Bluebirds warm up nicely for Wembley date

Apr 2 2008 by Mark Bloom, South Wales Echo

How they rated

Peter Enckleman
HAD 10 shots fired at him most of which were so comfortable that Gordon Banks would have collected them at his present age – clean sheet though!

Kevin McNaughton
A WELCOME sight back after injury. City have more zest about them with McNaughton in the starting line up.

Roger Johnson
STRONG in the air and on the ground, great preparation for Sunday by the defence. They did their job superbly on this occasion when the pressure was relentless.

Glenn Loovens
SOLID again, no messing about just the basics that work for him and his partner Johnson. Both earned their clean sheet bonuses and a similar tight display at Wembley should hold City in good stead.

Tony Capaldi
CAPALDI is starting to show the form which first attracted manager Dave Jones. He adds that something extra going forward and provides the strikers with a decent service.

Steve McPhail (c)
ON his day McPhail can be a world beater. Aside from a couple of stray passes he’s having more of a say going forward these days and he will step up a couple of gears on the big occasion.

Gavin Rae
GOT stuck in and did all the donkey work in and around the midfield area. A lot of his work goes unnoticed but not to his manager and colleagues – I’m warming to him.

Joe Ledley
WORKED tirelessly – still not at his best after coming back from a hamstring injury, but he has set such a high standard and there are signs he’s coming back to his old self.

Trevor Sinclair
NEAT, tidy passing from the former England man and he did not miss many headers. He and McNaughton combined well down the right and gave WBA plenty of food for thought.

Paul Parry
LOOKED lively and menacing and went in search of the ball instead of waiting for it to come to him – he is flying at the moment. But came off with an injury minutes into the second half.

Steve Thompson
SOMETHING about a banjo and the back of a cow’s backside comes to mind after his glaring miss in the seventh minute. Tommo’s confidence is shot to such an extent that he can’t even hold the ball up.

Michael Oakes, Peter Whittingham (Parry, 47), Darren Purse, Riccy Scimeca (Feeney, 55), Warren Feeney (Thompson, 45).

Dean Kiely, Carl Hoefkens, Paul Robinson, Neil Clement, Robert Koren, Jonathan Greening (c), Zoltan Gera, Martin Albrechtsen, Ishmael Miller, Pedro Pele, James Morrison. Subs: Leon Barnett, Roman Bednar (Miller, 65), Michael Danek, Kevin Phillips (Koren, 75), Chris Brunt (Gera, 65).

DIFFICULT match to referee considering everything at stake and Atkinson marshalled it reasonably well. Ninian Park has seen far poorer officials than this one.