Cardiff City are shooting for Championship glory – and manager Neil Warnock is backing his team to keep flying high.
The Bluebirds are joint top of the table, level on points with Leeds United and Wolves and are travelling to Saturday’s clash with Sunderland in style.
Cardiff are flying to the North East of England and Warnock says: “We have no excuses at Sunderland.
“We can’t have another Preston performance and say the travelling killed us because the team are travelling first class.
“All credit to the owners and it is great for me.
“It’s fabulous to fly up because the motorways are getting worse. I’ve never seen traffic like it at the moment.”
Warnock also refuted suggestions that Cardiff’s Championship rivals are beginning to figure out his Cardiff City side.
New stats that show Cardiff are bottom of the passing table, attempting fewer passes than any other side in the division, and he says: “What is the way we play? I don’t mean to be disrespectful and say it’s a silly question, but I don’t honestly know.
“I want to entertain. Yes, I saw the stats about passing and things, but would you rather pass the ball across the pitch 10 yards, 15 yards, get 10 passes in?
“Or would you rather be the best in the league on shots? We’ve had 48 shots – nobody is anywhere near us.
“So what do you want as a fan? Do you want to see shots on target or do you want us to pass the ball across the pitch on the halfway line? Last weekend’s game, (1-1 v Sheffield Wednesday) had two shots on target – well, one on target, one missed effort in 90 minutes and goodness knows how much possession they had.
“So if I get criticised for wanting to entertain and enjoy chances and crosses and shots then fire away, yeah, yeah, that’s the Warnock Way — you’ll get plenty of that.”
Cardiff follow their long trip to Sunderland by going into back-to-back home matches, against Leeds United next Tuesday and then Derby County the following Saturday.
The Bluebirds are without a win in three Championship matches, having drawn two and lost 3-0 at Preston North End, after opening the season with five successive victories.
They are only behind Leeds and Wolves on goal difference and Warnock says: “I said that if we were in the top six or to eight at he end of October I’d be happy.
“September-October is our toughest group of fixtures, there’s no letting up at all.”
Warnock says there are no new injuries in the squad, while Kadeem Harris, Callum Paterson and goalkeeper Lee Camp are all making good progress.
Harris is less than a month from being able to return to full training, while Paterson and Camp have played in an Under-23 Development match and both will be involved again on Monday afternoon.
They will be involved in Cardiff’s home fixture against Charlton Athletic at Leckwith International Stadium (2pm).