Cardiff City Play-By-Player Review: McNaughton

May 2006, from Aberdeen

Was he really a free transfer from Aberdeen?!? Super Kev has had another outstanding season, this time playing at right-back while he has looked solid, dependable and consistent. His reliability afforded the likes of Whittingham and Parry more license to attack and he ably supported when possible.

This season, McNaughton has added a new goalscoring dimension to his game. Well, perhaps that`s an overstatement but we saw a brilliant volley against Hereford Utd in the cup to open the account. That goal opened the floodgates and was followed by another on the final day of the league season with another screamer. Well, in fact Luke Steele dropped a cross over his own line leaving Kev looking embarrassed but they all count!

It`s hardly surprising that McNaughton is now attracting admiring (unwanted!) glances from the Premiership but he is a key player in our squad and is only young. He deserved his Scottish call-up and the 'dangermouse` costume is now legendary amongst CCFC players and fans alike. Kev`s other major contribution this season was smuggling crates of red wine onto the team-bus after the FA Cup semi-final win leading to his co-writing of Steve Thompson`s FA Cup song 'Do The Ayatollah`.

There is surely even more to come from McNaughton and his pelationship with his central defenders is growing all the time. One potential weakness is his proneness to injury with hamstrings a particular worry. Numerous times he was forced off and we had no like-for-like cover but overall an excellent season for the Scotsman.


Season rating: 8