Countdown to Gillingham - Part One

Forget your West Ham’s, your Sunderland’s and a return trip to Elland Road, the biggest game of the season is undoubtedly Gillingham on Saturday.

The Gills are just one point and one position behind City, but have improved somewhat in recent weeks, notably beating fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest last weekend.

City will be without Alan Lee due to the striker being sidelined with a hernia – an injury the Irish international has been carrying for some time.

Bluebirds.tv is still of the opinion that Lee isn’t up to the rigours of Championship football but at least this explains why he has been particularly poor in his last few games.

What is even more mind boggling is that Lennie persisted with selecting a player, unable to participate unless dosed up on painkillers and unfit to spearhead an already goalshy attack, when other strikers who could do a job for City are being transferred around for peanuts.

Lower league goal machine Luke Beckett left Stockport to join Sheffield United in a £50,000 deal which allowed Jack Lester to leave Brammall Lane and move to Nottingham Forest for the same fee.

While Lester’s record isn’t that great, Beckett boasts a record of marginally better than two goals every five matches.

He also has a record of one every other in the FA Cup and two every three in the League Cup – in short, the lad scores goals and City have missed out on a bargain.

Other players such as Stuart Elliott from Hull and Bournemouth’s James Hayter have both scored over 10 goals in League One this season and Luton’s bustling forward Steve Howard is interesting Nottingham Forest.

None of these players would break the bank to sign and would add some spark to our pathetic front line.

Even if Peter Thorne and Richard Langley are able to feature on Saturday, Lennie must stop bleating on about ‘addressing problems’ to the press this week and concentrate on bringing in capable reinforcements, with a creative midfielder and striker a priority.

In the words of Elvis Presley – a little less conversation, a little more action.

Please.

Winning Formation - Lennie Take Note!

"Announcing the first post by Jon, a harsh, JD fuelled and usually unfair columnist who has more lip than Leslie Ash and longs for the day Tony Scully returns to Ninian Park…" David

Another home defeat for Lennie's laggers, this time against the very poor Preston, whose away form prior to the game was well documented.

But let's not dwell on the defeat, let's look to the future.

Saturdays game at Queen's Park Rangers, who have won five of their last six at Loftus Road, against Cardiff's five draws and two defeat's on their travels.

What should City do?

I have visions of Lennie’s prehistoric brain ticking over. He must surely be considering playing his friend Andy Campbell on the left wing.

After all, he has scored against QPR before hasn't he?

Being an avid "Football Manager" (Two League Championships in two seasons with Sheffield Wednesday) I would like Lennie to start playing to our strengths. Oh wait, we haven't got any.

Or have we?

Wouldn't it be nice to see Lennie try something a bit different? Granted the away form hasn't been too bad, but that is mainly down to the now departed O'Neil, who we have now seen the last of following his Premiership goal.

So why don't City try a 4-2-3-1 formation?

A defence comprising Williams, Gabbiddon, Collins and Barker with the gritty, yet quality-lacking Boland and Bullock just in front of them.

Paul Parry, Joe Ledley and Jobi McAnuff, who can break quickly on a counter attack, provide the ammunition from midfield.

Unfortunately our lone striker would be Alan "go to ground" Lee, but if he was capable of holding it up for the attacking trio, then City could have a system which should help them grind out a few victories at home and on the road.

Life After O'Neil?

In the past week or so, Bluebirds.tv has seen the best and worst of Cardiff City. For weeks the campaign for fast, flowing football looked set to go unanswered until City tore through an ageing Leicester City side but could not manage to score.

Bluebirds.tv was not much more optimistic when West Ham turned up on a cold Tuesday evening, but City proved the performance a few days before was no fluke and treated the 17,000+ crowd to the best game of football seen at Ninian Park for the best part of a year.

It was no surprise that on-loan England under 21 captain Gary O’Neil was at the heart of two gutsy performances, with City playing like a team set to escape from this division rather than doing their best to remain in it.

O’Neill was a revelation. End of. Bluebirds.tv, like many others, was disappointed to see him recalled by Portsmouth, but surely the success of this football club cannot depend on a player that doesn’t even belong to us - one man doesn’t make a team.

Even without O’Neil pulling the strings in midfield, the club still has enough quality to cover in his absence and be able to cause an upset in the Carling Cup? It’s only Portsmouth after all, and half of their team is out?
Right?

Wrong.

Without O’Neil in the side City looked lost. Outplayed and outclassed by a makeshift Pompey side on the same night Watford smashed five past Southampton.

Midfielder Graham Kavanagh is a target for ‘boo boys’ this season and most of it is unwarranted. When playing alongside O’Neil, Kavanagh was superb and against West Ham, when every player earned his inflated salary for a change, Kav was one of the best on the pitch.

Many still think of Kavanagh as a marauding, attacking midfielder who creates chances and leads by example, and then turn on him when he doesn’t live up to expectation.

The plain and simple fact is Kav is no longer an attacking midfielder, his best work is done in a defensive role, which was why he played so well with O’Neil.

When playing alongside Willie Boland, the archetypal midfield grafter, the pair do not compliment eachother and there was the unusual situation of Boland trying to fulfil an attacking midfielder role while Kavanagh stayed back.

Unless Sam finds some money under the bed to buy O’Neil, or can persuade Harry Redknapp to allow him back to Ninian Park on loan, City’s midfield is likely to struggle again and the club will be dragged back into the relegation zone after working so hard to escape from it.

There is a chance though, that Richard Langley could fill the void O’Neil left. An attacking midfielder he was at QPR and a damn fine one at that. Paul Parry has been given a chance up front, so why not try Langers in his natural role when he returns from injury?