Cardiff City at home will be another testing game for Lee Bowyer and his depleted first team squad. Injuries and suspensions have bitten hard, especially with the experienced trio of Gardner, Woods and Colin missing. Add long term Tahith Chong to that list and it makes reasonable sense to offer sympathy to our popular manager and his backroom team.

After Cardiff we will have at least two midfielders return which will undoubtedly beef up that fragile area of the team. However, tea and sympathy has to end there as the Christmas period and early New Year must see an improved consistency in terms of points gained and a real purpose to climb the table.

We as supporters need that old phrase ‘hope and belief’ for 2022. What we desperately want to avoid at all costs is another survival season. Do we have the players is the key question though, and my opinion is that we do. But it is crucial that senior players start providing proper leadership. Gardner, Woods and Dean, together with Deeney, Hogan and Jutkiewicz should be any match for most Championship sides that Blues face. Last Saturday after the Millwall collapse, Troy Deeney gave me the impression post-match that some of the players went missing. This is exactly what needs to be said.

Cardiff have their own injuries and suspension to deal with, so my hope is that we match up to what is an important game for both teams. Troy Deeney knows what is required to be a winner, and hopefully he can transfer this confidence on to his team mates. Above all, my point is this. Once players are back, they should repay the faith Lee Bowyer has entrusted in them. Nobody should go missing on the pitch, and if they have to take an example of how Millwall outfought us last Saturday then so be it.

So far this season fans, including myself, have been very understanding and dare I say it rather kind towards the team. But now is the time for consistency and to give us supporters something to enjoy as we enter the second half of the season. Feel good factor is what we want, and that can only be achieved by a winning…or at the very least a determined and competing…Lee Bowyer side. The surrender at Millwall was unacceptable and a clear warning of how damaging things can happen if you lower your guard and let standards slip.

Mitchell Bray

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