Purse & Bothroyd Heroes For Cardiff City

Cardiff City ground out another hard-fought win last night to move up to third place in the Championship. Everyone contributed to the evening though for me there were two stand-out players:


1) Darren Purse

Pursey was immense last night – constantly on hand to clear danger and was especially dominant in the air, no mean feat against the threat of Ben Burgess. Time and time again Purse rose higher and got good distance on his clearances. Also noticable was that he looked assured and relaxed in contrast to recent seasons. Purse deserved his man-of-the-match award despite being rated doubtful only 1 day before the game.


2) Jay Bothroyd

There was no more important player to the manner of our win last night than Jay Bothroyd. It’s easy to under-estimate what he does for the side, especially with McCormack netting goals alongside him. Jay did brilliantly in the channels yesterday, not out wide as he sometimes tends to do but in dangeroud areas he showing brilliant control and composure to hold up possession and find space until support arrived.

Bothroyd created the first with some neat skill but he did it all evening and really put in a good shift. I was also impressed by his aerial prowess against the big Blackpool defence – he won his fair share and was unlucky several times with referee’s decisions.




Perhaps I’m being unfair to the likes of Parry, Johnson and McCormack who all contributed heavily last night. Heaton, McNaughton and Ledley were all solid but the two that turned this from a draw to a win for me, were Purse and Bothroyd. Keep it up!