‘Will City make it five wins in a row?’

The international break has given players and fans of Championship clubs an overdue break from the rough and frantic tumble of day-to-day life in England’s second tier of its footballing pyramid. unlike most Premier League teams, City only had six of their number away fulfilling their nations’ call of duty, so, hopefully most of the squad has had time to relax after what must have been a shattering seven games in twenty two days prior to the break. 

We now face five games in 15 days starting with the annoyingly named ‘Sevenside derby’ on Friday night. The match will see us pitted against our old foe, Neil Warnock. His recent comments regarding his respect for our club must surely be taken with a pinch of salt as we all know he has had it in for us ever since the so called ‘phantom goal’ his side didn’t score all those years ago. 

I mention the amount of games that Championship teams have to play as there are a couple of things worth mentioning in relation to this matter. At this time last season we were still under the stewardship of Cotterill, who, it’s fair to say, was pretty terrified of any type of change, be it formation, starting line-ups or personnel during a match. I appreciate that our squad is much stronger now but it hasn’t escaped my notice that the rotation has really helped us look fresh and in part accounts for our strong start thus far this season. 

Anyway, back to Warnock. I can only see it as a sign of desperation from Cardiff City to appoint the Championship’s number on trouble shooting manager who did so well with Rotherham last season. For reasons that were never too clear Warnock left the Millers having completed the great escape and now finds himself at the whim of that Bond-like villain and immensely unpopular owner Vincent Tan. I am sure he will do well for them but I would lose no sleep if they were to drop down a division. 

Before I go on I want to have a quick rant/moan at the powers that be for their scheduling of this fixture. As we know for the past couple of years these games have been subject to the so-called ‘bubble’ treatment whereby travelling fans are made to make their way to the fixture communally and under police escort on designated travel services. 

This year’s fixture has no travel restrictions whatsoever for away fans, a welcome change for sure. However, the game is on a Friday night, which surely must be the highest risk time to schedule a game that has in previous years been seen, rightly so, as a high risk fixture. Once again we see the power of the TV companies, Sky to be exact, exhorting their power over common sense and no doubt the will of the Police. 

So, back to football. If we can continue our fine before the international break City will make it five wins in a row, a feat which, I am guessing here, hasn’t been done for some time, at least since the League One winning season of 2014/15. A vital part of us building on that run will of course be the form of the near god-like Tammy Abraham. His England Under 21 exploits have seen calls from some Chelsea fans to recall him to his parent side but thankfully City’s new found business acumen does not allow for any recall clause. Fingers crossed for three points across the bridge!