No Chelsea for Bothroyd - Fulham mabye

Fulham are still in the market for a striker and have been linked with Jay Bothroyd before but with pressure on Fulham’s boss Mark Hughes the seach has intensify.

The rumour has Millwall’s striker Steve Morison with a foot in the door for a spot in Fulham starting line-up but still Bothroyd is been linked.

With the rumour of Bothroyd and Chelsea cooling by the minute after comments from Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti. He himself is under pressure to save his job but when asked at an after match press conference simply rubbished the whole idea. Could Fulham be has close has he gets to Chelsea.

The Bank Holiday fixtures that matter

The games of some importance to Cardiff City and their fan over the next few days before there holiday from League football for the 3rd Round FA Cup games.

Monday, 3 January - QPR v Bristol City, 3pm
Monday, 3 January - Leicester v Swansea, 3pm
Monday, 3 January - Middlesbrough v Norwich, 3pm
Tuesday, 4 January - Cardiff v Leeds, 7:45

With Cardiff now fifth in the league there is a pack of four clubs chasing down Cardiff. There is a gap of four to five points between Watford, Millwall, Burnley and Coventry. Wins for any of them tomorrow will make for a nervy bunch of Cardiff City fans tomorrow who have to wait until Tuesday night to see there future. Defeat against Leeds will pile the pressure on the club and with the possibility of the Malaysians in town will intensive the cry for 'Jones Out'.

Comminges now at Southend

Good to see Cardiff City defender Miguel Comminges as found a new club after signing for Southend United. He signed on a free transfer until the end of the season.

He has just come back to Cardiff after a loan spell with Carlisle United having only played 45minutes.

He would have better off if he would have stay at his previous than join Cardiff. Pre to join Swindon he was with French team Reims where in four season he played 74 time only to be plucked out of Swindon after at the end of his first season by City boss David Jones.

Truth by told, he never real looked a Cardiff City player and soon found himself sliding down the pecking order among the defenders. From 2008 until today he made 35 appearances mainly earlier in his career at Cardiff and opening rounds of the cup games, injuries also played there part in his time with Cardiff.

I wish him lucky

Chelsea in the chase for Bothyord.

All the news in the Sunday nationals is surrounding the Cardiff City striker Jay Bothroyd and the possibility of a transfer.

Clubs are lining up like a tail back on the M4 with the number of rumoured parties interested. Chelsea and West Ham are two that the forefront of the chatter today. With Bothroyd out of contract in the summer the papers are suggesting a fee of £2million could see City willing to release their star striker. It as to be said that if I was chairman I would sale any player who could walk for free come the summer if the price was right. If he is fit to play Tuesday there should be a good sprinkling of scouts about the Cardiff City Stadium.

Chelsea chairman Roman Abramovich is not putting his hand in his pockets to deeply these days but £2million would not to much strain on the Chelsea budget.

Cardiff boss Dave Jones wants to keep him believing Bothroyd could help in the push for promotion. The problem with that is that if Cardiff final, he will walk for sure and for free, good for him bad for Cardiff City.

Paddy super show not quite enough.

The R's looked to extend their unbeaten festive run of results against a Norwich side that were missing a number of first team regulars. So could Rangers' make it three out of three?

Our designated driver for the day, Jenson, had to pull out due to unforeseen circumstances so the gang took to the road in three cars as PK and Lofty drove themselves and in my car I was joined by Sam, Luke and Matt.
After a clear run to our meeting point the gang were united at "The World Famous Comfort Cafe. After Lofty and PK has eaten their cooked breakfasts we set off in convoy fashion with me leading the way followed by Lofty and PK. Shortly after leaving the cafe Sam declared that she had a bad feeling about today and that we were gonna lose, the rest of us in the car scoffed at the idea and tried to put some positive vibes back into our journey. After nearly losing PK at a few sets of traffic lights we all arrived safely in the County Hall car park and took the short walk to the ground and once we got there Matt went off to do his work for the official website report whilst the rest of us went off to brave the cold air and warmed up with a nice beer. PK was a bit adventurous and decided to try one of Delia's pork, apple and cider pies whilst Lofty and myself took the sensible route by opting for the cornish pasty. After having a chat to Michael on the concourse whilst watching the WBA v Man United game about our thoughts on the game, we made our way up to our seats to be greeted with the team news.

Neil Warnock was forced into one change with Tommy Smith unable to play due to his loan conditions, the transfer is due to be made permanent for 3rd January, it was the shock inclusion of Leon Clarke that got everyone talking and not many positive words were said.



The opening exchanges were fairly even but disaster struck on nine minutes when Chris Martin was allowed to run through the R's midfield and get a shot in which was blocked by Clint Hill but the rebound rolled into the path of Russell Martin and with all the space to control and then hit a sweet drive into the back of the net. We could've twice denied this opportunity if we had closed down Chris Martin earlier on before allowing him to dance through everyone and then secondly Leon Clarke could've closed down Russell Martin a lot quicker and possibly blocked his shot also.
The goal gave Norwich the confidence to go on and create further chances and also played a lot of keep ball to frustrate the R's in the chase. Too much time was given to Norwich in the midfield and Wes Hoolahan was proving to be a menace when attacking us and it was he that set up a glorious chance for Holt to score a second for Norwich as he danced down the R's right and centred to an unmarked Holt but he couldn't get a good contact on it and fluffed his side foot wide.

Rangers' were lucky to go in at the break just one down and in fairness in could've been two or three.
Lofty and PK made their way downstairs for a half time cuppa whilst me, Sam and Luke stayed in our seats to check out the latest scores and we were delighted to hear that Leeds had drawn with Middlesborough and Cardiff were losing at Bristol City, results were going our way so we needed to wake up and try to capitalise.



Rangers' made two half time substitutions with Clint Hill and Heidar Helguson making way for Bradley Orr and Patrick Agyemang.
Just five minutes into the half and the R's were dealt with another massive blow.
Holt broke clear, albeit with a lot of help with his hand, and as Matt Connolly got close the pair tangled, well Holt is well known for going down easily as well, and unfortunately for the R's defender the handball by Holt was not seen but instead he was the one on the receiving end of being penalised and was given a red card as he was the last man.
Despite the sending off Warnock decided to keep the faith and the final substitution was made on 62 minutes when Taarabt, who was started to get kicked around, came off just after receiving a yellow card and Georgios Tofas replaced him.
The space left by Connolly's departure was being exploited on a number of occasions and if it wasn't for Paddy Kenny on a number of occasions then we could've been on the end of a cricket score.
However in the last 15 minutes the R's began to find their feet and put plenty of pressure on the home side despite their numerical advantage.
Agyemang came the closest when he rose to head a cross from the left onto the bottom of the Norwich post and saw the ball go wide.

All in all having finished the game so strongly you can only be proud of the Rangers' side that battled away during the second half and the difference that Agyemang made when he came on was there to see. I, along with many other R's fans are wondering what Leon Clarke brings to the table as today he turned in another shocking performance yet still managed to stay on the pitch for 90 minutes whilst we have Rob Hulse sat on the bench.

Today's Man of the Match was an easy one to pick for us and the unanimous vote goes to...... Paddy Kenny for the number of times he saved us today and if it wasn't for him then we would've lost by six or seven.

Norwich City: Ruddy, Martin, Drury, Nelson, Whitbread, Crofts, Holt, Hoolahan, Martin, Smith, Wilbraham (Gill 82).

Subs: Rudd, Jackson, Johnson, McNamee, Tudor Jones, Askou.

Goals: R. Martin (9)

QPR: Kenny, Hill (Orr 46), Derry, Taarabt (Tofas 62), Clarke, Helguson (Agyemang 46), Faurlin, Mackie, Gorkss, Walker, Connolly.

Subs: Cerny, Rowlands, Hulse, Borrowdale.

Bookings: Hill (41)

Red Cards: Connolly (51)

Referee: Mr J Moss

Attendance: 26, 273


Having left the ground we waited for a good 25 minutes for Matt to re-emerge from the press box so we could take the walk up the hill to join the masses of traffic trying to get out of the car park. After a good 20 minutes of further chatting we then decided to brave it and try to escape and alas we did 10 minutes later!
Once we reached the A11 the convoy was broken as Lofty zoomed off into the distance and I was quick to follow him as we left PK to enjoy his drive home. After a few overtaking exchanges it was lofty that narrowly beat us to the checkpoint as he filtered off to go home, a fun way to end the day.

Parkin signs and City drop to fifth

Today’s game becomes history the second the final whistle was blown at Aston Gate in my book. I will have a chat about the game with my Dad and watch 'The Football League Show' in the morning about my mind is on Tuesday night and the visit of Leeds.

When will this bad run turn? Or is it the tired mind of a tired manager who is the problem. November, December and now could we see the same in January? Manager in, manager out and then there is Leeds.

Cardiff have a new player, but I can’t see people dancing in the street with the news. Preston striker Jon Parkin joined the Bluebirds for an undisclosed but it was earlier reported to be round £100,000. For a striker to command a fee around that figure even if he could walk away free in the summer seems worryingly low.

Without Jay Bothroyd in the starting line-up the goals dried up from the forwards. In fact since the Preston game that saw Bothroyd off injury early in the first Cardiff have score only two goals in five games, Andy Keogh against Preston and Peter Whittingham against Watford. Fans hope to have Jay Bothroyd back for the Leeds game, will Parkin start or sit on the bench. Earlier in the season he scored an hat-trick against Leeds for Preston.

O'Brien staying at Leeds

Andy O’Brien will not be facing is old team mates at Leeds on Tuesday night as a deal as been done between Bolton and Leeds.

On the official Leeds United website Ken Bates said:

"I met with Andy on Friday and despite a tempting offer from Cardiff, he has agreed to join us on a two-and-half-year deal which we are delighted about."

He signed a two-and-a-half year contract with the Elland Road club after reports suggested he held with Cardiff on Thursday and was close to signing for the Bluebirds.