Good to know our top league assist maker is useless on the ball. The stats show he has created as many chances as Wharton. I wonder how he managed that if he's useless on the ball.

No offence, but I'm sick of seeing this argument from people. For one thing, we'd currently be trotting out one of the kid goalies, who sound way off the required level, if we hadn't signed Wahlstedt. But moreover, we didn't 'spunk most of our budget on a reserve goalie', we traded to create any budget at all. 2.5 million in, 700k out. Selling Kaminski with no replacement would have been sheer idiocy. Even if Wahlstedt doesn't prove better than Pears (we should see that more clearly over the next couple of games, managers are forever giving players time to settle in, doesn't mean they're seen as second choice long term), it's madness to go through a season with one senior keeper unless you have a prodigy in the youth team. No, we didn't really spend the difference between the fees either, but you can be pretty sure without that money we wouldn't have brought in Moran or Hill either. And the way Buckley went out on loan...who knows who else we would have had to sell or loan to keep our heads above water. The criminals in this window are Venkys, it's plain and simple for me.

Good point actually, I hadn't noticed Pickering wasn't in. Although Carter could be at RB or something.

An AMC who I believe is third top scorer in the league? And scored from that position last match. JDT has been clear he doesn't think Telalovic has adjusted yet.

I think Szmodics has been easily our best player this season. Brittain has played well though since he came in. but it's a fact we've conceded more since then, by quite a lot I believe. Probably resulting in the team being stretched, or could be coincidence, but either way he is also no good to us if he gets injured due to playing too much. Not sure JRC and Wharton is the right combo in midfield either, or at least not to try for the first time when we're away, but we'll see.

Only thing that concerns me is JRC in midfield seemingly, with Wharton, whilst Brittain plays at RB again. We've struggled defensively since JRC stopped playing there. Plus Brittain is injury prone and it was probably a good time to rest him for a match. We also have Garrett and Tronstad more directly suited to replacing Travis.

He still has 2 assists in the league, there are only 6 players in the Championship with more assists (none of them play for us).

Apologies if already mentioned, but I believe this will be the first time two former Premiership champions have met in the second tier? (I meant precisely what I said, don't bother telling me English football existed before the Prem, I'm well aware)

I've never done the Fringe myself, for fear of exactly that kind of experience. Plus it generally costs quite a bit. I'm managing to make a very small living at the moment...I'd be a bit screwed if I didn't save up at a day job for 7 years first, but I'm confident I'll build up to enough to modestly live on within the year. Other jobs are easier in terms of career path, but I've tried that, hated it, and decided I need to pursue what I love. I don't feel too bad for footballers who don't make it because they're doing the same, pursuing a dream that I'm sure they'll have been told is hard to reach. It's a shame but not everyone can make it.

Yeh it's a harsh profession. I'm in a similarly unforgiving one - acting. Apparently 90% of us are unemployed at any given time and only 2% of us make a living from the profession. But much like with football, the rewards for truly making it can be huge. Happens to very few though.

Umm, maybe you...shouldn't?

Cardiff has a population of 360k, with a wider metro population of just under 1.1 million. They have zero competition of note, in fact in the whole of Wales (3 million people) there's only one other side to realistically compete with. Being generous and leaning more towards the 'just Cardiff' figure, it's the equivalent of us taking about 100 fans there. For which I expect we would be roundly mocked. However, it's a great effort from the ones who did go, perhaps that's all you meant? Slightly poor numbers for a city of their size though. Not that I'm one to cast much judgement on attendance figures anyway tbh, they are what they are and people have all sorts of reasons for going or not.

Well if Moran is better than them in that role, he'll break into the team there. Whether he is slow or not will be irrelevant if he's a better option there. If he isn't, he will be invaluable cover and rotation for Szmodics, who is very important to us right now and is bound to get injured and/or fatigued if we flog him playing every match.

Aye that's a terrible estimate. There is no precedent for it, and despite adding in pissing off BE fans (some of whom have confirmed on here they didn't go due to the end closure) and the website ballsing up for ticket sales, they were off by what's that, about 33% ? They don't have a clue.

There didn't look to be many Cardiff fans at all from the footage.

It will still be up because we have a contract with House of Cavani, tbf. I suppose they could reshoot with a player still here, but it's their promotional material so we can't really force them to spend their money doing that. A bit cringe in the first place that a player was selected who was likely leaving.

If we'd done that (if we could even afford that) people would have been asking why we signed some lower league waster instead of taking a chance on an unknown from Europe. Broughton was in attendance last January. You're thinking of Swag. The epitome of how to not be a CEO.

Just had a look at last year's cup run to see how tonight's attendance (5,371) compares. We didn't have a comparable home tie by this stage, but the fact we got a fair bit higher attendance in the first round against Hartlepool (6,844) last season, and Walsall this season (6,173, also first round) suggests tonight's attendance is certainly short of what it would have been without Swag's idiocy.

Given he put a 'like' on the definitely serious comment about it below mine, I don't think there was.

You poor thing. Are you alright? I don't know how you'll recover from something as terrible as swearing.

It's all well and good when the decision-making is solid. But it only takes one error of judgement to give a goal away out of absolutely nothing. These players need to remember they're still in defence and adjust their level of risk accordingly. If in doubt, boot it out.

In absence of the replay, all I have to go off is that it was a Moran assist, and this from the LT feed: Markanday composed strike bounces in off the post. He's been brilliant tonight and deserved a goal!

Well he's definitely the greatest Icelandic player that's played for us...

FT

Not a lot of surprises elsewhere. Looks like it'll be Liverpool, Chelsea, Manure, Arsenal all through. City could be going out to Newcastle, not a huge shock as such, but City have won something like half the League Cups in recent years, so could be a big plus for anyone looking to lift this trophy.