Five Star Bothroyd Key To Cardiff City

Cardiff City striker Jay Bothroyd netted his fifth goal in five appearances this season and looked to have booked City a place in the third round of the Carling cup until a spirited Posh fightback saw the Bluebirds overcome.

Bothroyd's first half header from a Koumas cross was his fifth goal of the season, and followed an emphatic brace last time out in a 4-0 win over Doncaster Rovers.

It was Bothroyd who netted the equaliser in the season opener against Sheffield United, showing excellent composure to keep his shot down and beat the covering defenders on the line after Chopra had drawn Simonsen out of position.

Bothroyd has been criticised somewhat for a lack of goals in his time at CCFC. However, his overall contribution to the team is first rate and he has been our most important performer holding up possession, linking play and bringing our dangerous strikers/widemen like Chopra, Burke and Whittingham into play.

Bothroyd netted a decent haul of 11 league goals last season (plus two in the Cup), whilst also chipping in with 12 goals in the previous campaign. It seems extrmely harsh to criticise this record, especially given the nature of his role and the number of assists he contributed for Chopra, McCormack etc.

This season he has started on fire, and is alreay a third of the way to 15 goals, a realistic yet ambitious target for a targetman. Bothroyd is no mere targetman however, and his quality and touch is evident in every game. Hopefully he can continue this fine scoring run and chip in regularly with goals. Particularly pleasing are the two headed goals in successive matches - he has scored relatively few of these, despite his aerial prowess, but with Chris Burke, Koumas and co. providing the crosses, this represents a good opportunity for plenty of Bluebirds goals this season.

Keep it up Jay!

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