Town manager Paul Jewell says that with hindsight he wonders whether he made the right decision to make nine changes for the Carling Cup tie against League Two Northampton in August when the Blues fell to a 2-1 home defeat. The recent run of good form has been built on a settled side with the Blues set to name the same starting line-up for the fifth game in a row at Cardiff this afternoon.
Jewell says he’s not one of football’s great tinkerers: "I’ve never been one to go big on rotation. There will be times when players need a rest, they might be tired or suffer from a loss of form, that’s fine.
"When I look back to the Carling Cup game against Northampton I wonder whether I made the right decision to change the team round with hindsight. You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.
"I want players to want to play every week. We’re not the youngest team in the world, but my experience tells me that players feel a bit more tired when they’re losing games.
"If you’re playing well and winning games, tiredness almost doesn’t come into it. It’s important that we rest the players in between games. Although we’ve had a two-week break, from now on we’ve got three games in a week and a rest is just as important as training.”
The Town boss says that these days you need a big squad battling to make the starting line-up: "It is a problem having to leave good players out of the team and out of the squad, but that’s the way it is and you want competition for places.
"No team in recent times has got anywhere with a team of just 16. It is a squad game, even if I don’t really like rotation for the sake of it. If I think it needs to be done, then I’ll do it.
"I think sometimes you see some managers trying to be a little bit too clever by resting people who are in form. That would really annoy me as a player.
"But there might be times when a couple of our players are looking a little bit jaded, a little bit tired and you might think it’s time to give them a bit of a rest.
"But at the minute I want the lads who are out of the team to be fighting like hell to get in the team and vice versa the lads who are in there to fight like hell to stay in there. That’s the way I want it.”
Overall, he says he’s pleased with the players currently at his disposal, although he continues to look at adding to his options: "I’m not unhappy with the squad, even though we’re always trying to improve.
"I think we could get one or two out on loan, some of the young players, get them experience. But as for the senior players, I’m not unhappy with what I’ve got.”
Jewell says he picks his team with an eye on the opposition but while mainly focusing on playing their own game: "I think every week we respect the opposition, we have three match reports and we’re as detailed as we can be.
"At the same time we’ve got to be sure that our main concern is what we do. If we go out and play well, I think we’re a match for anybody.
"But you have to respect the opposition. You can’t just turn up, throw the shirt out and say ‘go and have a game’, you’ve got to be organised.
"The players have got to understand Cardiff’s set plays, who their danger men are in certain areas like any other team. But above all that, the most important thing is how we play.”
Town have a fantastic record at Cardiff, winning their last three games on Bluebirds turf plus a further two games at Portman Road.
Jewell says these things tend to mean more to journalists than players or managers, although he says there are certain places where things have a tendency to go better than others: "As a player there are some grounds where you always seem to score or teams you always seem to score against.
"But come 3pm, that goes out the window. There will be two good teams out there both trying to win the game.”