“Soccer is the biggest thing that’s happened in creation. It’s bigger than any ‘ism’ you can name.”

By: Martyn | September 12th, 2008

So said Alan Brown, presumably long before this era and process of mundane international qualifiers. The biggest story/ordeal Cardiff City wise during the international fortnight was the sudden retirement of Paul Parry from international duty. Now every man and his dog has had his say on this piece, so I won’t further flood the topic and its feedback. I’ll add a few drips and drops however by noting that first and foremost Paul Parry is a Cardiff City FC player and all talk of booing him is absolutely beyond belief. Anything that will prove detrimental to the club and its staff should be avoided at all costs and I for one will treat Parry with the adulation most sane City fans do and have done for the last couple of years during tomorrow’s home encounter with Bristol City. Speaking of league encounters, here are the next 4 Championship games the Bluebirds will partake in. With the benefit of seeing how every team has started - including my own - and is settling or not settling down, I’ll analyse what I believe the points return should be from these games.

13/09/08
Bristol City (H)

Bristol City find themselves unbeaten like ourselves, the only difference being that they’ve managed to replace one of the excess draws we’ve scraped with a win. Bristol City will pass, will labour, and will create one or two decent chances, but if Ross McCormack, Joe Ledley and Paul Parry aren’t suffering from international break hangovers - and the rest of the team is actually fit enough! - then we have the potential to trouble the away team in a far more potent manner. Home advantage is exactly that at Ninian Park, so perhaps the cliché of throwing the form-book out of the window can be applied here? With both fans eager to secure victory against a rival and semi-neighbour, our promotion aspirations can only be quenched with victory here. 3 points

16/09/08
Barnsley (A)

Perish the thought that a match preview of this game won’t be prefaced with the words “Last season’s FA Cup Semi-Finalists…” This game will be 3 million miles away in terms of quality expected from teams recently competing at the Semi-Final stage of the FA’s flagship and overly-romanticized competition. In spite of a victory over Derby County (though let’s be honest, haven’t we all mentally added 6 points to our totals already bearing in mind the ineffectualness of the Rams?), Barnsley haven’t exactly leapt out of bed at the first sign of a piercing tone from their alarm clock. If the Tykes keep on gurgling the sleepy phrase “Jhush fii’ mor minishs, yeeeeeh?” they’ll find themselves at the point of no return sooner rather than later. Our last two ties with this Yorkshire side have seen us notch 4, whilst being breached 0. Manager Simon Davey is adamant that his team are better this year than they were in the 07/08 campaign, but silly and regular mistakes are making a mockery of Davey’s perceptions thus far and genuine promotion contenders have taken advantage of such tardiness and discrepancies. Of 8 league and cup games we played on a Tuesday last season, 5 were draws at the final whistle of open play. Nevertheless, by the end of this game that F/A chart shouldn’t be delving below +4 to us. 3 points

20/09/08
Derby County (A)

Now, several lines previously I may have bashfully and perhaps arrogantly indicated that I’d already pencilled in 6 points from our two matches with this Midlands side this season. This comment I must now amend because it was wholly in jest… Honest! Regardless, I would not accept anything less than a point from this game given the fact that teams such as Doncaster and Barnsley have succeeded in swiping all three points from County, and when exactly is better to kick a lion than when it’s lying on the floor wounded and placid? Obviously this game is stiff to predict without the knowledge of how County fared in the two matches preceding this game (Sheffield United and Swansea). Failure to win either of these will have seen the Rams go a year without a victory in the league, and with it a P45 Jewell residence bound. However should they win, a new mentality may be found in, about and around the club. A positive one. This aside, I still don’t think one or even two victories will take away the hasty understanding and unfamiliar individual and collective style(s) of play that are/is trying to be thrust upon a squad of losers and newbies. This game of course is the support act to the diva that is the Carling Cup tie of Swansea City-Cardiff City a few days later. I very much doubt that that game will be playing on the players mind, but fans will be praying none of our big guns are injured for a tie that is more about local pride than getting anywhere in the Fizzy Crappy Lager Cup. 1 point

27/09/08
Birmingham City (H)

Along with the Sheffield United away game, our toughest test so far. Casting my mind back to last season, we secured an excellent home point against the league’s best team/squad WBA. Anything similar from this game will be a major plus. The last time we played Brum at home provided one of the best performances and results seen at Ninian Park in recent years: A 2-0 victory cemented our position at the top of Championship pile and indicated that not only were we challengers, but attractive-playing challengers. Naturally it all went pear-shaped eventually, but memories of that game and that moment in time still gets the fantasist in me going! This game will be characterised most likely by either a victorious/down in the dumps hangover post-Swansea game, constant abuse and booing for turncoat Marcus Bent and Cameron ‘Big Club’ Jerome, crucial set-pieces, and a large sprinkling of quality and brilliance - most likely from the opposition. A team with Kevin Phillips in pretty much guarantees a goal, so let’s hope we score first so the diminutive hitman can only snatch an equaliser. 1 point

___________________________________________________

So there you have it - 8 points from the next 4 games will be an ample return in my mind. Now it’s time for team to step up to the plate and deliver! Or stand and do it, as Mr Ant might well declare!