Ten-Up Taylor Hopes To End Cardiff City Jinx

Cardiff City have struggled to find a long term successor to the departed Neil Alexander who fell out with Dave Jones and was not offered a satisfactory deal with the Bluebirds. A string of keepers have since come and gone while the loan capture of Stuart Taylor from Aston Villa makes it (by my reckoning) 10 goalkeepers since July 2007 when Alexander departed.


Ross Turnbull, Mark Howard and David Forde were undoubtedly disasters. Howard played just once and had an awful debut while Turnbull really struggled in his short stint before being sent back to Middlesborough. Dimi Konstantopoulos looks set to fall into this category with two horrific gaffes in his handful of games and he looks unlikely to feature again.


Michael Oakes, Peter Enckelman and Tom Heaton have all had extended runs in the side and have not let us down. Doubts remain over the pedigree of all three, and none made the position their own whilst at the club. Heaton and Encks are still here but both injured at present.


The only major success story of Dave Jones’ keepers has been Kasper Schmeichel. The Dane was on loan from Manchester City last season but chose to return in January 2008 ratehr than extend his Bluebirds stay. He put in some quality displays, saving a penalty against Hull City and pulling off an unbelievable stop against Coventry City from point blank range.


Now Stuart Taylor has joined and arrives with a solid reputation. He did nothing wrong against Bristol City looking confident, assured and decisive. A long sange effort from Carey was well paarried, and pushed well wide of goal to safety. Another double save from close range was impressive while his kicking was far superior to the majority of what we have witnessed this season.


It’s certainly not ideal to have two established keepers injured and be bringing in new players at this stage of a promotion chasing season. However, Taylor looks a safer bet than many and we must hope that Dave Jones has finally found a man to trust in between the sticks.