Bad luck has certainly played a part in the goalkeeping department with injuries to two keepers who, by and large, have done fine for us so far this season. At the start of the season with Enckelman and Heaton fit and available for us for the whole campaign, you would have got long odds for us having to recruit a third keeper because of serious injuries to both of them, but that having happened, what of the bloke we have brought in to cover in their absence?
Because I didn't want to start having a go at someone on here before they had kicked a ball for us, I didn't say what I thought of Dimi when it was announced he was coming here, but friends of mine would confirm that I thought that, having watched his career develop, he was an accident waiting to happen.
Now, to be fair to Dimi, a couple of things need to be said. Firstly, although it is good that you can now see action from every game that is played in the Football League, it is bad news for keepers because all you ever get to see of them is the goals they let in (some of which are directly down to their mistakes). Secondly, if a goalkeeper by the name of Demitrios Konstantopoulos is featured on telly letting in a soft goal, you tend to remember it more than you would do if it had been someone called Fred Smith who had made the cock up!
That said though, I can remember Konstantopoulus howlers being a fairly regular feature of his time at Hartlepool on programmes like Goals on Sunday and I must admit to being surprised when it emerged that teams from the Championship (including us apparently) were looking to sign him when his contract at Hartlepool was running out.
However, the fact that Coventry were willing to make him their number one choice at the start of last season shows that Dimi does have ability - it's just whether the his good work can compensate for the bloopers that are just around the corner with him!
Sadly, this is not happening so far in his City career. Dimi has made six appearances for us so far and I would say that his cock ups (which have been worse than any mistake made by Enckelman or Heaton this season) have lost us two points at Wolves and one at Norwich (I'm sure Norwich wouldn't have scored in added time at the end of the game if it had been 0-0 at the time) while he has yet to win us a single point with good keeping. Hopefully that situation will change because Dimi appears to be the sort of keeper who has the occasional inspired game, but it really does need to come along soon.
We are also really missing Kevin McNaughton - not just for the obvious reasons, but also because his versatility gives us so many possible alternatives when one of his team mates gets injured. With McNaughton you have someone who can play full back and wide midfield on both sides of the pitch and who can also fill in at centreback (he also played in central midfield in his Aberdeen days).
In McNaughton's absence versatile players such as Darcy Blake and Mark Kennedy become more important, but, again, it was sheer bad luck that one of our starting full backs last week had to miss out and the other had to be the one to go off injured because (apart from goalkeeper) that was the only area of the pitch that we did not have cover on the bench for last night. On that subject, I know it is being wise after the event, but wouldn't it have made more sense to have had Comminges on the bench last night or was Darren Purse needed because there was a doubt about whether one of our centrebacks could last the ninety minutes?
The other area of the pitch where we are really suffering at the moment because of injury is target man striker. Every one has had a lot of fun in the past week regarding Eddie Johnson, but we don't half miss Jay Bothroyd when he isn't there and, when you consider Eddie's performances over the whole of this season, how many clubs are there in the Championship at which he would be a first choice player in their starting line up?
Trying to put things into perspective, the City team which started the game last night had a mid table look to it (this applies even more so to the one that finished the match!) and so should defeat really be that much of a surprise?
In saying that though, the fact has to be faced that we have lost our second successive away game to a team deep in the relegation mire and, although Iwan Roberts kept on saying that there was nothing wrong with City's effort levels, the impression I got listening to the match was that, just like at Southampton, our opponents wanted it more than us.
I also listened to both games with absolutely no confidence that we were going to equalise. As to why this should be, I would say that the first goal in City matches has become too important. Throughtout the Lawrence and Jones management eras Cardiff City have been a team whose games are nearly always decided in favour of who gets the first goal. If we get it, we are one of the best around in ensuring that we will go on to collect the three points but if we concede first we are pretty useless at turning things around - we haven't won a league game after conceding first this season and we only did it twice last season, coincidentally, one was At Norwich while the last time it happened was at Preston fifty six games ago!
Although it frustrating to lose matches like at Southampton and Norwich, let's face it, we are only doing what virtually all of the sides at the top of the Championship have been doing in the last couple of months. There have been so many surprising results which have left supporters baffled by the inconsistency shown by their club and you can't help thinking that this trend is going to continue right until the bitter end - a Play Off spot is very much in City's hands though, but we could do with a bit more luck with injuries and a few less goalkeeping clangers!