Facing the Chopra

Cardiff City 3 Leicester City 2

Michael Chopra made it a miserable first

anniversary for Leicester boss Rob Kelly after three super strikes left the visitors in tatters.

Kelly celebrated a year in the Walkers Stadium

hot-seat this week but there was nothing to cheer

on the pitch for travelling Leicester fans.

And with reports that Milan Mandaric has completed his £25million buy-out of the Midlands club,

Kelly’s days as boss may now be numbered.

Mandaric is known to admire the work of former Charlton manager Iain Dowie.

Star striker Chopra made a mockery of

Cardiff’s recent miserable form by taking

the match ball in stunning fashion.

And Cardiff boss Dave Jones could not

help but smile to see his 23-year-old

striker hit top form again to make it 16

goals so far this season for a player he

nicked from Newcastle in the summer.

"He has now scored four goals in two

weeks after having a torrid time," said

Jones. "People forget how old he is but

he’s come through a tough time and his

quality has shone through.

"They were three great finishes and

hopefully he is now back on track but I

still don’t think we’re as free flowing as

much as we’re capable of.

"But it’s coming back and I’ve said for

some time we were due to give someone

a real hiding and at 3-0 I thought it was

going to be Leicester."

The visitors managed to stop the rot

with two late strikes to give the scoreline

some respectability but manager Kelly admitted he was left disappointed after

striker Iain Hume missed two golden

chances to level for his side before

Chopra twisted the knife.

Kelly said: "We showed a bit of fighting

spirit but we’ve got to be careful I don’t

keep on calling us unlucky because we

need to know the reasons why.

"We had good chances to peg them

back and they’ve taken us on the break

and got three quality goals, we got punished and it’s disappointing. We

defend as a team and attack as a team

—it’s not about individuals.

"The hardest thing in the world is to

score goals,that’s why strikers are worth

so much money, but I’d worry about Iain

more if he wasn’t in those positions.

‘There’s never a bad time to score but

we had good chances at vital times when

we could have got back at 1-1."

Chopra started the ball rolling when he

curled home a 21st-minute free-kick from

just outside the area, but Leicester had

two great chances to take the game by

the scruff of the neck after the break,

only for Canadian striker Hume to blow

them both.

First, he shot well over in the 49th

minute when Stephen Hughes’ cross

found him unmarked in the area.

Then, six minutes later he missed again,

this time shooting wide when Gareth

Williams and Hughes had combined to

set up the opportunity. And Cardiff duly

made the most of Hume’s misfortune in the 57th minute, Stephen McPhail’s fine

long pass finding Chopra and the striker

finishing brilliantly with a flick of his

right foot to chip over Henderson.

Chopra was still not satisfied and completing

his hat-trick in the 69th minute.

Stephen Thompson intercepted a back

pass meant for keeper Paul Henderson

and set up his strike partner to fire home

into an empty net.

Patrick Kisnorbo did score for Leicester

two minutes later when he nodded

home Hughes’ corner and Elvis

Hammond pulled another goal back

with a minute to go, but it was not

enough to stop the jubilation of Cardiff

fans who had waited a long time to see

their team taste a home victory.