Benjamin Collins

Striker - Cardiff City U18
25 Jan 2032
Sunday
Process

Marked for Benjamin Collins

252 Edition

The Cardiff City Herald

26 May 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Cardiff City run riot against Leicester City

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

A brace, and Thierno Barry takes the afternoon — 9.47

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thierno Barry provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Thierno Barry is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.52 with 23 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Nathan Trott keeps Cardiff City in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

Perry Ng, 34, rolls back the years — 7.88

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Ollie Bindley is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cardiff City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

Benjamin Collins: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cardiff City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

Cardiff City cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Words exchanged at Cardiff City

Nathan Trott and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

In brief