed to hang on to what must be one of the most vital wins this season.

Next up was the third round FA Cup tie away versus Premier League side Stoke City, and I honestly felt beforehand that I wouldn’t bee too sad should we lose. The FA Cup final back in  2008 was nice, but nothing else than promotion matters this season. One could just take a look at Cardiff’s bench against Stoke to see that our current squad is thin and doesn’t need more games than the already tough Championship fixture list provides.

It was good to see Dave Jones rest Bellamy and Olofinjana, and the fact that our starting eleven (with Jay Bothroyd still out injured) was far from our best makes the 1-1 draw pretty impressive. I’d hoped for a Jon Parkin debut, but he still hasn’t recovered from a minor knee injury. Yet again Chops was our goalscorer, and hopefully he’ll shake of his ankle injury to keep on scoring as we go into the decisive second half of the season.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if we beat Stoke in the replay at the Cardiff City Stadium, and then we (probably) face Wolves away – as we did on our way to Wembley back in 2008!

Off the field Sam Hammam is threatening to force his way back into the club. I used to be a fan and admirer of Hammam, but I’m sorry to say that reading about his possible return to Cardiff City, I get nothing but bad feelings. How he through the company Langston was in a legal battle with Cardiff City was not a very pleasant experience, and I think Mr. Hammam should realize that his time at the club is history. Hammam himself says that a return to City would be controversial and that fans would be divided in their view of the matter. At present I’ll admit to being in the anti-Sam camp.

It was sad to see Craig Bellamy hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons again tonight. Although it’s not yet publicly known exactly what happened, it seems I was a bit to hasty in declaring Bellamy’s time as a villain over…

Writing this just minutes after the final whistle I’m trying to take comfort in what Dave Jones said before the game:

“It’ll have a bearing on the season, but it’s not going to be the be-all and we know how we get carried away in this part of the world.”

With Swansea losing yesterday we still have a good grip on the second promotion spot, and although we lost today having been in the lead, there were positives to be taken from the game.

I got to watch the game for free courtesy of bet365.com’s live streaming, and it was good to see us revert to the familiar 4-4-2-formation. Chopra was not surprisingly dropped to the bench after his below par display against Nottingham Forest. Chris Burke was back from injury and took Chops’ place in the starting line up, and he was lively and brilliant in the first half but faded a bit in the second half.

The game started at a frantic pace. There were two attacking sides strutting their stuff at Loftus Road, and a few defensive lapses by City gave cause from concern early on.

You could almost expect Bellamy to score in a top of the table clash like this, and when Bothroyd brilliantly utilized a slip from a Q.P.R. player and delievered the ball to Bellamy – on the brink of off-side – through on goal there was only one outcome – 1-0!

Against the table toppers and the team with the best home record in the division, you knew it wasn’t won though, and not long after a good header from Kaspars Gorkss disappointingly made it 1-1. The replay showed how Bothroyd, back defending, was more concerned pointing and shouting at the other City players who they should mark than concentrating on marking a man himself, so Gorkss got a lot of space and time to put the header in. As the first half went on, Bothroyd didn’t look as sharp as he’s done, and Olofinjana was not quite himself either, which was a bit worrying.

Bothroyd wasted a good chance, then Bellamy cluttered an opponent, and you could sense City was loosing it a bit. When Bothroyd got injured it looked even worse. Luckily he was able to continue, as we all know how miserably we fall apart without him.

As half time approached the tempo was down a few notches, with Q.P.R. having the upper hand. Faurlin tested Heaton with a low, hard shot, but the Cardiff goalkeeper was equal to it. Bellamy and Bothroyd got called over to the referee for a talking too just before the interval, and whatever that was about, it didn’t bode well.

Q.P.R. started best in the second half, but Cardiff was hanging in there and got a good chance when Bellamy set off and combined with Bothroyd. Jason Koumas came on for Danny Drinkwater, but sadly Koumas didn’t provide the creativity and spark that Cardiff needed.

With about twenty minutes of the second half gone Heaton made a terrific save that kept Cardiff in it, but not for very long, as shortly after Q.P.R.’s star player, the impressive Adel Taarabt, stole the ball of Naylor and then made Hudson look rather stupid as he wrong footed him showing some of his technical skills, before putting the ball in the back of the net. Shite…

City showed no signs of lying down, but after a good effort from Burke, Koumas followed up with a poor, poor finish when he really should have done better.

Michael Chopra – the man for the big occasions – came on with about ten minutes left on the clock, but it didn’t help, although Q.P.R. started to loose the ball needlessly more often and surprisingly looked a bit uncomfortable.

The last noteworthy happening in the match was when City was clearly robbed of a penalty as Bothroyd was fouled. Nevertheless I can nothing but congratulate Q.P.R. with the victory, and as I in an earlier post said I hoped this would be the day that we were going to show that we are the best team in the Championship, well, it turned out to be the other way around…

Let’s just hope we’ll join the R’s when they’re promoted come May!

I can’t help but to join the moaning choir: for Cardiff City November is for some strange reason a very bad month. Not even an England International and Craig Bellamy in the team seems to be able to change that. I fear it’s another case of Manager of the Month backlash, as the Cardiff manager winning that award never seems to be a good omen for the next month.

It’s somewhat of a mystery to me why City, sitting on top of the Championship and with the quality players we’ve got, didn’t seem to fire on all cylinders and see off Nottingham Forest at home. I understand Jason Koumas and Michael Chopra were the most notable players to have a bad day on Saturday, and when Bothroyd failed to put away two good chances it just wasn’t our day.

Adding to that, maybe all those people making a point of how Dave Jones seems to be “Plan B-less” are have more of a point than I’ve been willing to admit. Putting Adam Matthews on for Darcy Blake with nine minutes to go and being 0-1 down doesn’t exactly ooze with offensive guts. Perhaps Jones was hoping that some of Matthews’ trademark long throw ins should do the trick?

Next weeks top of the table clash with Q.P.R. in London is turning out to be even more crucial than expected, and with Q.P.R .still unbeaten and with our current form it’s not looking too promising. The only consolation must be that City are actually better away from home and that the motivation shouldn’t be a problem when the Bluebirds enter Loftus Road on Saturday.

I decide to remain optimistic and hope that Saturday will be the day that we show why we’re the best team in the Championship and the coming champions!

It’s been ten days since my last post, and a lot has happened. Most importantly we went to Scunthorpe on Saturday and beat the Iron 4-2, which brought us back to top spot as Q.P.R. drew for the eight time in the Championship this season.

Under a minute had passed when Jay Bothroyd put Cardiff ahead, and after nine minutes Chopra had put Cardiff 2-0 up. What a flying start, and when Bothroyd added a third goal just after the half hour it felt like the three points were already secured. In the Championship there’s no room for complacency though, and as Cardiff took the foot of the gas in the second half Scunthorpe hit back with two goals and memories of the match at Peterborough when Cardiff let a four goal half time advantage slip and ended up drawing 4-4 came to mind. Luckily Olofinjana scored for City shortly after Scunthorpe’s second and that killed the game.

On Wednesday Jay Bothroyd, player of the month in the Championship for October, became the first ever Cardiff City player to play for England. Bothroyd said it was the proudest day of his life, and it’s a great recognition for the club as well to have a player selected for the three Lions. I was watching Norway play against Ireland on the telly, but it was just as exciting to follow the England game on the Internet to see if Jay Bothroyd was coming on for England, and I was so thrilled when he did. England lost to France by two goals to one, and I understand Andy Carroll played well before being replaced by Bothroyd. It of course didn’t help Bothroyd that Peter Crouch, who also came on as a sub, scored with his first touch after coming on, but it was at least Bothroyd who got the corner he scroed from. I think it’ll be vital for Bothroyd’s England future that he plays in the Premier League soon, and as long as he does that as a Cardiff City player then I’m happy!

Michael Chopra seems to have given up becoming an England senior international and will try to get an Indian passport to play for India. It’s always nice to have internationals at the club, but the fact that he might be absent for three games in the New Year as the Asia Cup is being played is of course not so good news.

Dave Jones was named Manager of the Month for October, so congratulations to him for that!

Nottingham Forest is up today and hopefully we’ll see Bothroyd inspired from his England experience guide Cardiff to another victory!

I got sick last night, so my plans for watching the local derby at a pub in Bergen went down the drain so to speak… Watching from my sickbed I witnessed the Bluebirds suffer a deserved but incredibly annoying defeat at the hands of the Jacks.

Maybe things would have been different had Cardiff been awarded a penalty after about fifteen minutes, when Michael Chopra, standing completely still in front of Swansea’s goalkeeper was jumped upon by the custodian, but the referee somehow manged to award a free kick to Swansea. Just another example of the ridiculous over-protection that goalkeepers tend to get from referees is.

It was interesting to see Dave Jones opting for  a 4-4-3-formation in Jay Bothroyd’s abscence, and I was surprised to see Danny Drinkwater go straight into the starting lineup having been out injured for so long.

Going into half time with the score at 0-0 I had a feeling that it would also end 0-0. Both teams seemed solid defensively. If any team looked like scoring during the second half, it was the visitors. Only when an excellent long kick from Tom Heaton found Craig Bellamy and the captain was one-on-one with Swansea’s goalie did I think we should score, and Bellamy perhaps also should have done better with a header that was saved late on. By then City were already trailing 0-1 as  Swansea’s Marvin Emnes did well to score behind Heaton, who didn’t do quite as well in that situation. I’d taken note of the pacey Dutchman Emnes’ loan move to Swansea from Middlesbrough, and how he scored on his debut. I expect him to return to Boro under their new manager Mowbray, but that won’t change the fact that he became match-winner today…

Chris Burke looked great coming on as sub in the second half, and it’s easy in hindsight to ask if he should maybe have started the game.

This was our first home defeat of the season, and it hurts. Swansea were six points behind us, but the gap is now only three points, and Q.P.R. are back on top of the table.

We must win again on Wednesday when we travel to Reading.