Here's to a great February!

NOW THE REAL SEASON BEGINS.

3 league defeats and 1 FA Cup win since my last post, and we now find ourselves rooted to the bottom of the Premier League. This is not the time to panic, as I always feared we would be in the bottom 3 at this time of year following our last 4 away fixtures - Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United. What was more disappointing was the 2-0 home defeat to West Ham, a team now above us in the table.

However, all is not yet lost. Ole has brought in a number of new players and shuffled his squad around. We have now signed Norwegian international Jo Inge Berget and former Manchester United left back Fabio. Also, on transfer deadline day, the exciting former Crystal Palace player Wilfried Zaha has been signed on loan for the rest of the season from Manchester United. Lets hope he can recapture some of the form which led to his £18m price tag. The team now has Ole’s stamp on it. Ironically, the combination of 2 away games that we were unlikely to win, separated by a winning FA cup tie at Bolton, has meant that he has had time to look at his team without too much pressure on them, and work out the best way to play.

The performances against the Manchester clubs were respectable, and the win at Bolton was more than acceptable. But now the team really has to step up in February. We have 3 home league games and the “Big One” part 2 - the away trip to Swansea. In addition there is the home FA Cup 5th round match to holders Wigan - another winnable game. Of course, the main problem is that none of the teams in February are exactly safe from relegation either, so starting with our home game tomorrow against Norwich, we really must start winning.

Matches since my last post:-

CARDIFF 0 WEST HAM 2

MANCHESTER CITY 4 CARDIFF 2

BOLTON 0 CARDIFF 1 (FA Cup)

MAN UNITED 2 CARDIFF 0

Steve Caulker challenges against West Ham (pic by Jon Candy)  

The result against West Ham was obviously very disappointing. However, the team kept attacking and on another day might easily have won 3-1. Sadly, this did not happen and a very late West Ham goal made the scoreline more convincing than should have been the case.

Craig Noone and David Silva

We didn’t give in easily at the Etihad against Manchester City, even though they have won every home league game this year. A Craig Noone equaliser gave us some hope for a few minutes, before the Manchester City strike-force re-asserted their authority.

Fraizer Campbell and Aron Gunnarsson celebrate the only goal of the game against Bolton.

The Bolton FA Cup match was a welcome distraction, and despite a slightly lucky goal we just about deserved to go through to the last 16.

Mark Hudson and goalkeeper David Marshall fail to stop Robin van Persie opening the score at Old Trafford.

Yet again, a creditable effort at Old Trafford against Manchester United, but unfortunately no reward.

TIME TO GET MOVING!

I’m pretty sure that by the end of February, we will have a pretty good idea about whether we can avoid relegation. Lets hope our new players can prise open the Norwich City defence tomorrow.

BLUEBIRDS!