‘Bothroyd Bottled It’ – Absolute Rubbish.

Cardiff City fans are some of the most proud, passionate and loyal around. Personally I would swap the vast majority of our faithful for those at any other club, but there’s no doubting that we as a group are overly critical, demanding and sometimes staggeringly ignorant.

Ever since the crushing 3-2 defeat on Saturday, certain fans have been looking for conspiracies, scapegoats and excuses but for me, there simply aren’t any. We failed to deal with Blackpool defensively, and had no plan B to hit back after the break. It’s not like these are new observations – that’s been the story all season! Yes we were poor defensively, were Blackpool outstanding?? Definitely not. In the end it came down to passion, exuberance and that little bit of luck.

For fans muttering that Bothroyd ‘bottled it’ and went off – that is a completely unjust accusation. In fact, Bothroyd has played most of the season with a knee injury, using painkilling injections to get through games knowing he was potentially doing more damage. He had been struggling with a calf problem throughout the week, but was passed fit to play.

Those who have suffered calf tears know it can just happen, one moment you feel tightness, the next you can barely move. It was clear Jay’s mobility had suffered, but such was his imporatnce to the team he was risked even when not fully fit and I’m thankful he gave it a go. We never looked the same after he departed, and the game (not necessarily the result) would certainly have been different if he’d stayed on.

Most of all, I’m gutted for the player himself. Jay has admitted his attitude has not been perfect in the past, but he has been a revelation as a Cardiff City player and found new motivation and just oozes class on the pitch. What fans conveniently forget is that he too would have loved that occasion, proving former clubmates, managers and teams wrong – Wembley is a fitting place for Bothroyd’s game and he would have been gutted to miss out.

I have heard there were words between Bothroyd and Jones after the game, and that Jay may even be on his way out but there have been words between the pair in 90% of training sessions, and during/after most games! Jones always feels Jay could have and should have given more… only Jay knows how much pain he was in, and for me if was an unfortunate, gutting and ever-so-untimely injury. Gutting for the player, fans and club alike.

Jay Bothroyd has given an awful lot to the Cardiff City cause this season, to discredit him because of an injury is ridiculous – everyone saw how we play without him, would we have made the play-offs if he’d sat out the last 3 months of the season with that knee injury? Absolutely not.